Why All Female Athletes Should Do Push-Ups
First and foremost, push-ups can be done anywhere and require zero equipment.
Second, sprinting requires your lower body to coordinate with your upper body, and quickly. This speed will be higher when your upper and lower body both have the strength to assist the sprinting motion. This coordination will come in handy to help reduce your risk of injury at sprinting speeds.
The third reason is specifically for soccer players, though this reason can fit into other sports. When you are in possession of the ball during a soccer game, push-ups will help you gain upper body strength to shield and keep possession of the ball. When you are trying to get the ball from a defender, you will have the upper strength to challenge the defender.
Another reason specifically for soccer is throw-ins. Love them or hate them, we all have to do them at some point. Throw-ins involve your core, shoulders, and chest. Guess what? All of these muscles are involved in push-ups.
Back to all female athletes, push-ups will help with posture, endurance, and building healthy shoulders. In order to make sure that your push-ups keep your shoulders healthy and do not hurt them, I made a video about that here, and you can also watch below.
Kya watches me do a bunch of push-ups as I I go over three checkpoints to get you started on push-ups.
Hips and shoulders.
Hips and shoulders should stay even throughout the entire pus-up.
2. Elbows.
Do not bend your elbows at 180 degrees like on the left.
Bend your elbows towards your hips at 45 degrees like on the right.
3. Chin.
Tuck your chin rather than let your head flop in order to protect yo’ neck.
I also briefly go over your trapezius muscle in the video. Your trapezius runs along your upper back and neck area, and should not be used when doing push-ups. In order to ensure this, keep shoulders down and back rather than shrugged up to your ears. Think good posture. Think tucking your shoulders into your back pocket. Think about this throughout the full motion of the push-up.
You might not be able to do one full push-up right now. That is completely okay. I am going to give you three push-up modifications that will help you progress to being able to do multiple proper push-ups.
Modification 1. Start in a high plank position (aka top of the push-up). Lower your body to the ground SLOWLY. Like, 5 M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I seconds slowly, and work your way up to 10 M-I-S-S-I-S-S-P-P-I. Next, work your way back up just as slowly.
Modification 2. Start in the same high plank/top of the push-up position as #1. Lower your body to the ground until your body is even with your elbows (do 1/2 of the down phase of a push-up). Hold this position for as long as you can. Want to challenge yourself even more? Go down to bottom of a push up position (your chest should not be touching the ground, but about a 1/4 of an inch above the ground) and hold longer.
Modification 3. Incline push-ups! Find a bench, couch, or chair to place your hands on. Really important for all of the modifications, especially this one, is to make sure your hips and shoulders stay in alignment when doing the push-up (watch video for clarification on this).
Get pushing!
“Push it real good.”
Any youth athlete who knows singer and song of above quote gets a free training session. No google. No help. Must provide proof.
