Old fashion push ups and dips

Reaching for my coffee cup this morning I felt it; wow, my lats are sore.  Never under estimate the power of a push up. 

I wasn't in the gym mood yesterday; so I stayed at home and did a small workout.  I wanted to work my upper body.  My first thought was push ups and tricep dips.  First lets talk about push ups.  Yikes, they are much harder than I remembered.  I started with easy girlie (knees on the ground) type push ups to warm up my muscles.  There is a great deal of stress put on your shoulders when you do full on guy style push up so I didn't want to pull anything.  I did 3 sets of 12 (girlie) reps to warm up my arms, chest, back and shoulders.  Then it was on to real push ups; the ones that girls avoid because they are so difficult.

I impressed myself with 3 sets of 10 but it wasn't easy.  Form is important if you are going to benefit from a push up; no droopy middles or laying down in between.  You have to keep rigid; going all the way down and up for a count of one.

WebMd article on push ups

I have decided to put push ups into my regular work outs although they will be saved for doing at home.  I don't want my face that close to the floor at any gym, no matter how clean it is.  After my push ups it was onto tricep dips.  This is an exercise that I do regularly and is great for that trouble (wobbly) spot on us women.

30 day fitness challenge video for tricep dips

This is a good video on how to.

I use the sofa for perfect height at home.  I lift the cushions off of the seat and tada, perfect.  It is higher than a typical stair and perfect for me.  As you get better and better at them you can look for something higher which adds difficultly and builds more strength.

My triceps are feeling fine because that is something I work on very hard.  I do many different movements for my triceps but adding more is never a bad idea.  Dips it is when I'm at home.