You need to know how to do a perfect beginners push-up for a strong and beautiful body! Why? Because a push-up is a full body exercise. With just a simple push-up, you get to work almost every muscle in your body. Why again? Because every muscle participates in holding you up!
In learning how to do a perfect beginners push-up for a strong and beautiful body, you will realize that a push-up primarily targets your chest, shoulders and triceps. However, your abs, gluts, and leg muscles also participate. And this is why it’s such an excellent exercise to master.
You Have To Do It Correctly!
But here’s the thing with a push-up – If you don’t do it with good form, you can easily injure yourself. This is why I put created this “How To Do A Perfect Beginners Push-Up” video. I’ve been teaching yoga and fitness for almost 2 decades, and it scares me silly when I see bad form in a class. And I rarely see proper form. This is because you really need a trainer to hold your hips in place, and remind you to use your abs (this protects your back). Moreover, those with tight shoulders can scrunch their shoulder up even more in an effort to perform a challenging exercise. So, unless you are a gym Ninja, I don’t recommend trying a full push-up on your own. Other contraindications would include any kind of injury, backache, neck problems, and weak abs.
How To Do A Perfect Beginners Push-Up!
You need to modify if you don’t have a trainer, or someone (who understands form), spotting you. Here are 3 modifications that work like a charm. If you cannot do a push-up now, start with “The Wall Push-Up”, or go straight to using the Arc NRG machine.
The Wall Push-Up
When teaching clients how to do a perfect beginners push-up, I recommend starting with a simple push- up against the wall: Stand a couple of feet away from the wall. Place your palms firmly on the wall in front of you, at chest height. Engage your abs, and firm the sides of your hips. Take an inhale, and as you exhale, dip in towards the wall. Go far enough so that your forehead touches the wall. Inhale, push back to standing. This is safe enough to repeat 12- 15 times.
The Chair Push-Up
Once you are good with the wall modification, you can take it a step further, by doing your push-up against the seat of a chair. Use a sturdy kitchen chair and set the back legs against a wall or step (you could also place it on a yoga mat to prevent slipping. Place your palms on the edge of the seat and walk your legs out until straight. Take an inhale, and on your exhale, lower your body down toward the seat of the chair. Even if you lower down a couple of inches, you will be engaging your upper body muscles.
The Perfect Push-up
There’s a great gadget on the market, the Arc-NRG, which will help you to do a perfect push-up effortlessly. It is quite genius. I was sent it to test out, and now my whole family uses it. My husband had shoulder surgery a year ago, and can finally do a push-up without hurting himself. My teenage daughter who has very little upper body strength can use it safely. And I can do at least 30 push-ups without hurting my shoulders or neck (weak areas for me!).
It is a brilliant device, which was invented by a husband and wife team. It helps you how to do a perfect beginners push-up easily! They wanted to create something that would help people who are rehabilitating from injury. And then they realized that it works for everyone regardless.
The Arc-NRG comes in a lightweight box, and is pretty easy to put together. It took me 20 minutes. It light enough for me to carry around, which is great because I use it outside when the weather permits. And I store it in my guest room at night.
Please watch my video to see me demoing the Arc-NRG. You’ll see how easy it is.
Arc NRG are offering $20 off the cost (plus FREE shipping), for 30 days (offer expires April 30th 2019). Use the code SOPHIE at checkout!
Full Body Workout!
If you want to try an at-home Full-Body workout with a kettlebell weight, check out how I do it on my patio (no trainer required!).
If You’re A Yogi…
I’ve seen a LOT of injuries coming out of a yoga class. Just because it’s yoga, it doesn’t mean it’s safe. It’s important to know how to do the perfect beginners push-up for a “flow” style yoga class. In a “flow” class, you will be moving in and out of a pose called Chaturanga (which is basically a push-up). Read my blog here on how not to injure yourself in a yoga class.
