A Perfect Exercise

Many years ago, I heard Jack LaLanne, the “Godfather of Fitness” say “if you only have time to do one exercise, do push ups.” Why? Because the simple push up is the single exercise that engages every muscle group in your body.  To perform a proper push up, you have to use your arms, chest, abs, hips and legs. It requires that you hold you body like a plank –with all your muscles flexed – balancing on your hands and the balls of your feet. The act of lifting and lowering your entire weight is challenging, even for someone who’s fit. The push up is the ultimate measurement of your fitness level.

An Enduring Measure of Fitness

Many people simply don’t have the upper body strength to do a push up, men and women alike. As our nation gains weight, arms are collapsing under the mass of our own bodies.  And, in the effort to lose weight, we concentrate more on aerobic exercise to burn calories and neglect strength training. As we age, the ability to do push ups in proper form and more than once is an important indicator of our ability to endure the rigors of growing old.

For instance, researchers who study the biomechanics of falling note that push ups can provide the strength and muscle memory to reach out and break a fall. If you’ve ever fallen forward, you know that you automatically reach out to catch yourself, ending in a move that is like a push up. Ideally, as your hands hit the ground, your wrists and arms absorb the impact and your elbows bend to reduce the force.  But without upper body strength, your elbows buckle, and you continue to fall until your head hits the ground.  And without muscle mass to help protect your bones, one or more may break!

Through the natural process of aging, we lose as much as 30 percent of our muscle mass between the ages of 20 and 70. Regular exercise that includes strength training can prevent that decline.  Women are at a particular disadvantage because we start off with about 20 percent less muscle than men.

Based on national averages, a 40-year-old woman should be able to do 16 push ups. A man the same age should be able to do 27. By the age of 60, the numbers drop to 17 for men and 6 for women.

The Proper Form

Properly performed push ups work the pectoral (chest) muscles, the triceps (back of the arms), biceps (fronts of the arm), the deltoids (shoulders), latissimus dorsi, rhomboids and trapezius (upper back), plus the forearms, wrists and hands. Additionally the abdominal muscles, lower back, glutes, hamstrings and calves are flexed  in order to stabilize the body.

• Begin on all fours – hands and knees – with your hands positioned directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
• Straighten your legs so that you are in a plank position with your back straight, your neck in line with your spine (chin slightly tucked), your tailbone tucked and abs tight. You should be in a straight line from the tip of your head to your heels, resting on the balls of your feet.
• Inhale and lower down until your arms are bent at a 90 degree angle (your chest should not touch the floor).
• Exhale and push up until your arms are almost straight. Keep your arms slightly bent to keep the chest muscles activated and the pressure off of your elbows.
• Keep the movements controlled and repeat as often as you’re able while holding your position properly.
• Perform some stretches to complete your workout.

(To see how your core muscles benefit from the push up, try performing one push up without holding your abs tight and your tail tucked. You’ll feel the difference immediately, most likely with discomfort in your lower back as it sags towards the floor.)

If the standard, floor-based push up is too difficult, don’t give up. There are lots of modifications that you can try. Start by standing about 3 feet away from a wall or countertop, place your hands against the surface in line with your shoulders, and press up and down. Eventually, as your strength increases, move to floor push ups on your knees. One great thing about push ups is that, performed daily, your strength increases quickly.  Set a goal for yourself.  If you can perform 10 reps today, make yourself do 11 tomorrow.

Push Up Perks.

• Push ups can be performed anywhere and require no equipment.
• They’ll tone your arms, shoulders, chest and upper back without adding bulk. (Sorry, guys, but if you want bulk, you have to lift weights.)
• There are a great variety of ways to perform push ups that will increase tone in different muscle groups, such as the triceps.
• Push ups increase shoulder strength and overall health of the shoulder joints.
• Push ups improve your reaction time by training your proprioceptive fibers (microscopic nerves responsible for keeping your body balanced) to respond more quickly.

At age 95, Jack LaLanne is still doing push ups as part of his 90-minute daily workout.  As he recently told a reporter for the New York Times, “I hate it … but I like the results. Exercise is something you’ve got to do the rest of your life.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 10:12 am and is filed under Shaping Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.