The other night I got down on my floor and tried to crank out a few push ups. Umm, mission not accomplished. I could barely do five. What has happened to me? I used to do push ups all the time just a few years ago! Well, I’m not accepting defeat; I’m going to increase the number of push ups by 20 before summer. No reason, just a personal challenge.
Push ups are a tried and true exercise that has been around for generations. This simple routine can work all your upper body muscles and when done properly can be a great core workout. Specifically, pushups strengthen the forearms, wrists, upper arms, shoulders and chest. As with most exercises, it can also help boost your metabolism.
A friend of mine told me about a free app for smart phones cleverly called 'Push ups'. I downloaded it and the app tells me how many pushups to do daily (or every other day) in order to work up to a number of push ups I had selected as my goal. For all of you overachievers, there is a website that helps you get to 100 push ups called hundredpushups.com. It’s free and it seems like a great way to keep you motivated and on track to succeeding in your goal. If you aren’t sure how to properly execute a push up, the website has some nice photos and descriptions to help you out.
Since I began doing these push ups I noticed my right wrist began to hurt a little so I just began placing dumbbells underneath my hands- this made a world of difference. There are some tools you could buy that would put your wrists in this same position but I didn’t want to spend the extra money.
I’m hoping that the under arm flab will have disappeared by the time I reach my goal. Have you done a push up lately? Let me know if you have tried any of these tools I mentioned above!
Sources:
hundredpushups.com
http://www.livestrong.com/article/25511-benefits-pushups/