Who likes PUSH UPS!? Push-ups. I bet you love, or love to hate them. This weight-bearing exercise is fantastic at sculpting your shoulders and arms, building up your pecs (and for us ladies, giving us a little lift!), and making your back look just incredible. But, they’re not easy! So, I understand why when Tony Horton or Shaun T tells you to knock out a set of push-ups in P90X or INSANITY, you groan. And, after a few sets of these grueling exercises, perhaps you’ve started to wonder: How much weight am I really pushing here? What percent of my body weight am I lifting? Can I do push-ups on my knees instead? And, if I need to do them on my knees, should I bother doing them at all? Articles published within the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research revealed that men lifted about 66.4% of their body weight with each rep when they did a push-up on their toes. On their knees, they lifted about 52.9% of their body weight. In other words, a 180-pound man will lift 119.5 pounds per rep doing a regular push-up and 95.2 pounds doing a push-up on their knees. Women lift slightly less of their body weight per rep, but the difference is negligible. Want to determine approximately how much you’re lifting? Put your scale on level ground and place your hands on it and do a push-up on your toes. Have a friend read the number on the scale if you cannot. Then, repeat the exercise, but this time, do the push-up on your knees. The number you see is approximately how much body weight you’re lifting though the number will vary depending on your arm position (i.e. military, diamond, wide, etc.)
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:01:47 +0000
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