The girl push-up

I tend to think that there's a time and a place for every exercise. Except for one... The so-called 'girl' push-up. Otherwise known as the kneeling push-up. In case you're unfamiliar with it, this is the exercise I'm talking about...

The very name of this exercise bothers me. It implies that women need a different kind of push-up to men, which simply isn't true. I've worked with countless women of different ages and levels of experience who can all perform full push-ups perfectly. Of course, not all of them were able to perform full push-ups from the floor right away (just as many men are unable to), but they did get there eventually with a series of regressions. (regressions are simply easier versions of an exercise that are used to work up to the full thing) However, the kneeling push-up is NOT a regression for the full push-up from the floor... ...which means that if you only do kneeling push-ups, you'll NEVER be able to do full ones. Here's why: To perform a full push-up from the floor, you need to maintain tension in your core, glutes, and many other muscles to keep your body in a straight line, like a pillar. And unfortunately, that's not something that the kneeling push-up can teach you how to do. Since your knees are on the floor, those muscles aren't recruited and therefore won't get any stronger. And you won't learn how to brace them, either. So what should you do instead? Incline push-ups. By placing your hands on an elevated surface, like a kitchen counter, table, step, or even a wall if you are very weak, you can practice maintaining tension throughout your entire body in the exact same way you need to for a full push-up. It looks like this:

Over time, as you get stronger, you can progress to lower and lower inclines until you can eventually do full push-ups from the floor.