I want to give you a strategy to get to 10 push ups.
Sometimes you just get pooped out from doing push ups.
If you’re just looking for a different exercise that’s going to help increase your push ups, one exercise that I can give you is the dumbbell press. You can do this on the floor, but ideally it’s great to do it on an exercise ball or a bench because then you can get a little bit greater range of motion.
I want to give you some tips on how to do a dumbbell press to help increase the number of push ups that you can do and I want to tell you about a couple common mistakes that you want to avoid so that you protect the integrity of the shoulder while exercising.
The shoulder is a very fragile ball and socket joint held together by soft tissue. You want to make sure your form is correct so that you don’t compromise that joint.
When doing the chest press:
Grab a bench or a stability ball or do the movement on the floor, (you just don’t get quite as great a range of motion when you do the chest press on the floor).
I suggest putting your knees up so that you don’t have an arch in your back.
Start with the dumbbells over your face., arms extended straight.
You always want to have the weight supported at the elbow.
Slowly drop the dumb bells in a wide motion, close to the under arms.
Try to have the elbows just slightly deeper than the bench to get a bit more range of motion than if you were on the floor.
Return the dumb bells to the start position with the arms extended straight.
The most common error that I see in gyms and in my boot camp that I constantly want to correct is that a lot of times when people do a chest press they’ll let the dumb bells extend over the elbow so that it’s out in mid air. The weight is not supported at the elbow at all. The shoulder joint is compromised in that position. You won’t be able to do this movement with any amount of weight. If you keep the weight supported at the elbow, you’re still going to be taxing the chest, shoulders and triceps without compromising the shoulder.
My suggestion on trying to get 10 push ups is to add the chest press to your workout repertoire. It will give you more variety and if you want to spice it up, you can do a set of push ups followed by a set of chest press.
This is a fun super-set that allows you to keep working the muscles required for the push up without falling on your face =)