Anonymous wrote:I am a person at the middle of my weight range. I do cardio 4 times a week. I can't do one push-up, not one. I want to. Please help me train my body for this.

Well that's your problem.

Try doing elevated push-ups.

Hire a personal trainer. You've got no core strength or muscle strength generally.

Because you are weak. Just kidding!! I am now a 46 year old woman and can do many, many more than I could do in my youth. Most women do not have great upper body strength. Not sexist comment, it's a biological difference between the genders.

I ran track and played soccer for years so my hams and glutes are strong as sh*t, but I really have added in a lot more weight training in later years and a UXF class that does many planks, burpees, clean&press, push ups, etc. It's amazing how much more strength I now have in my upper body and can knock out some serious push-ups--even the spider man type.

Practice. Practice. Practice. Start from your knees first if it helps. What I always did was try as many as I could from my toes until my form started to slide as I got fatigued and then I dropped to my knees. In the beginning this was just about 1---but you'll gain quickly. Core strength is a big issue with push ups and planks help a great deal with that too.

There's also the intermediate step of doing the modified (knees) push-up, followed by lifting your knees into the standard position and doing that for the "down." Your muscles are about 40% stronger negatively (resisting) then they are positively (pushing).

Anonymous wrote:Also, you might want to work on planks to build your strength and practice holding your body weight up.

This. Do them on your knees (or against a wall) and do planks. I used to be able to run miles and miles, but without doing that I couldn't do one either.

Do you have access to the gym or weights?

Some people recommend against using weights because it makes your body too heavy and harder to do push ups.

However for myself I found that might only be true for extreme cases. So after going from just body weight exercises to some weight training, my push ups increased a lot.

So I think while you might make some progress if you train just by doing body weight pushups, there will be more significant gains if you do some weight training to increase your overall strength. Then you'll be able to do more pushups with that new strength.

It sounds like you might already be doing okay in cardio but should mix in strength training to make sure your workouts are well balanced.

Also, you might want to work on planks to build your strength and practice holding your body weight up.

You will get there! I went from that to being able to do like 20 regular ones. I'm a woman.

Anonymous wrote:I am a person at the middle of my weight range. I do cardio 4 times a week. I can't do one push-up, not one. I want to. Please help me train my body for this.

You keep doing them until you can....do them.

You can't run 10 miles without working up to it, can you? Strength training is no different.

Anonymous wrote:Start on your knees. Do as many as you can. Tomorrow, do 2 more. And so on.

Yup, this is what I did. Did the modified (on knees) version until muscle exhaustion. Did about 3 sets with a few minutes rest in between (1-2min). Keep doing the modified version until you can do at least 1 of the "real" pushups. After you are able to push out 1, then drop down to your knees and do the modified until exhaustion. Keep doing this cycle gradually adding more of the real pushups. I went from doing 3 real to doing over 25 in about 4 months. Good luck!!

Interesting. Can you start doing pushups when you are resting on your knees? Those are way easier but you are still exercising your arm muscles.

The problem is that you have let your muscles atrophy. Take a yoga class. Or many. Then try again.

Start on your knees. Do as many as you can. Tomorrow, do 2 more. And so on.

I am a person at the middle of my weight range. I do cardio 4 times a week. I can't do one push-up, not one. I want to. Please help me train my body for this.