Push-ups Saved My Life

Source: Wikipedia

The other day, I came across this piece about push-ups being the most basic way to measure — and engender — overall fitness:

[from An Enduring Measure of Fitness: The Simple Push-Up - New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope]

As a symbol of health and wellness, nothing surpasses the simple push-up.

[…]

The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. It requires the body to be taut like a plank with toes and palms on the floor. The act of lifting and lowering one’s entire weight is taxing even for the very fit.

“You are just using your own body and your body’s weight,” said Steven G. Estes, a physical education professor and dean of the college of professional studies at Missouri Western State University. “If you’re going to demonstrate any kind of physical strength and power, that’s the easiest, simplest, fastest way to do it.”

But many people simply can’t do push-ups. Health and fitness experts, including the American College of Sports Medicine, have urged more focus on upper-body fitness. The aerobics movement has emphasized cardiovascular fitness but has also shifted attention from strength training exercises.

Moreover, as the nation gains weight, arms are buckling under the extra load of our own bodies. And as budgets shrink, public schools often do not offer physical education classes — and the calisthenics that were once a childhood staple.

In a 2001 study, researchers at East Carolina University administered push-up tests to about 70 students ages 10 to 13. Almost half the boys and three-quarters of the girls didn’t pass.

Push-ups are important for older people, too. The ability to do them more than once and with proper form is an important indicator of the capacity to withstand the rigors of aging.

Researchers who study the biomechanics of aging, for instance, note that push-ups can provide the strength and muscle memory to reach out and break a fall. When people fall forward, they typically reach out to catch themselves, ending in a move that mimics the push-up. The hands hit the ground, the wrists and arms absorb much of the impact, and the elbows bend slightly to reduce the force.

In studies of falling, researchers have shown that the wrist alone is subjected to an impact force equal to about one body weight, says James Ashton-Miller, director of the biomechanics research laboratory at the University of Michigan.

“What so many people really need to do is develop enough strength so they can break a fall safely without hitting their head on the ground,” Dr. Ashton-Miller said. “If you can’t do a single push-up, it’s going to be difficult to resist that kind of loading on your wrists in a fall.” [emphasis mine.]

And people who can’t do a push-up may not be able to help themselves up if they do fall.

I became reacquainted with the lowly push-up seven or eight years ago when I started karate training, and it was a staple of our work-outs, along with crunches and jogging-while-punching. After my black belt seminar experience, I had some severe elbow issues, perhaps related to the 100 or 200 push-ups I was doing five or six times a week. I dropped out of active karate training to rest my arms, so no pushups.

But a few months ago, having had a year plus off, I decided I was getting too flabby, and I have gone back to regular (four or so times a week) push-ups and crunches. Relatively quickly, I have moved back to about 50 push-ups and crunches per session, nothing like my old metrics — where I could actually do 20 one-handed push-ups on either side — but still, fairly decent. And in lieu of the jogging, I have taken up Xootring — scootering around on a foot-powered scooter.

Now Xootring is pretty iffy, in that you can hit a bump and go flying, which is the macguffin of this story: how push-ups saved my life.

Xootr MG, magnesium kick scooter, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

The other night I was Xootring over to Basil (1175 Folsom) for dinner with a bunch of friends, when I hit a shadowed crack in a sidewalk. I went flying, but had the presence of mind to drop the Xootr handlebar and catch myself with my recently-reinvigorated-through-push-ups arms and upper body muscles. I can attest that more than one body weight coursed through my wrists, and with me (around 225lbs) thats a serious load.

A number of people ran over to me to ask if I was ok, or to help me up: very noce of them. To dispell their concerns — since I was in the push-up position — I quickly did a few push-ups saying loudly “that’s why I do all those push-ups! Happens all the time!” Then I jumped up, and Xootred off.

The next day I had a bit of soreness in one palm where I had landed on a pebble, but other than that, nothing. And best of all, I still had all my teeth.