Can’t do Press-ups? Oh Yes, YOU CAN!

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If you want to get in shape and you don’t know where to start, here’s a clue: the simple answer is “Anywhere!”

Seriously, you can start with anything, you don’t have to be an athlete to do some serious fitness training or just a bit of regular exercise. And if you’re starting from scratch it’s best if you keep the bar really low and make it easy on yourself. For example, you could start with press-ups.

You’ve probably done press-ups in the past, maybe years ago. And right now maybe just the thought of doing them brings you out in a cold sweat. You can easily churn out half a dozen reasons why you can’t do them, and some of them might even make sense 😉 But what I aim to do here is tell you a few reasons why you can. And when you’ve read this, hopefully you’ll be keen to make a start and give it a go.

First, let me explain something: you don’t actually need to be able to do press-ups to do press-ups. By which I mean there are some very easy ways to achieve press-up skills, and we’re going to look at a few right now.

The first step … is to take the first step!

first stepOkay, let’s begin. I’m going to assume that you think, for whatever reason, that you really haven’t a hope in hell of successfully doing any press-ups. Right, okay, now we’re on the same page. I accept that, you can’t do press-ups, agreed. You can calm down now, I’m not going to suggest you do.

What I am suggesting is that you see this as a goal, and there’s a sensible way of achieving goals, and that’s the way we’re going to use. You can’t do the exercise because you haven’t done them for years, right? And you haven’t got the strength in your arms, you’re too old, you’re too fat, you’re not built that way, you’re not athletic, you’re past it, you’ve got the kids to see to, you’re not an Olympic athlete … there’s plenty of reasons why you can’t do press-ups … okay, I get it, but we’re not interested in all that.

Anyway, they’re not reasons, they’re excuses! So let’s get back to it (and do yourself a favour, stop muttering those excuses, it really doesn’t help). Let’s make a start … again. Your goal is to do press-ups. Why? Because if you can manage to do them, and if you start doing them regularly, you really will have made a start. If you can do one exercise, you can do others, and you’ll be able to get in shape. A worthy ambition, and one that’s not out of your range. It can be done!

But we’re not going to try to do ten press ups today. We’re not even going to do one press up (not a proper one, anyway). All we’re going to do is ease you into the whole thing. Gently. See? Not scary at all.

Make it do-able

regretStand near the kitchen table, or your desk, or something stable and about that height. Put your hands on it, near the edge. Shift your feet back so you’re leaning into the table/desk/whatever, and taking your weight on your hands. Most of your weight is on your feet actually, but you get my drift. Now do a few press-up-type movements, bending your elbows and pushing away so they straighten again. It doesn’t even have to be the full movement, bending fully at the elbow. Easy, right? If it’s a bit of a struggle, just do the same thing leaning against a wall for now. That will make you almost vertical! You can do that, right?

Okay, once you’ve got the feel of these mini press-ups against the table, work up to doing a set of ten of them (no rush). And once you’ve done that, you’ve done a set of ten press ups (kind of). See what I mean? So what’s all this about you can’t do this and you can’t do that? ‘Course you can! You just proved it!