Some people do pushups so they can think to themselves, “hey… I did 20 pushups today!” That’s all fine and dandy, but let’s remember the reason pushups were invented: to improve fitness. If you only care about feeling high and mighty because you did pushups, by all means, continue. For those of us seeking to extract maximum fitness benefits from pushups, let’s keep in mind these tips to help us perform optimal pushups:
1. Warm-up. Pushups can be dangerous when done without a warm-up. By getting your blood pumping through some brisk walking or a short jog, not only will you reduce your risk of injury when doing a pushup, but you’ll also probably be able to complete more pushups!
2. Support the board. When doing a pushup, imagine you have a wooden board on your back that runs from your shoulder blades down to the backs of your knees. During your pushup, this board should be touching your body as fully as possible. In other words, don’t bend at the waist and cause your rear end to bring imbalance to the board.
3. Don’t lock out. The purpose of a pushup is to build the chest muscles. On the downward end of a pushup, don’t let your chest touch the ground. Doing so takes your weight off of your chest muscles and relieves it on the ground. Likewise, on the upward end of a pushup, don’t lock your elbows. Not only does this take the pressure off of your chest, but it applies a dangerous level of pressure to the joints in your elbows.
4. Mind your hands and feet. The positioning of your hands and feet is crucial to a good pushup. Your hands should be placed directly under each shoulder. Point your toes towards your head so that most of the pressure is on the balls of your feet rather than the tips of your toes.
5. Stretch. After completing your pushups, it is important to stretch your chest and shoulder muscles to prevent cramps and injury. A good stretch for the chest muscles is to place one outstretched arm fully against a wall, parallel to the ground, and twist your torso away from that arm.
1/30/2008
Keys to a Perfect Push-Up
1/21/2008
The Beacon of Blogging Truth
In attempting to maximize the spread of the push up mantra, I read many blogs on the internet that have experience with advertising and spreading the good news. One such site is Vic's Blogger Unleashed, which promises the truth in behind the scenes blogging.
The site is chalk full of advice about how to blog effectively and reach a wider audience, which is the intention of 1000pushups.com. Vic's site also teaches about how to properly install advertisements to get the utmost benefit from them, as every site needs to be funded. It's from Vic's site that we learned about using a large square of adsense, the one you see in the first post.
The eventual goal of 1000pushups.com is to get every person on the planet to get down on the ground and so some push ups. So stop reading this post, and ... go do some push ups.
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1/19/2008
Push Up Pro: A Full Review
I've been waiting for push up handles the whole year, and I finally bought myself a pair of the Pushupro's this Christmas, as both a gift to myself ...and my wife (after I use them). ;)
The following review is after using the handles for two weeks, an average of 5 times a week.
To start off with, I increased my push ups by 13 in a matter of 2 weeks - which is a huge jump for me! Normally, it takes me 4 weeks to get an increase of 5 push ups. I doubt this level of increase will continue as my muscles get used to the handles, but nonetheless, it was pretty amazing.
So, without further ado, here is the review:
POSITIVES:
- The rotating action recruits more muscles to do a push up, and therefore increases the work of the muscles, which leads to more push ups.
- The height of these handles make them more travel-friendly as compared to the perfect push up, so taking them to work every day becomes a possibility.
- The handles themselves are flat and easier to grip as compared to round handles.
- They are very affordable.
NEGATIVES:
- The handles are rubberized on the inferior surface, and no the superior surface. This makes them less comfortable than if they were rubberized in their entirety. When doing many push ups, I will start using work out gloves.
- The entire product doesn't feel as sturdy as the Perfect Pushup does from what I've heard (I have not used the perfect push up myself).
- Due to the rotation, it takes a few days for your joints to become accustomed to the exercise.
FINALLY:
All in all, I feel that the Push Up Pro is worth the $20 I spent, as I have seen great increases in my push ups as well as faster results in achieving muscle tone. Using the handles through the holiday season has also helped me to maintain my weight though I increased my eating considerably (especially cookies).
I hope the review of the push up pro above has helped. If you have any comments, feel free to leave them below. Now go on and do some push ups!
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1/12/2008
New Year's Resolutions: Push Them Away
It would be easy to make a new year's resolution and say to yourself, "Ok, I will do push ups every day for the rest of the year....starting tomorrow." And tomorrow may never come.
Instead of resolutions, this year I propose to act instead. Instead of planning your push up schedule, you may try to just get down on the ground and do some push ups. And keep doing that every day.
Happy New Years!
Summary
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