Flashback to fifth grade when your gym teacher would start class by having you do the usual warm-ups including the dreaded push-up. The teacher would always saw that if you had to you could do the modified push-ups on your knees. As you heard her say this you thought that wow that would be so much easier but I don’t want to be the only one in class not doing a “real push-up.” So you put your hands out with a nervous look on your face as you awkwardly tried to complete just one push-up, let alone 10.

I too once had these struggles. Looking back on it, I regret having that mindset. First of all, I regret thinking like this because now I know that there were definitely others around me that were thinking the same thing, and there were even those around me that did the modified push-up. Did I think anything of them doing that or think that they were worse than I was? No. But did I join them when I was obviously struggling? No.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this and the principle around it. Knowing a little bit more about fitness now I think back and think of how foolish I was. The people doing the modified version were actually doing it right while I was just trying to fit in and not doing the actual workout.

When you are born you don’t just immediately start walking. You have to crawl first. And when you start walking you don’t just immediately start running. First, you have to find your balance. This is analogous to fitness. When you start working out, you most likely aren’t going to be able to do a “normal” push-up straight off the bat. Your arms aren’t strong enough. You have to start with a modified push-up and work your way up. Maybe one day you’ll be able to reach the diamond push-ups or those fancy show-off ones where you clap, but are you going to be able to do that with no practice or experience? No.

This is also the reason why a lot of fitness includes reps and sets. These allow you to break your work out up into feasible chunks that one day you will be able to build up.

But here comes my other issue: what really is a “normal” push-up? Sure, there are full push-ups on your hands and your toes. However, the connotation and rhetoric around a “normal” push-up is something that I think needs to be changed. When you think of something that is normal you feel almost ashamed to do anything but that. This is where the whole shaming in the fitness world comes in. But how can we reach where we aspire to be without starting somewhere like a modified push-up? The truth is that you can’t.

So I encourage you: start with the modified push-ups. Learn to crawl. Then hopefully one day you will be able to run with diamond push-ups.

See you on the next stop 🙂