To continue trying to balance fitness with gaming, I put out another video, and I wanted to display a longer "let's play" style session while I leveled Versace from 13 to 15. The video is a little lengthier than I had originally wanted, at 30 minutes long, but I go into detail explaining push up form, why the push up, and what to do if you can't do a push up.
The video is split into three parts, since you have to have a verified account to upload anything longer than 15 minutes. I feel like I was a bit too quiet, but it was 3 in the morning, and my family was sleeping, so I was unconsciously trying to be quiet I suppose. I am still waiting for youtube's response for a verified account, so I don't have to do this in the future. Click the "youtube" button in the video below, it will take you to my channel, and I will have annotations for the next video.
So to start, my max push up is now at 65! I realize this is a little high for most people, but I have to admit I started working on my push ups about 2 months before even starting this blog, so I had a bit of a head start. 2 months ago I could only do about 25 or 30 push ups. Make sure you right your max push ups down! It's an important number, and we'll be doing some simple calculations to it during our next few physical challenges.
Pushup form:
Form is so important when doing any physical exercise. It not only keeps you from getting injured, but also ensures you're working out the right muscles, and using your body to its fullest. To ensure you have proper form do the following:
Get on your hands and knees.
Put your hands down flat, a bit more than shoulder width apart.
Straighten your arms.
Move your feet back, toes on the floor, legs straight
Keep your back straight!
Keep your head up.
This leads easily into one of the most important parts of a push up: Core Strength!
Keeping your back straight is hard on your abdominal muscles, and this may very well be where you are lacking. You're abdominals will probably be giving out while doing push ups, making your back sag, so watch out for that!
Other muscles used during a push up are the Chest (Pectoralis) muscles, the back of your arms (Triceps), and the front of your shoulders (Deltoids).
Along with form, make sure you keep breathing. It's okay to hold your breath for short times during the hardest part, but make sure to keep breathing all the time.
Keeping a steady rhythm is a good way to keep yourself from tiring too quickly as well.
IF YOU CAN'T DO A SINGLE PUSHUP, DON'T WORRY! You can work on your pushups by doing some modified stuff. Even strong, large framed people sometimes can't do a push up. You can do knee pushups, where you have your knees contacted on the ground instead of toes, or push up against a wall standing up. You can use small weights and do a Chest press or Bench Press, or you can elevate your hands by a bench or some stairs.
The 2nd physical challenge is this:
Take your max pushup and find 80% of that. Mine is 52. Now do the following:
80% of your max pushups normal.
2 minute rest.
80% of your max pushups with arms elevated (by bench or stairs. The further the elevation, the easier this part is going to be).
5 minute rest.
80% of your max pushups normal (if you fail before 80%, that's fine, move to next step)
2 minute rest.
80% of your max pushups with arms elevated
5 minute rest.
Normal pushups until fail.
This gives us 5 sets of pushups, and you should be really sore come tomorrow if you do these. This is good! This means your muscles broke down, and your body will have to rebuild them stronger.
That's it from me, I'm going to bed. It's way too late for old men like me to be awake.
Keep fit. Keep Gaming.
Versace
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