Do Your Push-ups

This simple activity is a great strength-builder

Perfect form—Robert Entiero of Emmaus demonstrates how to do a classic push-up. For an easier version, keep knees on the floor.

As a measure of fitness, nothing surpasses the simple push-up. Push-ups can help you stay fit without any equipment, right at home.

When you get down to do a push-up, in essence your body forms a stiff plank that tightens every muscle. “It’s a whole-body workout,” says exercise physiologist Chris Leavy of the Human Performance Center in Allentown. “Push-ups build the chest muscles, shoulders and triceps. They also work your core (torso) and legs.”

Push-ups can help prevent injury if you fall, says Mitchell Cooper, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital. “When you lose balance, you try to catch yourself by straightening your arms and bracing for impact. The motion of falling forward even looks like a push-up. But you’re far more likely to get hurt if you don’t have that upper-body strength.”

Push-ups are a great strengthbuilder for people of all ages, says Cooper’s colleague, family medicine physician Kevin McNeill, M.D. “While you may not necessarily need to start doing push-ups at an early age, you should be doing some sort of strength-training when you’re younger. If you maintain a good strength level throughout your life, it can help prevent chronic health problems down the road.”

How many push-ups can you do? National guidelines recommend 27 for a 40-year-old man and 16 for a woman that age—but few Americans meet the standard. In recent years we’ve emphasized cardiovascular exercise, not muscle strengthening. That’s a pity, as our bodies naturally lose muscle mass with age.

If you can’t do a regular push-up, begin with gentler versions. For example, you can build your “plank” from the knees rather than the feet. “Or lean against the wall—or a table, chair or counter—and push yourself off as you would from the ground,” Leavy says. “You still get some resistance. Over time, these exercises will help you build that upper-body strength, and they only take a few minutes out of your day.”

Want to Know More about current government fitness standards or push-up alternatives? Call 610-402-CARE or click here.

Published from Healthy You Magazine, September-October 2008

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