Nobody is going to like what I have to say today.
Women, get off your knees.
Seriously. I was in class the other night and I watched lots of strong women in a metcon on their knees.
WTFO?
Stick with knee push-ups and you know what you’re going to get really good at? Knee push-ups. That’s it. Not real push-ups. Not ring push-ups. Not even holding plank position.
See, in a knee push-up you just shortened your body length. You gave yourself a big advantage. Stop babying yourself. You’re stronger than that and you’re going to get even stronger.
Do tire push-ups, bench push-ups, ring push-ups, wall push-ups. If you don’t have real honest-to-God, chest-to-deck push-ups, then do whatever you have to do in order to get the push-ups done. Tire, rings, wall. But NEVER knee push-ups.
Seriously. Simply decide that you would rather eat glass than ever go to your knees again.
If you have real push-ups and you start to fail in a metcon, you know what to do? Shake out your arms, change your hand position, rest a second, etc. But for the love of She-Ra, don’t go to your knees! Get those push-ups one by one if you have to, go to the tire if you have to, go to the bench. But stay off your knees!
And if you don’t have real push-ups? Then work those wall push-ups, those tire/bench push-ups, those ring push-ups again and again and again. Then try working your real push-ups. Start wherever you have to. Then increase your range of motion until it’s perfect.
And I don’t just mean at CrossFit. Do them now, in your office, at home, in your classroom — wherever you happen to be right now, kicking butt and taking names. Drop.
Push-ups can be done anywhere and, if you want to get better at them, you simply have to do more of them — and you have to STOP doing them on your knees. So, pick a number: 30 push-ups a day, 50 push-ups a day, whatever. Sprinkle them throughout your day — 5 here, 10 there. Grease the groove. Get stronger bit by bit.
If you want to own your world — seriously wake up every flippin’ day of your life and feel like you can do anything, be anything, conquer anything — then you need to work on conquering two things in the gym: Your push-ups and your pull-ups.
Because once you own those b******, you will see, feel, and think about yourself and this world differently. Nothing will stand in your way.
Honest to God, you will park your car at work and kick the door open, even if you’re wearing heels. (Now, that’s an image!) You will be so ready to do, to achieve, to really be something in this life. The world will be yours. Make it so.
Get off your knees.
