Senior Strength: Wall Push Ups

Pushups are scary for many people, especially seniors. People say they are too hard, or bad for my shoulders, or I am too weak. Take a look at our strengthening exercise for seniors how to build your push up strength and improve your upper functional strength in a safe progressive manor. Instead of performing a traditional floor push ups, simply try a wall push up. A wall push up is very similar in technique to a floor push up, but the load and stress on your upper body is significantly reduced because you are not fighting as much gravitational pull to the ground. A traditional push up requires a high level of ankle stability, hip flexor strength, spinal stability, wrist flexibility, arm strength, shoulder strength, and scapular mobility. Needless to say, a push up is a very complex and challenging exercise.

Considering that a push up is extremely hard and challenging then why should an older person who has never done one be asked to do one? Because the muscles we use for push ups help us in to move better, carry things(grandkids), push ourselves up off the floor, push ourselves out of a chair, lift ourselves from lying down and many other total body movements that we might perform every day. The maintenance of muscular strength throughout our body is one vital key to longevity and health through our 70’s 80’s and 90’s.

Take a look at our video on YouTube showing you how to do a proper wall push up and give it a try this week. I challenge you to challenge yourself and do more than you think you can. I think many of you would be surprised at how many you can do. If you have shoulder or rotator cuff problems be very cautious with your depth and range of motion on your pushups so you don’t aggravate an old injury.