@ilovejesuschristourlord That's great! You can try out using some of your furniture as a bench, like laying flat on your bed/couch if it's firm enough. If not, look up videos for doing a floor bench press.
I can’t do push-ups
- Thread starter ilovejesuschristourlord
- Start date
-
- Tags
- female fitness
lucywu2012
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord You should do dumbbell bench press
@ilovejesuschristourlord When I was training myself to do more push ups I NEVER did the setup with your knees to the ground. I'd suggest doing progression with stair steps. Start at a high step then eventually go to a lower step until you do them on the floor.
ilovejesuschristourlord
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord This was me for the first 19 years of my life! I had absolutely no upper body strength. I highly highly recommend, if you have access to dumbbells, bench pressing. Start with 5lbs if you need to and work up gradually. Eventually, you’ll be bench pressing more force than it requires to do a push-up. I went from being able to do zero push ups to being able to do 15+ at a time without ever “training” pushups directly! It’s all from benching! 
@ilovejesuschristourlord I couldn't do a push up for several years despite a lot of training until I starting doing bench press. I started off with just the bar and I still am not very strong with it but it got me to my first "real" push up after years of struggling.
tylerhendrickson
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord Be careful about learning them the right way. Your arms should not be at at right angles from your sides. They should be parallel to your sides. Push ups are harder that way and put more emphasis on building your triceps, but you will protect your shoulders and build strength correctly that way. At least that’s what my physical therapist and trainer friends tell me. Start with the wall and move down to lower surfaces like a bench or table before you try them on the floor and do as many as you can with the correct form.
@ilovejesuschristourlord Consider the yoga strategy! Go into a modified push up, and lower yourself JUST BARELY before pushing back up. Do as many mini pumps as you can. Even lowering yourself an inch will build the needed muscles.
ilovejesuschristourlord
New member
whitemagnolia
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord Kitchen counters are super useful! For me walk push-ups weren’t enough of a challenge, knee push ups weren’t using the correct muscles, and regular push-ups were out of the question. I trained with my kitchen counters for maybe like a month and was able to do a couple full push-ups! But that was several months ago so would probably need to retrain to get back there.
ilovejesuschristourlord
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord you’ve already gotten some good advice here, but i just wanted to add - you’re not alone! it took me quite a while to be able to do a full push-up, and now i’ve been able to do them for about a year and can’t do more than like, 15 at max effort. they are seriously hard to do! something small that helped me was sink push-ups. like other people have said, doing push-ups against a wall or on an incline is an easier progression. i started doing push-ups “vertically” against my bathroom counter right before i got into the shower. they’re not very hard that way but just pushing myself to 20, or 30, or even 50 of them at one point made me much more comfortable with the movement and built up some muscle. i was able to be relatively consistent with it since it only takes a minute and i kind of lumped it into my shower routine. don’t worry - with patience and consistency you will get there!!
busterofwar
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord Why shouldn't it be hard? You weren't born able to do anything, except poop and cry!
If you can't do regular push-ups, try doing them from your knees.
If you can't do them on your knees, do them on an angle, with your feet below your hands: that may mean leaning on a bench, box, or even a wall.
If you do any kind of push-ups consistently, you'll get better at it. So do what you can now, and you will definitely be able to do more later!
If you can't do regular push-ups, try doing them from your knees.
If you can't do them on your knees, do them on an angle, with your feet below your hands: that may mean leaning on a bench, box, or even a wall.
If you do any kind of push-ups consistently, you'll get better at it. So do what you can now, and you will definitely be able to do more later!
@ilovejesuschristourlord Hey! I know how frustrating it is to not be able to do push-ups, I literally could never do them even as a child and it was so embarrassing. I was only able to do real ones for the first time after getting a personal trainer in 2018, and it took a couple of months to build up the arm and core strength to get to 1 set of 10 (with halfway decent form). Definitely start with knee pushups, or if those are too hard try against the wall at a slight incline, and then move to a bar or railing at a steeper incline. Also lots of planks and general core strength and weight training of your chest and arms will help, good luck!!
@ilovejesuschristourlord How long can you hold an upright plank? My trainer had me get that to at least 30 seconds before even attempting push-ups.
ilovejesuschristourlord
New member
@ilovejesuschristourlord There's two things going on in a pushup -- arm strength and core strength -- the plank will help with core strength. (And make sure your wrists are comfortable taking your weight in a pushup position etc.) Won't help with the arm strength to lower yourself.
@ilovejesuschristourlord I like to do what I call "seal ups".
You get in full pushup position, lower yourself to the ground, then with your knees down, girl pushup up, then pick your butt up and do another.
It makes the girlpushup feel more like the real thing and allows for more progress.
You get in full pushup position, lower yourself to the ground, then with your knees down, girl pushup up, then pick your butt up and do another.
It makes the girlpushup feel more like the real thing and allows for more progress.