It’s Day 29! It’s Day 29! I am really going to make it to tomorrow!
Here’s today’s question topic – can you do a “regular” push up. or are you in the legions of women (including myself) who do modified push ups? I ask, because as much as I’ve developed the strength to do whole sets of modified push ups, I can’t, for the life of me, do ONE with my legs fully extended/knees up in the air.
This goes for most of the plank work on the 30 Day Shred. If there’s a “modified” version of the exercise, that’s what I do. I couldn’t find, why, exactly, women tend to do modified push ups, except that it takes less upper body strength. In hunting around the Internet, I didn’t find a good explanation, but I did find a good article with a lot of push up variations. This About.com article gives several versions of a push up, which could come in handy if that’s an area you’d like to improve.
I know in the early days of this series we discussed push ups a little bit, and a few readers shared that they don’t/can’t do push ups. Has anyone progressed during these 30 Days? Did you have an ah-ha moment that made the push up easier? Did you find other upper body exercises that accomplishe what a push up does?
5 replies on “Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred: Day 29”
For me, the upper body part of the push-up is tough, but what I find the hardest is keeping my hips from wobbling and making it one movement.
I just started doing one or two controlled ones before going to the modified position, and then once a week or so trying to add another one, and eventually I could do 10 in a row, then 20 in a row. This was back when I was rockclimbing a lot though so I had more upper body strength than I do now!
I found it easier to make the move from modified to “regular” push-ups by spreading my feet apart at first, a little more than shoulder-width apart, and bringing them closer over time. For some reason, it makes them much easier on the upper body.
ooo, interesting! I’ve never heard of that before, will have to try it out.
Oooh, I do these too! I learned them from the 6 Week 6 Pack Abs DVD. Much more manageable for my little T-Rex arms. I spread my feet about hip-width, and within a week I can scooch them closer, and then I feel awesome.