I hate doing push-ups but I tried I always have to do it
start doing them every day!
you wanna know the exercise i hate more than anything??? even jared leto??? LUNGES.
lunges lunges lunges. honestly i DON'T hate them as much anymore.... because i started to incorporate them more into my life, normalized them enough that even though i still dislike them, i don't DREAD the idea of performing them anymore.
the fun thing about literally any exercise movement is that you can do half-assed versions of them to EDUCATE yourself.
what i mean is: lunges always intimidated me/frustrated me because i wasn't confident i was doing the movement properly. it's almost a full-body movement where you are changing where your feet are with each rep, meaning you aren't stationary and it requires MORE skill to ensure you're performing the same rep each time, especially as you're trying to mirror the movement on either side of your body, as well as mirror it to the previous rep.
so, what did i start doing to stop making lunges so scary? stairs. anywhere i was in the world, i took the stairs. no elevator for me thanks, i'm trying to activate my glutes and my quads and really understand how my body is moving when it achieves that 90 degree angle at my knee. which, you don't achieve by taking the stairs normally... i started taking the stairs TWO at a time, so that i could achieve the 90 degrees and hit the lunge position! at first it was difficult, because it's supposed to be -- i wasn't used to doing it. i got winded, felt like i was doing too much on public stairs, etc. but it wasn't about satisfying whatever my mind thought about it -- it was about teaching my body how it was supposed to feel in a proper lunge position. i basically forced myself to learn the movement better by choosing to put myself in scenarios that could facilitate the position in a natural way, as if i plan simple things too much i will likely just not follow through. ultimately it is simply willpower, so however you have to manipulate your own mind into doing what you want to do, have at it!
i still do this on stairs whenever i can! i think soo much of our health is determined by teeny tiny choices we make every single day, which can be as simple as stretching in the morning or going for a jog before eating breakfast. or having lemon juice in a glass of water before eating anything else in the day... and i don't even want to say the examples are endless, as i think our bodies operate by finite standards, meaning there is a threshold for how much we can "improve" our bodies before we're actually beginning to deteriorate other parts or systems within.... just ask
Bryan Johnson who became so obsessed with his own life's longevity that he has instead exacerbated the existing auto-immune diseases that he has.
ANYWAY, PUSH UPS.
i know i shared earlier in the thread a little gif about the easiest push-up position, but it could be even easier! you can stand by a wall at an angle (leaning forward) and press yourself back up to a straight standing position, you can lie flat on the floor and grab something heavy, and press it up into the air away from your chest, etc. there are so many options! oh, actually, this is the true nugget of info:
if you aren't confident in proper form for an exercise,
then you shouldn't be maxing out the weight you use for that exercise
what that means is -- if you can curl a 20lb dumbbell but you're using too much of your lats or your shoulder to lift it, then go down in weight. it doesn't matter if you have to go down to 5lbs to do the movement properly -- what that means is that your accessory muscles for these movements might not be up to par for 20lbs yet, and you need to focus on the proper FORM, not just getting the dumbbell up where it needs to go by any means. this applies to all movements, even push ups, which can feel impossible if we simply aren't strong enough in the smaller muscles to maintain proper form while engaging the main groups.
for better push ups, you can supplement your technique by working on your core, lower back, and shoulders -- core and lower back strength will help you maintain the plank position so that when you're pressing against the ground, the force can be targeted to your chest. if your back is either too bowed or too rounded, you're starting to put the weight into your shoulders/arms, and would be activating your triceps/biceps as much as your chest, and we want to activate as close to 100% chest as we can!
went to planet fitness yesterday for good ol' leg day - usually i stick to 3 sets of 10 reps:
- warmed up with 10 pigeon good mornings on either side
- did russian twists holding a 15lb dumbbell (i do my best to keep my legs and back straight for this, which targets hip flexors and imo helps you hit your abs harder)
- attempted for the first time ever curling 20lb dumbbells (teehee) and i think i accomplished 10 reps over 3 sets, some of them being hammer curls. i've been curling 15s with enough success (getting to the 3rd set but not always getting to 30 reps) that i know i can go up in weight and start getting 20lbs normalized!! what is becoming tough is that my grip strength is much weaker than my biceps, so i feel my hands struggling to hold the weight and instead my hands get sweaty and it slips. annoying. gloves would fix this instantly
- bulgarian split squats using 15lb dumbells... the video i linked is actually the best method ive seen yet for finding the correct stance to be in! similarly to lunges, this movement is almost useless if you're not doing it in proper form, and you're more likely to injure yourself if you're using too much weight without proper form and control. i cannot get all the way to the ground with the dumbbells, so honestly i might start doing these with zero weight until i can perfect the form all the way to the ground.
- leg curls
- leg extension
- hip adductors
- hip abductors
- 30 minutes of cardio
aaaand boy am i WRECKED today. the bulgarian split squats are so good at what they're meant for, that if i lean 1 degree off my axis today my legs are trembling a little bit. i LOVE this feeling.
