How I learnt How to Push Up and How you can too!

A push up is a full body move that requires a lot of upper body and core strength. In order to master it, will power and devotion is needed because the process of honing this exercise is gradual. However, once you get it, you have it forever.

What I did and What to Avoid Doing

In the past, I used to do knee push ups in the hopes that it will increase my upper body strength and eventually will allow me to do proper push ups. However, I was wrong because this did not help at all. By experience I can negate this premise as it is not the most effective way to do it.

Alternatively, I went another route where I started to do push ups from an elevation point and every week I would gradually decrease the elevation point until eventually I was able to do push ups on the ground. For example, on week 1 I did wall push ups. On week 2 I did push ups on my desk table and on week 3 I did push ups on my tv table (which was a bit lower than my desk table). The reason my examples are home based is because I decided to start this journey in the comfort of my own home instead of in the gym. As I ran out of items to do push ups on at home, I started utilizing items in the gym such as the bench, boxes and steppers. The reason I am listing a variety of items you can push up on, is to encourage you that you can do this anywhere.

The Reps and Sets System I Used

For example,

Week 1:

• Day 1: 8 reps and 4 sets

• Day 2: 12 reps and 3 sets

• Ensure at least a one or two day break between each training day (to enable muscle recovery)

If you feel like you are struggling, you can repeat this more than two times a week to build your upper body strength.

Consistency

I want to reiterate the fact that this will not happen fast and is a gradual process. It took me 3 months to be able to do push ups on the ground. This of course will not be the same for everyone as everyone is different. In order to achieve this endeavor, it is paramount that you do not give up and put in the work every week. You will be elated at the finish line. A tool that used to motivate me is writing down every push up training session I did as well as the date completed. This helped me to remain invigorated and motivated in order to keep going and not miss a week.