75 push-ups. Every day.
That’s my favorite way to make sure my arms are summah-time ready. This is – in my opinion – the best exercise to do in order to tone your upper arms and back.
I’m telling you – anyone can do this. Here’s how:
1. Proper Form
- In the low position, your upper and forearms should be at a 90 degree angle and your hands should be under your shoulders. Start out laying on the ground to be sure you’re correctly lined up.
- Keep your core tight – don’t sag you butt OR stick it in the air. You want a straight line from head to ankles (much like the bikini-belly planks earlier this week!).
- Don’t let your chest touch the floor – it should be 2-3 inches from the floor in the lowest position.
- Breathe! In going down, out pushing up.
2. Find Your Starting Point
In order to determine how many sets to do each day, you need to learn what your max is.
Using the aforementioned proper form, get on the floor and to as many push-ups as you can. Go on, do it! Pretend the person in the cub isn’t starting…
Whatever number you reached is your max. Write it down!
3. Divide and Conquer
Divide your max number in half. The result is the number of push-ups you’ll be doing 3x each day with 30-60 seconds of rest in between.
For example:
- Say you did 20 push-ups in your max set (which is where I began)
- Half of 20 is 10
- This means you need to do 3 sets of 10 push-ups each day
Rest for 30-60 secs between sets. You’ll probably need 60 seconds when you begin; as you get stronger, cut down on the rest time a bit.
4. Keep Pushing
Don’t stop here! Re-test yourself once you are able to complete your sets more easily. This might be take 1 week, or it might take 3 weeks. Move at your own pace, but don’t sacrifice form.
If you have trouble with your wrists, try making a fist and doing push-ups on your knuckles so that your wrists aren’t bent. If you have free weights, you can also use those to keep your wrists straight.
Push-ups are awesome because they engage multiple muscle groups – from your core to your calves.
Added bonus: you can do them anywhere! I do them in hotel rooms when traveling to get my blood pumping in the morning.
Results, yo.
When I started, I maxed out at 20 push-ups in a row. I’m up to 50 in a row and do 3 sets of 25 for a total for 75 each day.
Speaking of… it’s about time to re-test…
Steph @ Bite by Bite opens her bake sale today to benefit Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Please click here to check out the bake sale!!! As I said perviously, my dad passed away from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. The proceeds will go to an organization that can really put it to good use. Much more research is needed!
My contribution is a cookie that my dad enjoyed: Dark Chocolate Sea Salt.
Recipe to come (not today as promised… I got distracted planning a baby shower)!!! The basics include: dark chocolate, butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, almonds, and crunchy fleur de sel glittered across the top.
Last night I was inspired by Sarena @ The Non-Dairy Queen. She had Socca Pizza for Mother’s Day!
I’ve been craving pizza lately and I’m ALWAYS craving Mexican, so I made a Mexican-inspired socca pizza.
This came out perfectly. It was just the right amount!
I’ll definitely try it with cheese rather than nooch next time (I was OUT!) BUT I really liked it with the nooch. Between the flavorful salsa and the eggy-ness, I didn’t miss it.
After eating pizza topped with a runny egg, I don’t know if I’ll ever eat “regular” pizza again. So. Good.
Mexican Socca Pizza
- 1/2 C chickpea flour
- 1 tsp Essence of Emeril
- 1/2 C water
Toppings:
- Salsa
- Minced garlic
- Celery
- Artichokes
- Zucchini
- Nutritional Yeast
- Egg
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease 9-in round (cake) pan. (I used olive oil spray.)
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and spices. Gradually whisk in water. Pour into pan and bake for 8-10 mins. Meanwhile, prep any veggies you will be adding to the pizza.
When socca is done, cross your fingers that you greased the pan enough and flip it out onto a baking sheet or pizza stone. Add your sauce and toppings – EXCEPT the nooch and egg. Place in oven for 6-7 mins, until veggies are nearly at desired level of tenderness.
Remove from oven to add the egg and the nooch. Bake for 4-5 more mins, until the egg is just beginning to set. Be sure not to over-cook the yolk.
Remove from oven and let cool briefly before plating and devouring!
***
Thanks for all the input on my rug yesterday. 🙂
What’s the weirdest thing you eat on your pizza?
Ever try it with an egg?
I have just recently tried this runny egg on pizza thing and it was awesome! Definitely gonna test myself on pushups later.
You really do push-ups every day? I have always given a day or two rest between because that’s what I’ve heard you are supposed to do. But my arms are not looking summer-ready, so maybe I’ll give this a shot!
I do! I definitely follow the one workout per week for each body part, but I think push-ups are ok. It’s not like I’m doing a full hour routine. 🙂
Such a great cause! I will def check the bake sale out!
