Press Ups Help Please

[Tez]

On an American forum I go on I'm in disagreement with a couple of people who are training in what are very obviously mcDojos, they pay for Black belt clubs, have 2 45mins lessons a week, have to learn their katas from videos they have to buy etc, a few of us are trying to show them whats wrong with their training. In those 45min lessons their warm up consists of doing 100 press ups with another 100 during the lessons ( the rest of the time is spent doing 10 mins with one instructor before moving to do another 10 with someone else etc) What is worrying us is that everyone including children are doing these hundreds of press ups!

I've always been told that children especially should do press ups on their knees and not do more than about 2 sets of ten. In this class the children are also doing the press ups on their fingers! Women have to do the same where again I was taught that women should also do them on their knees as the centre of gravity is different and the strain goes on the back and pelvis of women.

Can anyone give me info or links to info about press ups please? The stuff I'm getting back is oh well the children manage fine which I don't think is the point as I think the damage will come later in life as they will have damaged growing cartilege etc. Please help if you can, I really want to prove them wrong big style!

[DianeB]

I can't be of any help, sorry. I've never heard of press ups being bad for you, so i'd be interested in the answers.

I was taught that women should also do them on their knees as the centre of gravity is different and the strain goes on the back and pelvis of women.

The only time i've been told to do press ups on my knees is in aerobic classes. Although thinking about it, if i don't tense my stomach when doing press ups I do feel it in my lower back. I assumed that applied to men as well as women though?

*wonders if this can be used as an excuse next time i'm tired & we are doing press ups* hehe

[Rosi]

Obviously it sounds like a very ineffective way to go about things, and is no doubt a great way to build muscle imbalances that can cause other problems later on.

I don't know a great deal about exercise and children, so I'm not going to comment on that specifically.

The thing about women and press ups is a myth however. Women can do full press ups just fine, providing their core stability is fairly good (the same applies to men). It comes down to maintaining a good position while doing the pushups - if you can't keep the back in a straight line, that's when you have a problem regardless of gender.

Press ups on fingers are a bad idea for everyone - they're just a really good way to give yourself osteoarthritis.

[Alex Gold]

Obviously it sounds like a very ineffective way to go about things, and is no doubt a great way to build muscle imbalances that can cause other problems later on.

I don't know a great deal about exercise and children, so I'm not going to comment on that specifically.

The thing about women and press ups is a myth however. Women can do full press ups just fine, providing their core stability is fairly good (the same applies to men). It comes down to maintaining a good position while doing the pushups - if you can't keep the back in a straight line, that's when you have a problem regardless of gender.

Press ups on fingers are a bad idea for everyone - they're just a really good way to give yourself osteoarthritis.

No need to add anything to this - there's your answer

[tom blackledge]

*wonders if this can be used as an excuse next time i'm tired & we are doing press ups* hehe

no it cant

[lee_whitehead]

DOD's 6 year old did 100 pressups in the cage at CR22 and he seemed fine after! and they werent on the knees either!

[James Saville]

DOD's 6 year old did 100 pressups in the cage at CR22 and he seemed fine after! and they werent on the knees either!

really?? thats pretty cool and impressive

[Tez]

The style they are doing is Tae Kwon Do and the owners are certainly masters in making money! The problem is as we see it ( apart from the amount of money they are paying for lessons =£120 per month on a three year contract) is that press ups are what constitutes the warms ups. They have two lessons a week for three quarters of an hour each, and these people including the children are doing nearly 400 press ups a week and very little else in the way of a warm up or exercise. they do kicking of course and the usual patterns but doing that amount of press ups at age 7 or whatever can't be good for you surely?

They also have 'breaking' classes where they learn to break wood with elbows fists etc. The children too. They have separate classes too for sparring (at extra cost) and patterns.

[Alex Gold]

The issue will be one of structural imbalances/poorly ingrained motor patterns. I wrote quite a bit about this in my 'common training mistakes' article, which was printed in FO - or can be obtained by signing up for the newsletter on my site.

Basically, although doing the push-ups may not be a problem NOW, it is highly likely to cause problems in future, even if performed correctly.

[fightingfan]

Out of interest, does this warm-up consist solely of 100 push-ups?