Heads Up on Your Body

Heads Up on Push Ups

Right now, the buzz around my studio, Rhinebeck Pilates, is about a recent New York Times article titled, “An Enduring Measure of Fitness: The Simple Push-Up”.

One reason for all the talk about push-ups is because most people hate doing push-ups! But we are also talking about the very real reasons, as the article tells us, why we need to practice push-ups.

Sometimes, what you hate is what you actually really need to do!

And that is the premise of the NY Times article. The article points out that the push-up,
“…tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips, and legs…. The act of lifting and lowering one’s entire weight is taxing even for the very fit.”

The article continues to point out that arm and upper body strength are particularly important as we age. Push-ups in particular not only strength the arms and back, but also train our muscles to use “muscle memory” when breaking a fall. For example, to break a fall, the necessary arm movement to stop impact resembles that of a push-up.

Not only is upper body strength required to break falls, but also to help yourself back up after falling.

How do push-ups fit in with pilates? Well, like it or not, push ups are part of Joe’s original mat work series!

If you feel as though you can lower down into a push-up easily, but just can’t get back up, here are some suggestions:

-Don’t rely on your arms to do all the work. Use the midline. Lift and push the WHOLE midline up each time.

-Lengthen the midline out through the top of the head and out through the heels, equal in both directions, as you lower and as you lift.

-Look straight in between your hands, not down or forward.

-Specially, use the abdominals and inner thighs to help lift you up. Don’t leave the inner thighs hanging as you try to push up, you’ll feel it in your back and you’ll never get all the way up.

Push-up bars are very helpful if you have wrist pain during push-ups, or if- for some insane reason- you want to make push-ups harder.

If you have wrist pain during push ups, see my post, “Wrist Pain During Plank Positions”, located in BODY.

To find out how many push-ups you should be able to do at your age, see this calculator:
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/PushUps.html

For more the NY Times article I’ve sited:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/nutrition/11well.html?em&ex=1205553600&en=43b8530ee36900ef&ei=5087%0A

If you have wrist pain during push ups or plank positions in general, see my post, “Wrist Pain During Plank Positions”:
http://headsuponyourbody.blogspot.com/2008/03/wrist-pain-during-plank-positions.html

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