Can't Do A Pushup

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I am very very ashamed of this, but I cannot do one single pushup. I can't get up from the ground. I am working on correcting this by doing a few small sets every morning where I start off up off the ground, go as far down as I can go, then go back up right before I collapse. My goal is to be able to do at least 25 in a row next year.

Does anybody know how to put more weight on your feet or better balance, though? I should be able to physically do them already- I likely have the muscle capacity and am not properly balancing but I don't know how to correct it.

BTW is anyone else a weakling like me?

Edit I already use 5 lb weights every morning, in addition to 150 crunches and 150 situps- which I don't need advise on how to do (the weights or the crunches). I think I'll abandon this topic/ probably won't come back to this; it's just frustrating (to read).

Edit as of 3/18/05- I can now do 25 in a row. My goal is met.

there are variations, depending on where you place your hands, and what way they point, but thats it. Once youve chosen a stance and started theres not a great deal of technique or variation involved - the only options available are 'pushing up' and letting yourself down, keeping your legs and torso straight.

If you keep at it, you develop muscular coordination for the first 4-6 weeks or so, your muscles start working together more effieciently at that particular movement, which means you can do more reps. After that, you may start to hypertrophy slightly, depending on hormones and calorific intake. Soon after that, you become conditioned to the load and hypertrophy slows down until either you a) increase the resistance by at least 5% or b) stop for a week or two to eliminate the conditioning.

Serissa, are you talking about a sit-up or abdominal crunch where you lie on your back and raise your torso to a more or less vertical position? That's balance, and females for obvious reasons are more top-heavy. You need more weight holding your feet down.

Why don't you start with "girls" push-ups so your knees are on the ground not your feet? Once you can do them easily you could try it with your feet instead of your knees. And I find push-ups really really hard because my peck muscles aren't strong and get irritated easily - I'm not meant to do push-ups alot because of it coz it stuffs up my shoulder. I just do sit-ups instead But I do pilates so I rarely do any of those exercises and stick to the pilates ones. So I'm probably as weak as you in some muscle areas.

I'm okay at push-ups. not great, I can prob do about 30 (maybe 40 if I'm lucky) in a row... but my advice to you? let's see...

Starting off with girl push-ups is an awesome idea. That will help you get down the basic form so that you'll be able to put more muscle in it. I'd also reccomend lifting a bit. Myabe like 5 lb weights once in a while. Just do like 10 reps and take a quick rest by doing the other arm for 10 reps, and repeat with the other arm. do that (each arm) 3 times maybe like 3x-week, and I bet it will get a lot better. You sound like you're in pretty good physical shape anyway, so it should be pretty easy for you!

One thing that's really hard though, is the impossible push-up. It's when you start off doing a regular push-up and then when you're going back up you bring your arms behind you and clap! Only the really strong guys on my XC team can do it, I'm not even gonna try!

Well not now anyway. hehehe

I can't say I was ever in bad a shape that I couldn't do a push-up or pull-up, but I used to be unable to do some things like headstand push-ups.

When you're trying to train your muscles you should keep this in mind:

Muscles grow strong when they're pulled apart and allowed to heal.

It is actually more effective to use more weight than a muscle can pull, and allow that weight to slowly extend the muscle. For example, if you cannot do a pull-up, get on a chair and put the bar under your chin, then get off the chair and let yourself down slowly. This is actually more effective than pulling up.

Allowing everything to heal is just as important. I didn't get results until I only worked out every other day.

For a boy Im a weakling (though I can do some pushups), when I was still playing football like all of my teammates could bench well over 150 and I couldnt even do 100 , though its also important to not that the fball team isnt exactally a cross section of the school and there might have been others weaker then me not on the team (though even some people on the vball team that we sometimes exercised with were stronger then me ).

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I sort of sympathise with you - except I seem to be a strange case.
I can do around 20 chin-ups without pausing, and yet can only do about 3 press ups before my arms collapse! I don't think you should worry too much, unless you have a passtime or job that requires upper body strength - I always figure that however strong you are *without* working out is good enough, seeing as it is due to your lifestyle, therefore an appropriate degree of strength.
But hey, images of perfection from the mass media and all that sort of thing... I guess it's all personal choice.

Try using very small pairs of weights - 2 or 3kg - for a couple of hours a day. It won't make your muscles much more noticeable, but it does seem to help a lot with their actual capacity!

Yea, but chin-ups are easy. You should do pull-ups (palms-out).