Push ups!

[ladymorella]

I have been working on coming back, but honestly I didn't fall all that far as I wasn't capable of much before my set back. Never had pull ups. And only have real push ups intermittently. (In fact I did my first one to show a gym mate that I couldn't do them, but was close. Haha I got up and was like oh, I guess I can now.) 

 

So we haven't had pushups in ages in a workout except maybe once with concentrated high rep form. Yesterday we did 18.4 and the scaled version has pushups. I decided to just do the pushups from my knees as I wanted to see if I could get to the bear crawls. Afterward I regretted not doing at least a few. 

 

Today we did Cindy. I had to mod so banded pullups for 3 reps and sit-ups instead of squats due to a quad thing. When we started the work out I decided to go for a smaller band than I thought I would need since we have been doing a lot of work to help our pull ups. I had the other one there "just in case," but happily I never needed it. 

 

Then when I went to the push ups I remembered my regret from yesterday and decided to see if I could do one or two rounds regular and I could switch to my knees if need be. I finished round 1 no problem. Round 2 went well. Round 3, holy cow am I really doing this? 4-3-2-1. Round 4 3-3-2-2. Round 5, holy crap I have no excuse to not be doing push ups the regular way for the rest of this work out. Round 6, this work out? No, no excuse to not be doing push ups in a workout. I took a long time on the push ups, but I got 9 full rounds in and 9 reps. Holy cow. I have never done real push ups in a workout before and I just did...9

 

Now they were pretty saggy, but I think over time I can fine tune that. I kind of wish there was  a video to make sure I wasn't doing some weird thing that I somehow thought was push ups. What?! I figured I could do some in the next workout that called for them as we have been working on the muscles that are used in push ups, but wow! Super shocked!

[_riotgrrrl_]

YES!!!!!

 

Mine just snuck up on me too. Been doing Strong Curves for a couple of months now - lots of rows and benches, and push ups were at the back of my mind. Could only do 3 full ones at a time at the beginning of the year, just did 3 sets of 10 reps this week! For some reason it means more to me than lifting weights. 

 

If I ever do a pull up, I may just have a heart attack. 

 

As for saggyness, how are your planks doing? Strong Curves has had me do a ton of planks almost every workout - including RKC-style - which I think helped me a lot.

 

Congratulations!

[ladymorella]

10 hours ago, _riotgrrrl_ said:

YES!!!!!

 

Mine just snuck up on me too. Been doing Strong Curves for a couple of months now - lots of rows and benches, and push ups were at the back of my mind. Could only do 3 full ones at a time at the beginning of the year, just did 3 sets of 10 reps this week! For some reason it means more to me than lifting weights. 

 

If I ever do a pull up, I may just have a heart attack. 

 

As for saggyness, how are your planks doing? Strong Curves has had me do a ton of planks almost every workout - including RKC-style - which I think helped me a lot.

 

Congratulations!

That is awesome. That is what we were doing. A bunch of negative pull ups, rows, benches, and planks. 

 

My two big goals when I started crossfit was push ups and pull ups. As I said we have been doing a ton of negative pull ups and I have made great strides there. I actually feel like it is something I could maybe do. I will have a heart attack if it happens. I haven't done them since I was a skinny kid in elementary school. 

 

Planks were my thought too. They aren't great honestly. I haven't held for time in a while, but I can hold 45 seconds with a 25# plate on my back so it's not terrible either. I am worse than average at my gym for almost all core exercises I have noticed, situps being the only exception. I had talked to a girl at the gym a while back and she said she use to do planks holding the bottom of a push up to get pushups. I wonder if that would help? 

[_riotgrrrl_]

7 hours ago, ladymorella said:

Planks were my thought too. They aren't great honestly. I haven't held for time in a while, but I can hold 45 seconds with a 25# plate on my back so it's not terrible either. I am worse than average at my gym for almost all core exercises I have noticed, situps being the only exception. I had talked to a girl at the gym a while back and she said she use to do planks holding the bottom of a push up to get pushups. I wonder if that would help? 

 

45" with 25lbs ON YOUR BACK? That's pretty amazing! Try RKC planks where you tense everything as hard as you can. I do them with my feet slightly raised. How are your side planks? Strong Curves has me doing dumbbell military presses too, and I do that with a pair of 10kgs / 22lbs. It's funny how SC gets so much shit for not having much upper body work and yet it's the first fitness programme to get me to push ups...

 

So your core is your weak point. My core and posterior chain still benefit from the kettlebell workouts I did years ago. Proper Russian-style, 100% hip hinge on the swings, arms no higher than shoulder height... You're doing Crossfit, so there must be at least some kettlebell swings in there? Add some Turkish getups and you're golden. If that sounds too hardcore then I don't think Pilates would hurt - it'll build good habits that'll last for life (sorry if you've already done all this - I have a very strong core and weak upper body, so I'm just going through what I've done!).

[ladymorella]

On 3/24/2018 at 5:57 AM, _riotgrrrl_ said:

 

45" with 25lbs ON YOUR BACK? That's pretty amazing! Try RKC planks where you tense everything as hard as you can. I do them with my feet slightly raised. How are your side planks? Strong Curves has me doing dumbbell military presses too, and I do that with a pair of 10kgs / 22lbs. It's funny how SC gets so much shit for not having much upper body work and yet it's the first fitness programme to get me to push ups...

 

So your core is your weak point. My core and posterior chain still benefit from the kettlebell workouts I did years ago. Proper Russian-style, 100% hip hinge on the swings, arms no higher than shoulder height... You're doing Crossfit, so there must be at least some kettlebell swings in there? Add some Turkish getups and you're golden. If that sounds too hardcore then I don't think Pilates would hurt - it'll build good habits that'll last for life (sorry if you've already done all this - I have a very strong core and weak upper body, so I'm just going through what I've done!).

You know I think maybe the weight is just to make us tense up? I will have to try RKC planks. I think what I do is pretty close, but I have never heard it described to do it that way. It makes sense I guess. My side planks I can do some days for 20 seconds. This is a huge improvement. We have been working on those too. Some days they are pretty saggy. 

I have been having an issue with my left glute. I don't really know how to describe it. It like isn't engaging quite right or something. I have been doing a lot of KBS instead of squats due to my knee issue. I have been trying to really work on making sure I engage correctly when doing them. Some days it is really hard. I have been working on glute bridges because of issues I noticed in the KBS. 

[_riotgrrrl_]

I've DM'd you. Otherwise, I'd say check out the rest with a professional - it might be something really simple.

[ladymorella]

17 hours ago, _riotgrrrl_ said:

I've DM'd you. Otherwise, I'd say check out the rest with a professional - it might be something really simple.

I think the RKC planks might really help. I want to try adding them on Saturdays or Thursdays.