# "girl pushups"



## boomer38 (16 Feb 2010)

So I was wondering about other peoples opinion... I do not have any weights at home and at the moment I do not have enough money to go to a gym. I can do about eight pushups currently. One of my friends who works out suggested I start with "girl pushups" to increase my upper body strength... any one else have any opinions as to if this is a good Idea to start or not, I can do 25-30 "girl pushups" currently.


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## PMedMoe (16 Feb 2010)

Personally, I wouldn't start with "girl" push ups.  I would just concentrate on doing as many proper push ups as I could, each time I do them.  Something you can consider is spacing them out throughout your day (e.g. doing sets of 10 a few times a day).

There are several threads stickied at the top of the Physical Training & Standards  subforum.  Browse through these and I'm sure you'll see links to proper push ups and methods for increasing your numbers.


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## vonGarvin (16 Feb 2010)

Also, check this out:
http://www.hundredpushups.com/


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## Fusaki (16 Feb 2010)

IMHO, girl pushups are good tool in the box, especially for beginners. They should be utilized in the same way you'd use negative (or otherwise assisted) pullups.

First, max out on strict pushups with proper form.

_Then,_ max out on "girl pushups" and planks.

They're useful in making incremental gains past the point where you'd normally reach muscle failure, or the point where you've started to plateau in the number of reps you can do.


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## GAP (16 Feb 2010)

OK!! OK! I'll bite.....before I continue thinking this is something kinky......

*What's a girl pushup?*


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## vonGarvin (16 Feb 2010)

GAP said:
			
		

> OK!! OK! I'll bite.....before I continue thinking this is something kinky......
> 
> *What's a girl pushup?*


It's when a girl does a push up.

:rofl:


Sorry, it's this:


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## GAP (16 Feb 2010)

Technoviking said:
			
		

> It's when a girl does a push up.
> :rofl:



Oh......did I walk into that one...... ;D


But, even that is kinda kinky, it just like.............


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## armyvern (16 Feb 2010)

Technoviking said:
			
		

> It's when a girl does a push up.
> 
> :rofl:



Uhhmmmm ... NOT!!  

And below, her hands are too far apart (shoulder width maximum) to be very effective at accomplishing much. 

I personally spare my knees the discomfort by getting on them only for the important things in life --- pushups doesn't qualify. 



> Sorry, it's this:


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## tree hugger (16 Feb 2010)

Like praying, right?  Don't get the boys going!


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## armyvern (16 Feb 2010)

tree hugger said:
			
		

> Like praying, right?  Don't get the boys going!



Nah, being an athiest and all --- and a girl --- I was surmising something more akin to scrubbing the kitchen floor.


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## vonGarvin (16 Feb 2010)

ArmyVern said:
			
		

> Nah, being an athiest and all --- and a girl --- I was surmising something more akin to *scrubbing the kitchen floor*.


Oh, you know the way to a boy's heart, don't you? ;D


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## HavocSteve (13 Mar 2010)

Thanks for that hundredpushups link Techno..

Would be nice to try this out! Since I can only do like 15 =\


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## Major_Malfunction (5 Apr 2010)

Well, as someone who has gone through some low-cash spurts, I can tell you, the gym isn't all it's cracked up to be. And I used to be a trainer!

Get yourself a skipping rope... it's pretty much the only tool you need to get started.

Skip for 3 minutes, then do 10-20 pushups, 10-20 situps, and then 10-20 bodyweight squats. Do that 3 - 4 times in a row. It's a great warm-up and or workout for beginners.

As for the girlie pushups... You'll find that once your full body weight isn't in use they become MUCH easier. So, Don't just do a girlie pushup, try pushing your upper body right off the ground (hands too) Almost like you were pushing yourself up into a kneeling position then back down again. 
This exercise works very well, even for more advanced people.


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## SeanNewman (16 Apr 2010)

Your best bet to improve the amount of push ups you can do is to do *both* of them.

Do as many regular push-ups as you can, and then when you get to failure keep pushing yourself at the point of failure (don't just collapse as soon as it gets hard).

Then, when your muscles can no longer lift your entire weigh, go to push ups on your knees which are less weight and do them until you are at failure, too.

The goal to getting better at anything, particularly strength training, is to maximize the amount of time you spend tearing the muscle fibres (if you can do 8, the first 6 are useless other than getting you to the point of 7-8 when you are struggling).

Don't forget other things like nurtition and rest, either.  After you do them, max out on protein consumption, and if you do a few sets in a day, *take a few days off* to allow the torn muscles to rebuild using that protein.  If you do push ups all day every day you will see a slight increase but your muscles will never fully recover and your gains in the long run will be less.


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## vonGarvin (16 Apr 2010)

"Girl" push ups?  Pfffft:






































THIS IS A JOKE!  DO NOT TAKE SERIOUSLY!

In all honesty, NATO women rock!


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## Eye In The Sky (16 Apr 2010)

Ahhh...so many reasons to love aircrew trades...


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## SeanNewman (16 Apr 2010)

Technoviking said:
			
		

> You see that?



As the Unit Ethics Coordinator, I have had to now take that all around and show everyone...for the purpose of showing them the kind of thing that is not allowed.

But in order to do that I had to show as many people as I could so they could see the not-approved standard.

Eye in the Sky,

Best one spotted in KAF was one we called "Reaper Chi...Pilot".


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## Lil_T (16 Apr 2010)

Technoviking said:
			
		

> "Girl" push ups?  Pfffft:


LMFAO!  Wow - inappropriate or not - I'm still laughing.


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## vonGarvin (16 Apr 2010)

Lil_T said:
			
		

> LMFAO!  Wow - inappropriate or not - I'm still laughing.


