The Perfect Push-up

I have been training for so long now and I am quite embarassed that I can only really do 3 perfect push-ups before my arms give out. Last week I bought some hand weights to help strengthen my arms while I am doing other activities such as forms, punching, blocking, and even sit ups and yoga. Still I am impatient with my progress.

So I ran a search on the internet "I can't do push-ups." The first article I stumbled across was Why Girl Hockey Players Can't Do Push-ups. The article sites poor posture and incorrect form while attempting push-ups.

To do the perfect push-up:

Your body must be in a perfectly straight line through the entire movement. In order to maintain this position, players must be able to keep their core tight (think about tightening up as though someone was going to punch them in the stomach), squeeze their butts (that one usually gets a few giggles) and squeeze their shoulder blades down and together (like they are trying to squeeze them down into their back pockets). When girls are able to maintain this position as they lower themselves down towards the ground, they take the load off of their "weaker" arm muscles and rely more on their "stronger" chest and core muscles to perform the movement.

I didn't know all that! I'm going to have to try that and get back to you. My core feels like it is getting stronger every day, but I didn't know I could use it to help my push-ups.

I guess ultimately I just have to face up to my push-ups. I try to do them every day but it doesn't feel much like I'm accomplishing anything by just doing three. Another website I found said "Just do 3 in the morning and 3 at night and add on one more the next day." That's what my instructor said to do...but I haven't forced myself to really stick to that routine.

I have a feeling I'm going to be asked to do at least 10 push-ups at my next belt test. At the last one he said to do 5 and I think the adrenaline of the testing atmosphere kicked my body up a noch because I actually did them!

Ups and Downs of Home Training

A few weeks ago our instructor gave us a sheet of paper and told us we needed to have it completely filled out by the next belt test, sometime in February. It consists of five types of training routines, each with 22 blanks to check off. The categories are:

• Strength Training- Sit ups and push ups or weight training
• Flexibility/Stretching- 15 mins
• Forms Practice- 20 mins of forms practice
• Kicks- 25 reps per side of at least 3 kicks
• Hand Techniques- one step fighting techniques and other punching/blocking practice as well as conditioning against targets

I get up in the morning and take my dog for a walk, then do 15-30 minutes of Stretching, usually a yoga routine and Strength Training. Sometimes I do as many sit ups and push ups as I can but others I do a more challenging Yoga or Pilates workout designed to strengthen the body. Variety is the key for me, if I get bored I won't do it. Right now I am getting frustrated because it seems like my lower body is getting stronger a lot faster than my upper body. I still can't do that many push ups with proper form-straight legs, on my knuckles. I know I just have to keep doing them and I let myself get frustrated too quickly.

The good news is, I noticed my arm muscles are getting tighter and bigger already. I had my husband measure me yesterday so that I can get a baseline for my fitness level. I don't have a scale and I don't believe in them anyway. I was wishing I had gotten him to do it a month ago because I can already tell a difference. My thighs hardly jiggle any more and I can tell my abs are tighter. Still, I felt a little sad because my thigh measurement now is about what my waist measurement was at my ideal size 15 years ago. The good news is, I didn't work out then, I was just naturally curvy. Now I may never get back down to a 26" waist but I will be stronger and leaner than ever before.

I avoid the kicking practice the most, sometimes I even attempt it and don't complete the 25 reps per leg necessary to get a check mark on my sheet. We do a lot of kicks in class but usually we do only 10 per side and then switch to another kick. Doing 25 in one set pushes me to my absolute limit. I work hard on the roundhouse kick, even though it is an advanced white belt kick and I am working toward my orange belt right now, it needs a lot of work, especially on aiming. A discouraging discovery was made in class on Thursday, I've also been working on my jumping front snap kick. The instructor pointed out that I was kicking at the wrong time. Devastating to realize that I had probably done a couple hundred kicks wrong and I basically have to relearn and retrain my body.