Week 1 Challenges! Here we go!!

Dang that's good!! I'm at 80 oz as of an hour or so ago. Dave and I are working at the library right now and have been to the bathroom twice already! Lol.

2nd metatarsal plantar plate tear and 2nd metatarsal fractues. No stability on my left foot for push ups, etc

Great job babe!! You're one ahead of me today!!

PS: Got my 30 minutes of activity in today! I trained a client, rowed 1000 m, practiced double unders, and played some "monster catch" (passing slam balls) with my youngest client!! So fun!!

How's everyone else doing on the activity part of this week's challenge??

Absolutely correct Cassandra! Working your way up to 100 push ups does NOT get you better at doing standard (boy) push ups. It gets you better at doing knee push ups. You know what else it does? It can really hurt your back and really does nothing at all for your core. I'm sure some people reading is might be surprised to hear that!

A push up is a standard plank with dynamic motion around the glenohumeral joint (fancy term for shoulder joint). We all know what a plank is, but for a moment let's think about the progression of a standard plank:
(1) Lay on the floor on your tummy with forearms on the ground in a "sphinx" position
(2) Tighten your tummy (rectus abdominis), tighten the glutes (buttocks), and quadriceps (front part of your legs)
(3) Keep breathing

So by tightening up the tummy, butt, and legs you have created a solid, stable muscular frameworks of support that protects your pelvis and back. How many of you feel back pain if you hold a plank too long? Your support framework broke down and "all" of the load in now placed on your spinal vertebrae. Not good! Didn't you ever wonder why your back hurt during an abdominal exercise?

A progression to a forearm plank is a plank to your hands. This looks just like a standard push up, but you aren't pushing up yet, you are just holding that top position while maintaining point #3 above. It's harder because you have just doubled the lever length of your arm (using the whole are not just the upper arm). The shoulders have to work harder to stabilize the body.

The last progression (for this post) is just bending (flexion) the elbows into the position that we know as a traditional standard push up all the while maintaining point #3 above. If the butt pops up into the air (tent butt), or if your back curves downward (spaghetti back) you need to stop because your core is no longer supporting your pelvis and back which will cause injury.

So if this is too hard, why not just drop to your knees and do them that way?

Most women already have tight hip flexors. Stand up tall and raise one knee to hip height. That crease where your leg and hip meet on the front part of your body is part of the hip flexor complex. See how it helps to pick up your knee? Well, essentially you are doing just that when doing knee push ups - driving the knee forward - further reinforcing this improper movement pattern. Hip flexors are typically tight in women because of sitting all day (teaching, driving, etc.). Your core is not working properly in this position, so you are not stabilizing your pelvis and spine, and until your body can do that properly, you won't get better at standard push ups. In fact, you may just hurt yourself.

Like Cassandra said, use a staircase to get started. If you need help let us know and we can show you ;-)

dk

Read more: livesofit.boards.net/thread/6/week-1-challenges?page=4&scrollTo=89#ixzz2zFTknm92

EMOM = every minute on the minute, I believe.

Thank you Lauren! I totally forgot to answer that didn't I? ;p