Hey Lil_T.

Glad you see the humour in that.  (Of course, the army isnt' for girls, or boys for that matter.  It's for men and women.  "Girl" pushups have no place!  I think you agree)


And the pic is funny, appropriate or not ;D


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## Lil_T (16 Apr 2010)

Oh yeah, I damn near choked on my pizza.  

Totally agree too.  "Girl" pushups have no place in the military, go ahead and try to get away with one in front of the PSP staff (esp, on WFT, J would totally kick someone's ass over that - and so would I).  ;D


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## Loachman (16 Apr 2010)

Petamocto said:
			
		

> Best one spotted in KAF was one we called "Reaper Chi...Pilot".



She wasn't a Pilot. She sat in the other seat.

But she liked her job and was very good at it.


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## SeanNewman (16 Apr 2010)

Loachman said:
			
		

> But she liked her job and was very good at it.



My friend there is no need to defend her, because I can guarantee you not a single Canadian I knew ever said a bad word about her.

In fact, we were devastated when someone else came to the CUBs/BUBs instead of her.


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## Loachman (17 Apr 2010)

I'm not defending her because, as you said, there is no need - just making a slight correction.

I had the pleasure of spending some time in a Reaper Ground Control Station with her and her Pilot during a mission.

The UAV/GCS envy would have been far worse (even their airconditioning worked) were it not for the fact that I knew that I'd go back to flying for real.


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## armychick2009 (28 Apr 2010)

Back to the subject of girlie push-ups... my trainer calls them "half-push-ups" (though, I like to call them girlie ones!)

He said that if you lean forward when you do them (so, forward AND down) that you are almost carrying your full amount of weight. So, the trick is... lean forward first and THEN go down. Definitely not the same as a regular girlie push-up and if you think of it -- the only part of your weight you are NOT carrying is the calves and feet. 

Plain girlie push-ups got me NO WHERE with regular ones... until I did the leaning forward thing. Now, I can do regular push-ups in just two weeks (or, four sessions)...


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## calamityjoe (1 May 2010)

I'll be honest I hate girls push-up and I'm a girl...

Try strenghtening your back and your abs (squats are good, for sure. Better if you can add weight).
 Annnddd... try to do them with your legs wide open first. For your arms , the larger they are, the less your triceps are working and the less heighted your push ups will be. So start wide...then just adjust as you get stronger. 
Something especialy good for the push ups is the burpees. Because you get out of breath and you do one push up at the time (wich you can do with all your power), you work anaerobicaly and that's good. Plus, you'll get more strenght in your back, abdominals and legs...


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## Sparkplugs (1 May 2010)

Technoviking said:
			
		

> Hey Lil_T.
> 
> Glad you see the humour in that.  (Of course, the army isnt' for girls, or boys for that matter.  It's for men and women.  "Girl" pushups have no place!  I think you agree)
> 
> ...



+1 to Technoviking
*rightclick, save, email home.   ;D


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## calamityjoe (1 May 2010)

armychick2009 said:
			
		

> my trainer calls them "half-push-ups"(though, I like to call them girlie ones!)



so half means girlie? Now I'm laughing like hell !! >_> ...


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## ducky (28 Jul 2010)

hilarious...  i thought i ccould get by on girl pushups heheh


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## Manticure (18 Aug 2010)

Hi all, I just want to give my two cents. I wouldn't say I am really good at it. But when I was  around 14-15 I used to be able to do over 50 push ups without much of a problem. Of course at first I wasn't doing more than 20, but I did as much as I could once per day so eventually I was able to do many more. Then I stopped for several years.
Now I am 20 and I started doing them again to prepare for basic training. I recommend the following simple schedule, I can't say that it will work for everyone as everyone is different but it works perfectly for me.
Basically every day you do 2 sets of push ups. Take 1-2 min break between the sets.
The first day just do as much as you can until your muscles start burning (don't wait till you fall down from exhaustion). And every day after that do 1-3 push ups more for each set than you did the day before.
For example on the first day you were able to do 15 push ups and 8 push ups on the second set.
So next day will be perhaps 17-9, next day 19-11, then 21-13, etc. Eventually anyone should be able to do 100 push-ups. Because there has not been a single day where I wasn't able to do 2 more push ups than the day before. Right now I am at 48-40.
2 important things:
- make sure you don't take a day or two off, if you take 2 days off you will find that you will be able to do only like 3/4 of what you could do just 2 days ago
- stick to the schedule, don't add more than 3 push ups per day even if you feel like you can do more. This is just to be safe, and I am a very conservative person. And more importantly, always add at least 1 more every day no matter what.


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## Chilme (26 Sep 2010)

armychick2009 said:
			
		

> Back to the subject of girlie push-ups... my trainer calls them "half-push-ups" (though, I like to call them girlie ones!)
> 
> He said that if you lean forward when you do them (so, forward AND down) that you are almost carrying your full amount of weight. So, the trick is... lean forward first and THEN go down. Definitely not the same as a regular girlie push-up and if you think of it -- the only part of your weight you are NOT carrying is the calves and feet.



I believe one bio-mechanical factor that you are over looking is lever length.  Not only are you losing the weight of your calves and feet, but you are also decreasing the distance of the centre of gravity from the fulcrum (knees for girl push-ups and toes for regular) of the lever that is you body.  Therefore the amount of force required to move the weight of the body significantly increases beyond the weight of someones lower legs.

As a trainer I believe the best way to train push-ups is to do them according to EXPRES protocols but at an angle on a Smith Machine.  AS you get better doing the reps, you can decrease the the angle until you are on the floor.

***See attachment for Smith Machine


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