Push-Ups – Hate ‘Em or Love ‘Em?

Push-Ups – Hate ‘Em or Love ‘Em?

Creator: solar22 | Credit: Getty Images

“When you’re younger, working out is a choice. When you’re older, working out is an absolute necessity. If you don’t keep moving when you’re over 50, you’re going to lose your life.” ~ Jane Fonda

We are an aging population. As we get older, our muscles naturally begin to lose mass and strength in a process known as sarcopenia. This decline typically begins around the age of 30, and accelerates after the age of 60. The loss of muscle mass can make daily activities challenging, and increase the risk of falls and injuries.

With that in mind, you have to consider what kind of functional fitness you need to mimic common daily movements. Push-Ups is one functional fitness exercise to help make daily tasks easier and reduce the risk of injuries.

What is the Purpose of Push-Ups?

Primarily, push-ups strengthen the upper body: chest, shoulders, and triceps muscles. In addition to those primary muscles, it also works your core, back, glutes, and legs when practicing with proper form, making it a compound bodyweight exercise. Overall, this contributes to stability and strength in your body.

Those upper body muscles make it easier to carry groceries/luggage, push a shopping cart, lift kids/grandkids/objects, and engage in tasks that require pushing or pulling. It can help brace against a fall, or real-life action of pushing yourself up from the ground. These are all important for functional longevity, especially as we live longer as a population. It’s about living longer in a way that allows us to stay active, engaged, and healthy for a longer period. Our independence and ability to have a good time is essential to living well.

What Benefits do we get from Push-Ups?

Build strength (upper body, core stability, muscular endurance)
Improve posture (bye bye Dowager’s hump!)
Improve functional fitness (think of how many doors you open and close in a day!)
Improve metabolism (can help burn calories)
Cardiovascular health (if performed with higher reps or during circuit training)
Reduce risk of osteoporosis (increase bone density for stronger bones)

What are the Pilates Push-Ups?

Of course, there are many variations of push-ups, but I’m here to focus on Pilates Push-Ups. If you’re not familiar with the movement sequence from the classical mat order, you start standing tall, transition through a Roll Up until your hands arrive on the mat, keep your gaze on your legs as you walk the hands out to the count of 4 then bring your gaze to the mat, keep the elbows close to the sides of the body, and bend the elbows back for 1 push-up. Lift the hips and waist, look at your legs, walk the hands back to the count of 4, and transition through a Roll Up to standing tall. Repeat, and do 2 push-ups. Repeat, and do 3 push-ups. You’re done!

Ever wonder why this is the last exercise in the mat order? From the first exercise (hundred) up to the last exercise (push-ups), you’ve been teaching your body how to connect all the pieces together, from head to toes, so you can push-up against gravity.

Here’s what’s important to keep in mind: try to keep the shoulder blades stable as you bend the elbows and the body is lowered and lifted back up. The level of stabilization determines the amount of elbow bend. What this means is that as soon as the shoulder blades move towards the ears (elevation) or move towards the spine (adduction), lift the body up, regroup and try again. Go for quality!

What’s the Proper Form for a Push-Up?

Let’s talk about the setup first – it’s a prone position with the hands palms down under the shoulders, the balls of the feet on the ground, and the back straight, pushing the body up and down by an alternate straightening (without locking elbows) and bending of the arms.

Next the head position. This is a neutral neck position, aligned with the rest of your spine. Chin is slightly tucked, and the back of head is pulling up to the sky. Eyes are looking down at a spot that forms the top of a triangle if you consider your hands as the base.

Where can it go wrong?

Instead of shoulder distance apart, the hands can be too narrow or too wide.

Instead of balls of feet remaining on the ground/mat, it can be too high like on the toes or even toenails.

Instead of a straight back/tall back, the hips are too high or too low.

Instead of a neutral neck position, the head is hanging down or looking up ahead.

Can’t do a push-up YET?

Have no fear; it’s never too late to start! Let’s go through progressions so you can assess where you’re at today, and work up to it. In fact, I’ll even list some progressions if you’ve mastered the push-ups, and wonder what’s next!

Most Accessible: Wall push-ups, incline push-ups, kneeling push-ups
Everyday Push-Up Variations: Standard, wide-grip, diamond push-ups, Pilates push-ups
Challenge: Decline push-ups, one-legged push-ups, clap push-ups, one-armed push-ups

What if the “most accessible” progressions is not where I’m at today?

I’ve got your back! 😉 Here’s a list of additional progressions you can try.

Progressions: forearm plank holds, standard plank holds, hand release push-ups, push-up ladders

What are the push-up guidelines by age and gender?

Men:

20s: 28
30s: 21
40s: 16
50s: 12
60s: 10
70s: 8 (kneeling push-ups are ok!)
80s: 5 (kneeling push-ups are ok!)
90s: 5 (kneeling push-ups are ok!)

Women:

20s: 20
30s: 19
40s: 14
50s: 10
60s: 10
70s: 8 (kneeling push-ups are ok!)
80s: 5 (kneeling push-ups are ok!)
90s: 5 (kneeling push-ups are ok!)

Final Word!

Pilates Push-Ups – whether you hate ‘em or love ‘em, I hope you see there are many options available to you. Begin to incorporate it into your daily movement, and see if you notice and/or feel a difference!