And I have all the ingredients to make that pizza! I am super excited for the crust 🙂
Ohhh! Let me know how it turns out! I love hearing what other people put on their pizzas.
WOW egg on pizza? I’ve never tried it but I’ve actually been seeing it alot of places ..including shape magazine. hmmm you recipe looks great ..I’ve gotta try this ASAP!
I can do 1 push up. Really, 1. I don’t know why my arms are so wimpy!
I love push ups! They definitely make fore super sexy arms..and make me feel really strong, too! I remembver they days where it was painful to do pushups WITH my knees down. Now I can bang out real ones!
Isn’t that so exciting?!
Impressive pushups! I can only do them on my knees and only like 15 at a time. It’s pretty sad.
Love egg on pizza!!!!
You are so strong! Love those biceps 🙂 Push ups are hard work.. but so worth it!
Check out those guns!! Like whoa!! You ever try spiderman pushups? I do ALOT of them almost every day. Great core/abs/arms/chest exercise.
I bet that pizza would be over-the-top good with cheese. Looks awesome!
Thanks! I will do spidermans as part of an arm day. They are intense – I’m impressed you do those daily!
This is my first visit to your blog, and I have to say, I love this post!
My arms are pretty weak, and I guess I’ll try to do push ups each day now.
Pizza looks great, I love socca, and nooch on top of that egg must be great!
Thanks for reading! Let me know how the push-ups go. 🙂
Can’t wait for that chocolate recipe!
But that socca pizza is calling my name… I’m obsessed with socca, mexican food, nutritional yeast, and eggs… perfection! Glad I found your blog 😉
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
What if my max is one? 😀 JUST KIDDING! Mmmmmm pizza!
I doubt I can do 75 pushups, but I can make a killer pizza 😉
You would die if you had the calzone I just inhaled… OMG.
omg, your arms really do look amazing! I need to try this pushup technique:) right now, I can do about 40, so I guess that means 120 a day!?! GAH that sounds like killer! haha but LOVE the socca pizza; that looks ultra yummy:)
Thank you! You can totally do it – let me know how it goes!!
The yolk of those eggs have amazing color!
And last month I just started to shift my workouts from the gym to the home, mostly bodyweight exercises, lots of pushups. It WORKS!
Good for you! That reminds me – we still need to plan a Bu Hwy dinner.
hell yes! this weekend is kinda crazy, but maybe we can all get together late next week? i’ll see what ben’s up too as well.
Sounds good to me!
Hi, I just found your blog and it looks great! So funny cause I planning to google proper pushup form after I clicked on the socca recipe and guess what pops up with the recipe. Well, thanks for the pushup info!! It’s my goal to do 30 pushups by my 30th birthday in 7 weeks. Right now I can hardly do 1, pathetic I know :0 Also, I made the socca pizza and it was great!!! Such a healthy alternative to real pizza. I just recently added eggs back into my diet so this was a great way to use them. Thanks!!! Leslie
Thank you so much for commenting! That sounds like an awesome goal – and one you can most certainly accomplish.
Glad you liked the socca! You can make it really thin and have socca crackers too.
I am so glad I found your blog! I love this post on proper push up form. I used to do pushups a lot more before my shoulder injury last year and now I have to modify them and do them on my knees. You’ve just inpsired me though! I want to hit 75 some day! 🙂
Thank you for stopping by and commenting! The push up thing is totally do-able. I’m up to 100 now! Keep me posted on your progress!
100 push-ups??? OMG I’m so jealous + I feel so ashamed right now..
I can’t even do 3 proper push-ups in a row 🙁 My arms are my weak spot.. I can’t even do more than 8 woman push-ups either 🙁 I so want to increase my arm muscles! Do you suggest doing push-ups every day or every other day to start with? I hear a lot of mixed opinions on this..
Don’t feel ashamed! Everyone starts somewhere. I think it’s fine to do them daily – especially if you aren’t doing a lot just starting out. I used to do them everyday and never had a problem.
Hi I love your blog! I love socca and have been eating it all my life I am celiac. But in answer to your question:
What’s the weirdest thing you eat on your pizza? Ever try it with an egg?
I have to say no…because my last name ends in a vowel ifyaknowwhatImean… and if I ever asked for an egg on my pizza or socca my family would say “fuggetaboutit!” :-)! But I do love Mexican, so maybe I;ll give it a try!
Now the nooch is something that has been a staple in my life because I grew up veg’n!
Thanks or posting!
Tee
I do have a pizza somewhere on there with egg… I think it’s on my cauliflower pizza crust. Love a runny yolk! I also used sweet potato make a sauce and topped a pizza with salmon and fennel. It was SO good.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
whoops meant Thanks for posting!