I find push-ups hard, and, if I’m honest, I can’t do more than three push-ups in a row.
Emma Simarro, a personal trainer focused on women’s health and building body confidence through strength training, can easily do more than three push-ups at a time. But, she tells me, she still doesn’t find push-ups easy and that’s for a very important reason.
“I still find push-ups as hard today as I did when I started because you end up doing more reps or you're making it more challenging,” says Simarro. “But unless you’re making it more challenging, your body’s not adapting.
“That is the one thing that women need to understand with strength training—we cannot stand still with it. But making progress with your strength is also the most satisfying feeling.”
Emma Simarro
So it’s important for strength training to be challenging, but not so difficult that it’s impossible, and if you’ve never tried resistance training, Simarro encourages most people she works with to start with just their bodyweight.
To help you get started, I asked Simarro to outline her favorite bodyweight exercises that she still does today.
1. Push-up
Simarro agrees with me that push-ups are hard work, whatever your ability, but tells me they make her list of favorites because they are so effective.
“They’re one of the hardest to get right, but push-ups are a fantastic bodyweight exercise and there are loads of ways to regress it if you need to start somewhere easier,” says Simarro.
When you want to build up to your first push-up, Simarro suggests starting with standing wall push-ups.
Once you become comfortable with this modified push-up, progress to incline push-ups, placing your hands on a sturdy platform, such as a chair, bench or table. Increase the difficulty by lowering the height of the platform you’re using, until you get to the floor.
A final step is to practice eccentric push-ups, where you just lower yourself to the floor slowly.
2. Dead bug
“The reason I like a dead bug is you can progress them,” says Simarro. “They are suitable for everyone and I think they’re a fantastic place for nearly every woman to start training their core.”
Just don’t make the mistake of thinking a strong core means a visible six-pack. “A strong core means stability and functionality,” says Simarro.
Dead bugs work the deep core muscles and you can use your bodyweight to begin with, before progressing to weighted dead bugs when you are ready.
3. Squat
“If someone was sedentary and they were starting out, I’d get them doing bodyweight squats,” says Simarro. “When we're stuck at a desk all day, it can be helpful to get up and just do some squats.”
Simarro tipped me off to a recent study from the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Sport on overweight and obese men. It found that 10 squats next to your desk every 45 minutes throughout your working day was better for blood sugar spikes after a meal than taking one 30-minute walk.
“For women in midlife, this is so important because we become more insulin resistant,” says Simarro.
