Push Up Challange

I want to challenge myself in the month of December, and I hope you will join me in the challenge.  My goal is to get stronger.    As a runner I often ignore strength training, especially my upper body. The best distant runners have muscular arms and shoulders that help them maintain speed throughout their races. When you run, your arms counterbalance the motion of your legs, resulting in saved energy. The swing of the arms helps propel the body forward so the lower body isn't doing all the work. And a strong upper body bolsters a runner's form when fatigue sets in.     And  push-ups are one of the absolute best exercises for strengthening, toning, and tightening the upper body and core, not to mention that they are a good old-fashioned calorie burning exercise that has ever been created.

Read more at http://skinnyms.com/shape-up-size-down-7-day-push-up-challenge/#7rM4dUqufrtHfee6.99

Number 1: Basic Push-Up


Come into plank position with your arms and legs straight, shoulders above the wrists.
Take a breath in and as you exhale, bend your elbows out to the sides and lower your chest toward the ground. Stop as soon as your shoulders are in line with your elbows. Inhale to straighten the arms. This counts as one rep.
If this is too difficult, do this exercise with your knees on the floor.

So if you are ready to join me, here is the schedule for this month

Strategy Tips

1. Spread it through out the day, try to do a morning, afternoon and evening session.  No more than 10 reps per set for the push ups
2. Keep the core tight during the exercises
3. Breath deeply
4. Squat as deep as possible