According to a recent New York Times health article on push-ups, a 40 year old woman should be able to do 16 Full push-ups in a row without rest, and a man of the same age should be able to knock out 27 push-ups.
The article states that push-ups are an excellent measure of fitness because they work so many parts of the body at once, not just the back, chest, arms, and shoulders as some people think. Your core, glutes, and leg muscles must also be held rigid while you perform the exercise with only your hands and toes on the floor. The ability to perform multiple push-ups is an indicator of an individual's strength and endurance, measurable factors which may help them as they age since up to 30% of a person's muscular strength can be lost between the ages of 20 and 70.
Now if that isn't enough to get you people on the push-up band wagon, I don't know what else will. I am going to continue doing them and I am confident that I will be happy with the results. I'm sorry to leave you, but I have push-ups to do!
8 comments:
ahhh Push ups..hmmm I always was ok with them, I think I just forget about them...need to add them in more, that and the sits ups tooooo.
Oh, yeah, the SITUPS!! I forgot about them! Darn, thanks for reminding me. Now I better get on that too. You must be getting excited for your 100. I hope your training is going well. How is your foot?
I was excited to see you hopped on the push-up train! I've been trying to increase mine for about five to six months now. When I started...barely 10 (women's..hack..spat..ack!) . Now I can do 20-25(mens) like a breeze!
One thing that I've noticed that really amped up my number quick was using arm weights. I started with 5 pounders..tons of reps...then 8...now 10, and Oh MAN, they made a huge HUGE difference. I'm also using weight bench weights which helps a lot too. I have 30 pounds on those...it's amazing how much they help, and so QUICK! Do you use arm weights of any kind?
I can tackle 16...but then I prefer sets of 10:) I don't know about fitness test, but I call it "anything is better than nothing"!
Thanks Doodlestreet for the inspiration! It's amazing how fast we progress if we are diligent about doing them. I use to use dumb bells but I haven't kept up with it. I guess it's time to do those too. I'll let you know when I can do 20-25 push-ups!!
Yeah, "anything is better than nothing." 16 is great! I am not there yet, but soon. I hope your running is going great.
Yeah! Keep me posted! I'd love to hear how you are progressing. I stopped doing them for about a week and when I started back up, boy...you can sure feel em in the back side of the arm! Ewwww WEEE! Haha...
Us girls gotta work on dem 'guns'!
Yes, doodlestreet, we do have to work on dem 'guns'! Absolutely.
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