Working Towards Pushups

[Soviet Heavy]

I am out of shape. So I've decided to forgo a New Years Resolution and just get started immediately with an exercise routine. Thing is, like my title says, I'm shit at pushups. I just lack the upper body strength and my legs slide out from under me.

So, I've decided that I will work towards push ups by focusing on my arms and abs, using weight training. So I come to you guys for suggestions.

At the moment, I am using dumbbells weighed 20 pounds each. I've started off doing 4 sets of bicep curls, 20 reps per set. I then do 4 sets of 15 bench presses with the same weights, and I alternate doing sets of 20 situps or crunches between weight lifting.

Now, I get the feeling that somebody will tell me that I'm doing something seriously wrong, and as I said, I'm starting out, so this is a learning experience for me. And any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The only thing you're doing "wrong" is that a push-up uses the tricep over the bicep, so if you want to train your push-ups, you would be better off doing some tricep exercises. With that said, it never hurts to train other muscle groups.

Perhaps you can be a tad more specific at what your goals are.

Do you simply want to get in a reasonable shape, or do you want more than that?

In any case, variety is important when you're training, an all-round training also is.
You don't want to end up with a developed chest and the rest being weak.

As for sets/reps, 4x20 is fine. Always give your body a day (or two) to recover. If you get muscle ache (pains? I'm Dutch, don't know the exact word) don't train! Just take a day off. The fact that you have muscle aches is a good sign (not everybody gets them, though, I don't), but you shouldn't train through it.

Those are just some general tips. Please let me know a little more precisely what your goal is.

My main goal is to increase my upper body strength and endurance, as well as to burn body fat. If we wanted to get specific, I want to be able to touch my toes and do a pushup without faceplanting.

 

[Jux]

A combo of weight training and cardio is probably your best bet for that goal. If you have access to a gym, some will give free tips on planning your workout around your goal. Kudos for doing this without making it a resolution. I was in the same boat as your about 15 years ago, but for me the goal was a single pull up. Took me 3 months, but I did it. Got into a whole range of physical stuff after that. Just keep at it, but also listen to your body. Don't hurt yourself, the eventual goal is going to be adopting exercise as part of your lifestyle.

If flexability is also a goal, you might want to look into a beginners yoga class. Or if you don't feel comfortable with that, books and youtube videos can be good resources too.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

For cardio I would suggest brisk walks for around 30 min at a time, daily if your body/time allows it, that way fat will melt off of you, which will make pushups much easier.
Swimming is also an excellent choice, as chance of injury and damage is very limited, and your entire body gets activated.
And cut sweets out of your diet, if you feel a hankering for sweets, eat fruits, apples, bananas, pears and especially pineapple is a good choice, 70%+ chocolade, and nuts are all healthy choices.

Also don't give up, it takes time, a lot of time... But you will enjoy the the fruits of your work a lot when you get there!

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I don't know too much about exercise techniques as I tend to do my own exercise regime that I make up as I go along (I do make sure I don't hurt myself though obviously) but I recommend you start doing chin-ups/pull-ups as they are a very quick and cheap way to build up some upper body strength. All you need is a solid bar and a sturdy wall to mount it on and you can just quickly put in a couple of sets every day, which takes very little time out of your schedule. You will probably only be able to do a couple per set at first but you will build yourself up for it surprisingly fast.

I also recommend using a rowing machine which you can find in most gyms I believe, or you could even buy one if you have the money. They give a great cardio workout as well as a good strength workout including your upper body, which sets it above say a treadmill or exercise bike which don't give your upper body too much work to do at all. If I was going to take a guess I'd say a rowing machine might be reasonably cheaper than a treadmill as well.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

I don't know too much about exercise techniques as I tend to do my own exercise regime that I make up as I go along (I do make sure I don't hurt myself though obviously) but I recommend you start doing chin-ups/pull-ups as they are a very quick and cheap way to build up some upper body strength. All you need is a solid bar and a sturdy wall to mount it on and you can just quickly put in a couple of sets every day, which takes very little time out of your schedule. You will probably only be able to do a couple per set at first but you will build yourself up for it surprisingly fast.

I would dare say chin-/pullups are harder than pushups, an issue I think there is present here is also body weight which makes those chinups and pullups rather hard to do in the first place.

Also I would suggest the plank exercise.

 

[Johnnyseven]

I could barely do a push up a good while ago, one thing that I found massively helped me was having something to grab on to, I'll explain. I bought a pull-up bar, one that you can put round a door frame, turned it upside down and used the handholds to push up off the floor with, I found it far easier than having my hands directly on the floor and found it gave a greater range of motion too.

It didn't take long from there until I could do push-ups with my hands on the floor.

/2p

 

[Boris Goodenough]

To burn body fat you would be better off doing cardio, like running/swimming/cycling. Weightlifting won't burn a lot, unless you focus on it specifically. 20x4 is kind of endurance focused, but not cardio. Good for a mix between strength and endurance.

