Push Up Challenge

Many people struggle with push ups. Many of my young athletic clients have trouble with the push up because it's new to them. All thanks to schools cutting back on proper phys ed. classes. At the same time many adults struggle with the push up because they either haven't done them in a while or they're carrying a little more body weight than they would like. Ladies, don't for one second think that its an easy exercise for all men either. I've seen many a dude huffin' and a puffin' by their eighth rep.

So what is it about this simple woman vs. gravity exercise. First of all it's a great exercise that requires no equipment. It also works the chest, triceps, shoulders, core and back. You're probably thinking 'Wow! Do you mean I don't need to climb into a machine that looks like a space ship which requires two spotters and medical insurance?' You got it Pontiac! You may also be thinking 'ah shucks, a push up is for those guys in the military circa early 1980's'...Officer and a gentleman type stuff' No way, the push up is back so you might as well get down (literally) with it.

But where was the illustrious push up? Why did it nearly go the way of the dodo bird? Well, let's see. In the 1980's Jane Fonda and the aerobic video crowd took the world by storm. Along with it came Richard Simmons, who certainly deserves his props, but these folk were more about cardio, step aerobics, then jazzercise and spandex. Soon came the nautilus machine which endorsers claimed was better than free weights and everything else before it...including the man made push up. But thanks to trainers like Tony Horton (p90x creator), Bill Phillips, Cathe Friedrich and many others the basic push up is back. Naturally when a new flavor is in town a gimmick must accompany. I'm referring to the 'perfect push up'-an apparatus that causes the wrists to rotate during the push up. Gimmick or no, I'm just happy that the basic push up is back!

I have a client, whom I shall call Miriam. One afternoon at work she uttered to a co-worker that she could do ten real push ups, not the ones from her knees. Another co-worker, a former marine (although they're never really former) challenged her to a contest. They decided that in a month's time he would do 100 push ups and she would do 25. When she asked me if I thought she could do it I said, "tell him it's on!!!" In conjunction with her regular work outs we worked on bench press, push ups from knees, slow push ups, isolated push ups and more. It was a blast. Well, for me it was at least.

The fateful day arrived. I waited impatiently by my iphone all day. Finally a call came in. The screen said Miriam. "Hello," I said with pounding heart.

"I won! I did 30. I did 30 f-ing push ups and he only did 60!" I was over the moon with pride. I put the phone down, did a cartwheel and came back to the phone. "That's awesome!" I yelled. Miriam ended up winning a very nice bottle of wine...which she insisted on sharing with my wife and me. And who was I to disappoint.