With pushups - what is the importance of doing them all at a similar time? Any benefit in doing like 10 here, 15 there, 5 there, etc? Like throughout the day? I may even do more that way
I did my 50 today, but I'd rather not save 'em for after work the way I have been
If you do them throughout the day it could tax your body (muscles, joints, ligaments) a bit more unless you are warming up properly every time you knock out a set of pushups. It’s best to try to get your resistance training done one to two sessions if you can. If you immediately go into pushups without at least like a walk or something to get blood flowing to the body, then some warm up sets against a wall, on your knees, and then actual pushups then it could be risky; you run the risk of injury unless you’re a tank but even then, it isn’t wise at all to skip warming up and just drop down for 10, 20, 30. I’ve done that before. Didn’t take the warm up seriously several times and wound up having to take weeks and weeks off due to injury. You need that blood flow and you need those endorphins to adequately prepare the body for the stress you’re about to put it through
I’m very particular about the way I move through a workout, and I had to learn the hard way several times that you don’t fuck around with your warm ups; they set the tone for the entire workout imo and they also protect your body from acute injury. And the mental aspect as well. Imo it’s best to use the time during a warmup to feel out certain things. Like with pushups, I’ll go against the wall and do some wall pushups. I’ll do some pushups on the knees and if I’m tight in the chest or shoulders, that’s an indicator that maybe that day I don’t necessarily have my mind dead set on doing more pushups than I did last workout, but instead do what is comfortable within the working sets I have planned for that day, and work on improving range of motion for the chest/shoulders/tris and come back next time hopefully feeling more capable with no restrictions. It’s just my own way of doing things, but I’d say you’re saving your body from excess stress and strain if you do them once or twice instead of multiple times. I don’t know anyone who would want to warm up for 15-20 minutes 4-5 times a day but that is generally what it would take to ensure that you don’t hurt yourself and that you minimize risk for injury every time you want to perform some pushups
How to pushup? None of the YT vids work for me. I need to learn to do them by March as I have P.E. Practical Exam. Anyone have tips? Any other exercise to do before doing them?
Perfect form if you’re just starting out would be:
-Wrists parallel to your shoulders
-Hands should be splayed and your middle and ring fingers should be pointed toward 12 o’clock
-Feet about 8-12 inches apart from each other
-Brace your core by contracting your abs, squeezing your glutes, tucking your chin and look straight down throughout the entire motion. Lightly retract and depress your scapula like you are trying to pinch a tennis ball between your shoulder blades
-You want a 45 degree angle with your elbows as you lower yourself. You achieve this 45 degree angle by creating torque with your hands. You have to keep your hands planted, but you want to basically try to move the floor/ try to pull the floor apart to create this torque. Best way I can describe it, is to imagine your hands as screws, and you want to turn those screws (left hand counterclockwise, right hand clockwise) without moving your hands at all. This is essential because it’s going to create more stability in your shoulders and protect them in the long run you want to learn this technique early. Performing pushups with elbows flared out around 90 degrees is going to put undue stress on your joints possibly leading to injury
-Inhale on the eccentric portion of the pushup (descending), exhale on concentric portion or when you begin to actually push up towards the starting position
That’s pretty much ideal form. I always do light warm up sets of pushups on knees, warm up sets of rows of some sort (band or dumbells usually), and crunches some form of abs exercise to make sure all muscle groups are firing well and primed for the task before I jump into working sets performing pushups
Lol damn it feels like I typed the word ‘pushups’ like 30 times