To increase upper body strength weights are ofcourse what you'd use. Try and mix up your exercises though. If you do only push ups, your body will be able to do a superb pushup, but nothing else. Not only that, but if you do it for too long your body/joints will start to form into that one form of motion, making you less flexible.

Since you want to touch your toes, I assume you want to work one some flexibility aswell. 3x a day, 3x 20 seconds is a good way and safe way to stretch. If you want to reach your toes, you'll probably want to work on your hamstrings. I'd try and explain it to you, but it's probably much easier to just google "hamstring stretch".

Wouldn't you recommend to do stretching AFTER a workout that involved the legs? But then you would have to do it with 2x30 secs or 60 secs.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I would dare say chin-/pullups are harder than pushups, an issue I think there is present here is also body weight which makes those chinups and pullups rather hard to do in the first place.

That's true but if you can work up the upper body strength to be able to do one or two chin/pull-ups you can get a lot of value out of them. The chin-ups (palms facing towards you) are going to be easier for OP as he as already been working on his biceps. Pull-ups (palms facing away from you) are going to be harder as they don't involve your biceps so much but you can work towards them with chin-ups.

 

[Frezzato]

snip

You're right about the stretching. There's a constant stream of conflicting research [http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/08/why-stretching-may-not-help-before-exercise/] coming out about stretching before or after.

snip

Get into good push-up form with your body straight and do as many as you can. It doesn't matter how many. Now, keep that number in mind and rest for five minutes.

Five minutes later, try doing push-ups again. You should have noticed it was much easier this time around. It's all about the incremental gains. People are bad at noticing changes over a long period of time, and you have to remember that any gains will only work over periods longer than months. Think in years. This has to be a commitment. You will have your "off" days, some days you will feel like shit and won't want to work out, but you have to.

I'm going to regurgitate this story again, but only because it's true and I would love for somebody to confirm my findings. It almost sounds like a joke, but I've found that, in order to accomplish something hard, it sometimes helps to try something even more difficult. Example:
[hr]

I haven't been running in a long time, but back when I was younger I always wanted to run a mile without stopping. I was living in California back then, and it was always miserable, even running at night. I couldn't get myself up to a mile without walking. Then one day I noticed a neighbor had an unused bike locked up outside his apartment so I asked if I could have it. I put some good components on it (until the age of 28 I had nothing but a bike to get around) and used it to get to work. Problem was I lived on top of a very steep hill at an angle of at least 40 degrees of elevation. Despite me having ridden a bike my entire life, getting up that final hill took a monstrous effort. It took me two weeks of trying before I could get home without stopping to rest (there were perpendicular streets that were level and I would loop on them, resting up). Bearing that in mind, I had to change to the lowest gear (granny gear) in order to get up that hill. It was slow, like so slow people could probably walk it faster, but that wasn't the point. The point was that I wanted to get home without having to stop.

After doing that for a month, for some reason I decided to try running again. I snuck down to the local high school at 4AM to try because I didn't want the embarrassment of quitting after just a hundred feet. I started running and, after a while, noticed that I didn't feel the need to stop. So four laps is a mile, right? That morning I ran, for the first time in my life, five miles without stopping at 9 minutes per mile. It was weird to say the least. And I know for certain that the one thing I did differently was getting in shape to climb that hill to get home. The total length of the uphill climb was around 1/4 of a mile long, and it made a difference. It was the push I needed.

Maybe the moral is to constantly push yourself. Riding a bike for 20 years and eating (relatively) healthy wasn't enough. Trying (and failing) to run wasn't enough. I had accidentally found a way to push myself further than what I was used to, and it worked. In the next few years you're going to have to find your own way to push yourself, and, if necessary, somehow trick yourself into succeeding.

 

[Glongpre]

Do static stretches after workout, right after, it is important. Do not do static stretching before, when you are cold.

If a regular push up is difficult, you can always try a push up with your knees on the ground. Or do incline pushups.

A good way to make your form better would be to do a plank.

Also, you don't require weights for anything, you can build muscle on any part of the body using your body weight.

Also, if you want to lose weight you may need to modify your diet.

Also, if you want to keep these changes you need to modify your lifestyle.

Also!, you don't need cardio to lose weight, but it can help. Muscle burns a lot of calories.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Im kinda like the Op but further along, I managed to lose 40kg crash dieting 2 years ago but unfortunatly I put 20kg back on while lifting weights and probably getting too carried away with protein powder, but im chipping away at that weight now with a healthier way of dieting and hopefully ill have put on 5 or 6 kilo of muscle under this blubber, right now my goals are simply to be able to deadlift twice my weight and do things that involve lifting my weight like pull ups or dips like my skinny mate gym mate who started at the same time as me(I deadlift more than him but I consider your weight to the weight you are lifting ratio the mark of a fit functional man as opposed to me, that fat guy who lifts more)

Anyway! A lot of people think its all about cardio, its not. Cardio helps you to lose weight but you need only do a small amount of hard cardio(like running or cycling) maybe once a week if at all, a lot of people have their cardio day. Lots of walking anytime spontaneously does you great for weight loss, soft cardio does wonders for you. Get out and smell the roses. Lift weights a lot, like 3 times a week if you can. Your body mass takes so many calories to maintain your weight whether its the muscle or fat, go below that and your body uses your fat to keep you going. Since muscle is denser a muscular man can weigh as much as another guy but look skinnier and can afford to eat more without worrying as much about getting fat when he splurges, which is awesome cause food is great.

