I cannot do a push up

[ButteryCup]

Seriously. If my life depended on doing a push up… well, it wouldn’t end well.

Has anyone managed to learn how to do them? From not being able to do one at all?

I was always able to do at least one push up from my knees.

I've slowly improved from said one push up from knees to now being able to do 13 full push ups (from toes) followed by 20 push ups from my knees. It's taken me literally the last few years to get to this point, but at 60 I feel proud of what I can do.

I'd never been able to do push ups until I tried again very recently as part of an exercise class. I was very pleased with myself to discover I can currently do two in a row 😁

I did zero push up practice, but I have been doing a weights class for a while, and I was well warmed up when I tried.

I hope this is a joke. I know plenty of men who can't, and plenty of women that can. I couldn't, I trained hard, now I can. 30 or more. Plus explosive ones.

Even as a joke, suggesting women can't do something due to inherent physiological weakness isn't helpful, and almost never true.

I can only do about 5 and I go to the gym fairly regularly if it's any consolation. I also really struggled today, more than usual for some reason.

I started with negative press ups. Started of face planting, then could go down slowly and controlled, finally could manage a few full press ups.

If you don't know, a negative push-up is similar to a conventional push-up with a focus on lowering yourself slowly and with as much control as possible during the "negative" part of the movement. The aim is to extend the amount of time your muscles spend actively resisting your own bodyweight. Apologies if you already knew what it was.

I can do lots. Agree about starting higher and working your way down rather than doing them on your knees. In terms of what muscles engaging your back rather than shoulders and arms is key. Stack shoulders, elbows, wrists above each other, and don't let your elbows flare out. Doing eccentrics (just the down movement) slowly is also good.

I can actually do a push up! It has taken me YEARS to get strong enough

I can do about 5 in a row (with no fatigue) before I have to drop to my knees and finish them but I remember the feeling when I first did get one then 2 I was like YES!

if they are at the end of a workout I got no chance though I am only strong when no tired

Yes, I can do them now. My PT would never let me do them from my knees; I've done "hand release" push ups from the first time of trying. Hand release means you do the downward part and get your whole body on the floor, and lift your palms up quickly. Then put them back down & push up. Much much harder.

I started with the full arm body plank position, and the way I learnt to do them was to do very slow negatives - that is, slowing down the "down" phase of the push up to as slow as I could manage. Then just press up whateer way I could,

Also helpful was doing loads of rounds of the "hollow hold" ab exercise, which teaches you to connect your hips to your ribs, by contracting your lower abs. You then put this into practice in the press up, by ensuring that your chest is the first bit of your body to hit the floor, and that you never let your hips hit the floor. The first thing up is your pelvis, and you aim to keep your body in that straight line on the way up.

It's as much about core strength as arm & shoulder strength.

It's taken me 5 years. I'm 64. If I can do it, anyone can.

I agree you can work up to it, if you want to, and it's a valuable exercise for the whole body (and your sense of achievement). My legs were always stronger than arms (and I was fairly rubbish at body pump, too, due to having broken both wrists in the past). B
ut at 46 I started taekwondo, and one of the grading requiremements was to do 10 full press ups, so I worked at it, and now I can easily do 30. As a 54yr old, size 16 woman, it surprises some people, but all the punching practice has helped me build my arm, shoulder and core muscles.

Negative push ups first.

Once you can do 10 then try to do a push up.
Its taken me forever to be able to do 10 negatives 3 x a week. I was so thrilled when I then finally managed to do my first push up. I can now do 5/6 push ups but I still do the rest as negatives to keep building strength.

I’m not sure I could even do a negative push up! I’ll give it a try though. Will definitely do the stairs technique as well, sounds like a good starting point.

Thanks for all your good advice everyone, it’s very helpful.
I found it discouraging when the trainer said to do it from your knees if you struggle and I couldn’t even manage that!

I can do 10 full press ups atm. I use a resistance band for strength. I also find that headstands, handstands, planks and the crow pose have helped me to achieve this.

My legs, glutes, core, back and arms are all fully engaged and my elbows are tucked to my side.

Yes to starting on an incline.

It taken me a year working with a PT but I can finally do them and I feel like a bad ass now!! I also have amazing arms and shoulders now.
Inclines, planking and negative ones all help. Also using heavy weights for upper body exercises.
It takes ages to progress but I think it's good to have a goal to work towards.

After 6 months of Caroline Girvan on YouTube, I can do at least 10 now!

I think it's a matter of spending time building your core and upper body strength generally.

Google box push up. You do it on your knees with your bum over your legs and as you get better start moving your body forward and your knees backward into a plank on your knees to do it.

It's mainly chest so pec flys and chest presses will help. Neutral and wide grip moving into heavier weights when you can. Make sure you're pressing over your chest and not your head.

I most certainly have poor upper body and core strength.

I remember seeing a woman hoist her self out of the shallow end of the swimming pool to sit on the side (put her arms back and lifted her bum to sitting position, like you’d see the way people sit on the kitchen counters). Thought I’d do it too, it looked easy. Couldn’t do it.

I could never do press ups either. I have a lot of upper body strength, but not for that.

Start with planks and when you can hold them for 20 seconds or so start playing with your balance, tilting back and forward etc. It took a year of regular yoga before push ups were ok for me. And I agree with pp that these are more for male bodies so don't worry too hard.

@ButteryCup most women don't have good upper body strength until they start training it. If you train push-ups, you will get better at them (and get stronger chest and triceps which will allow you to push out of a pool). If you do eg pull up progressions or rows, you will get a stronger back and biceps. You have to train the muscles to build strength, power and endurance. And as long as you train efficiently and safely, those gains will come, in time.

Try these

That's how i get out of the pool! I recommend dips.

I can do push-ups on a table for about a minute, about 10 on the floor with a band just above my elbows and 5-8 proper ones (but the proper ones only when I'm well rested, not in the middle of a workout).

I don't have abs like those women in the vids so I can't possibly do anything they do... :-P

I'm bad at certain kinds of physical stuff. Stuff that seems to be obvious to others, but I completely can't perceive. I imagine that would need 2 years of 1 hour of instruction daily before I even understood how to "properly" do a plank, then maybe another year before everyone agreed my shoulders are too messed up for me to ever plank anyway.

Even as a joke, suggesting women can't do something due to inherent physiological weakness isn't helpful, and almost never true.

I can't do pushups, and DH can, but so what? There are exercises that I can do better than him, like situps. Our bodies are different.

Maybe if I trained specifically for pushups I'd do better, but experience suggests to me that I will always be poor at them.

Did you actually bother to check out my links above?

This is the gist:

It's totally doable for most reasonably fit women!