If you’ve been with me since I made my 2018 New Years Resolutions, you’ll know that one of my goals for this year was to get better a push-ups. This goal wasn’t for any reason other than I feel as though being able to do a shit load of push-ups would be hecka badass.
Well… it’s September now, and I only just started to work on this goal about a month ago. Better late than never, right?
It’s not a lack of motivation that lead me to slack on working on them, it was more so that I just hadn’t a clue where to start. How do you get better at push-ups without doing push-ups? The short and not-so-sweet answer is that you can’t really. Just like you can’t increase your cardiovascular fitness by doing no cardiovascular exercise. However I wasn’t really thinking outside the box when it came to push-ups. In my mind I would have to do as many regular push-ups as possible every day until my arms wanted to fall off. That really isn’t the case at all.
A girl I follow on Instagram started a push-up challenge and it was just the guidance that I needed to get myself started, and it made me realize that there are ways that you can build up your push-up strength in a non-boring and non-time consuming way that wouldn’t have me hating them by day 4.
So, here I am with the tips and tricks I’ve picked up from this challenge so that you too, can be a badass woman (or man) doing badass push-ups.
Incline push-ups
Regular on the floor push-ups are HARD for beginners, BUT, instead of dropping your knees to do what are known as “girl push-ups”, try some incline push-ups instead.
Place your hands on something higher than your feet like a chair, coffee table, bench at the gym, and do your push-ups from there.
As you get better, decrease the height of the platform you’re using so it gets closer to flat (as in a normal push-up).
Plyometric push-ups
Now you’re probably thinking what they hey Louise I can’t even do regular ass push-ups how do you expect me to become airborne while doing them?
Once you have mastered the regular incline push-up, you can start introducing plyometric incline push-ups. This will help bring speed and power to your push-ups.
Eccentric push-ups
The lowering, or lengthening portion of a movement is known as the eccentric phase. Eccentric movements are performed slowly and typically can be performed more easily, or with more weight than a the concentric portion of an exercise. In the case of a push-up, the eccentric part would be on the decent (when your chest moves towards the ground).
To perform the eccentric push-up, start as you normally would (high plank), and slowly lower yourself to the ground. To reset, don’t push yourself back up like you would doing a full push-up, instead “cheat” your way up, and then do the slow, lowering portion again.
Concentric push-ups
The opposite of the eccentric portion of a movement is the concentric, or shortening portion of a movement – in this case, pushing yourself up from the ground.
For these, start on the ground, hands in push-up position, body flexed like you would normally during a push-up. Push yourself up. At the top, drop your knees to the ground and then your stomach (we’re trying to omit the eccentric portion here), then do the concentric portion like you did the first time.
Sets & reps
Here’s a novel thought – you can structure your push-up sets for strength gains just like you would your squat sets for strength gains… who woulda thought. Honestly I’m not sure why it never crossed my mind, especially as someone who is well versed in the area of fitness and all that jazz… oh well.
I previously would just try and max myself out with a regular ground push-up for a few sets before I for frustrated that I couldn’t do that many so I’d just give up and not try them again for another few weeks (or months). Now I’ve added some structure to my push-up training I feel like I have a much better handle on how to make progress and get a little stronger.
Try for 5 sets of 8 incline to start with, then increase your rep count. The next day do 5 sets of 5 incline plyometric push-ups. The next try eccentric push-ups for 4 sets of 6 and so on. As time goes by you’ll be able to complete more sets and reps.
Consistency
If push-ups aren’t your thing, they really aren’t going to get any better if you don’t do them consistently. I’m currently aiming to do them at least 4-5 days a week. I switch up the style of push-ups that I do, as well as use progressive overload in my reps/sets to continue to increase my strength!
Now get out there and slay those push-ups, we’ll all be banging 50 reps out easy peasy in no time… I hope!
For more info on bodyweight exercises: Fitness- Bodyweight
For a review on the shorts I’m wearing in the pictures: Gymshark Review
Until next time
xx