Just wondering. I have a load of fitness dvds like tae bo and have no problems with the cardio, quite poor at abs and I REALLY can't do press ups. There is a section with them in the ministry of sound dvd and I'm not even close to managing it even on my knees. Did anyone else find them this hard? Will I ever improve!??!

Yes, you will improve. Try doing them on an incline surface such as stairs, step, a bench or a chair.

You can also do them off the wall. Step back from the wall a little more then arm length lean against the wall and then push your self back. You can change your arm position and exercise different muscles also.

I can't even do one pushup. My arms simply don't have the strength. I can do them against the wall but I never thought of doing them on a chair or stairs. I should give that a try!

I have NEVER done a real "man" push-up off the floor in my life - that is one of my fitness goals eventually. Good luck!

I started doing them on my ball. Roll forward until the ball is under your knees. Then try different arm positions. Obviously, handweight work helps as well.

If this 50 something can do them, so can you! Just start small and be consistent. It WILL happen

I started doing them on the wall, now I can do about 12 on my knees

I do the girly girl pushups that Jillian Michaels prescribes. I can absolutely say they are completely working for toning my upper body. I have strong muscle definition through upper arms and shoulder areas. I don't think I will ever go to full on push ups because I don't like them ..AND I don't feel like I need them.

Yep, try the stairs. I can do the ones on the knees but can do more of them if I'm using my stairs.

My suggestion would be to avoid the ones on the knee and focus on getting to the point of doing full pushups. I did 'knee' pushups for years but was never able to progress to full pushups. I started doing 'incline' pushups on the stairs and in a fairly short period of time was able to do full pushups. Its also easier to break form if you are on your knees and its a better core workout to do full pushups.

I turned 50 in mid-February and I did my first toe push ups/press ups last week! When I was fitter and (very) much lighter my arms always buckled when I tried to get off my knees. What made all the difference this year is that I have been doing plank exercises on a regular basis since late January. A stronger core means that my arms don't have to do all the job! I have better form too.
I have also found out that it is better to do the push ups before working your biceps and triceps.

Use the kitchen counter top also.
I do that alot while I'm cooking supper--set of pushups and squats
Keep trying--you can do it!

Encouraging! I will have to keep trying. I'm used to people older than me kicking my @rse at fitness though at my pilates class I think I was the youngest and the worst!

I just started the 100 pushup challenge (litterally yesterday)! Anways I am able to do about 6 or 7 consecutively but I want to use them to tone my arms and chest. Anyway you take this initial test and it tell you what column to follow for the seven weeks. I'll keep you guys posted...oh and I don'know if this is cheating but I start in the "up" position and then "down" and "up" is one and so on.....

I'm doing the NROLW workouts and currently at the point where every other workout includes 3 sets of 10 pushups. Of these, in each set, I can currently do 6 full pushups, then 4 knee-pushups. When I started doing pushups about 4 months ago, I couldn't do any full pushups. Point is, if you progressively train, you can get there. I did the hundred pushups challenge for a while, started out doing knee pushups; it was helpful as I worked up to doing full pushups.