Edit: So pushups....Hmm. Try to eat protein every meal. Eggs for breakfast tuna for lunch steak for dinner for example. Have you tried doing the easier pushups first? the ones with your knees on the ground? Or are you going straight for the peoples idea of a conventional pushup?

My best advice would be to try and find some small strength and conditioning classes, if only once a week if its too hard on the budget. And not one of those shitty ones wheres theres like 50 people and a trainer on stage who never even comes down to tell you if you are doing it right cause they suck. You want a small personal group where the trainer comes over and corrects your form, because thats almost as good as getting a personal trainer and a hell of a lot cheaper but you need to learn how to do things properly so you dont hurt yourself and its a lot better to learn off the professionals than just hitting the internet up.

 

[CaptQuakers]

Worry about your diet 1st, diet is much more important than training, you could train every hour of everyday but if your diet isn't right you won't see any gains.

Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTq87JB3YFM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su8g9efk5Mc if you are on a tight budget. Really you want to be sticking to lean meat (Turkey is by far the best) and things like eggs,sweet potatoes, brown rice and brown pasta.

If you want to build muscle you need to be doing 10 reps of a weight which you struggle to lift on the 9th and 10th set, if you aren't struggling by then you simply aren't lifting enough.

Remember muscles come in pairs, as an example when you work bicep work triceps at the same time.



Saying all this it is better to understand your body yourself, you could get the best tips in the world with the best exercises but they might not work for you because at the end of the day everyone is different.

P.S Form is more important than weight, if you can't lift the weight using correct form lower the weight and you'll get a better work out.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

My main goal is to increase my upper body strength and endurance, as well as to burn body fat. If we wanted to get specific, I want to be able to touch my toes and do a pushup without faceplanting.

If you want to lose body fat, go for running, cycling. Its the best exercise for the whole body. As far as upper body strength is concerned you definitely begin with push ups and your workout plan is just fine for the time being. This is a great resolution. Make sure you eat proper diet according to your workout and if you feel you have a lot of body fat. try to burn calories by jumping onto a stationary bike where you could track your burned calories, distance covered, heart rate, blood pressure etc. This will help you improvise your workout skills. This is what I did speaking from personal experience, I got such bike from -Mod edit: Link removed. Good luck buddy.

I smell a bot...

 

[CaptQuakers]

My main goal is to increase my upper body strength and endurance, as well as to burn body fat. If we wanted to get specific, I want to be able to touch my toes and do a pushup without faceplanting.

If you want to lose body fat, go for running, cycling. Its the best exercise for the whole body. As far as upper body strength is concerned you definitely begin with push ups and your workout plan is just fine for the time being. This is a great resolution. Make sure you eat proper diet according to your workout and if you feel you have a lot of body fat. try to burn calories by jumping onto a stationary bike where you could track your burned calories, distance covered, heart rate, blood pressure etc. This will help you improvise your workout skills. This is what I did speaking from personal experience, I got such bike from -Mod edit: Link removed. Good luck buddy.

I smell a bot...

They've gotten a lot better. I am slightly impressed by this one

 

[The Stonker 2.0]

EXCERSISE TILL YOU BLEED.

that's what I did to get into shape.

 

[Batou667]

To echo a few things:

Weight: Diet is by far the crucial factor here. Exercise is actually really quite negligible. Exercise will make you fitter, but if you're still eating at (or above) maintenance, you won't get any thinner.

Flexibility: Do often, take it easy, and if you need to stretch heavy, do it after a workout, not before, or you can risk injury.

Cardio: If jogging is too much for your joints and feet at the moment, try swimming or a cross-trainer. Boxing-style skipping drills are also one of the most vigorous cardio workouts you can do.

Pushups: They can be tricky to begin with. If you can't do a single pushup, ease yourself into them in a few ways.

- Wall pushups: Stand a couple of feet away from a wall, lean forwards into a pushup position, and with a straight back do a few repetitions. Too easy? Take an additional step back. Don't do this in socks on a smooth floor or you may slip.

- Knee pushups: Like a normal floor pushup but your point of contact is your knees, not your feet. Put a cushion under your knees if they hurt.

- Negative pushups: A regular pushup, but only the gravity-assisted portion. Control yourself down for a slow count of five. See how long you can hold yourself at the end, preferably with your chest and face only an inch or so from the ground.

- Planks: forearms and feet on the ground, make your body into a plank. Hold it.

- Assistance exercises: You mentioned you had dumbbells, try doing some tricep work and chest flies.

Keep at it and you can achieve whatever you want. Good luck!