'I Did 10 Push-Ups Every Day For A Month. These 5 Changes Surprised Me The Most.'
The truth is: I wasn't shocked. I know that muscle strength can decrease as women age due to numerous factors including hormonal changes that occur during menopause, but I also know that muscle can always be rebuilt. While humbled by my sudden realization that my upper body strength had decreased, I was also emboldened by a new challenge.
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According to Vonda Wright, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon and mobility and musculoskeletal aging expert featured on The Mel Robbins Podcast: 'Every woman should be able to do 11 regular push-ups' for overall health and longevity. This comment got people (and women in particular) buzzing over push-ups. Of course, any amount of push-ups is a great start, and better than none! But I love a fitness goal and knew I could get there.
My plan? Commit to 10 push-ups every day for 30 days. My goal? Do 11 full push-ups by the end. While I am happy to say I accomplished my goal, what I gained from this challenge turned out to be completely different from what I expected.
Before starting this challenge, I assumed I'd make incremental progress that would turn into easy push-ups by the end. But my progress wasn't linear. While some things improved quickly, I was surprised how long it took to really rebuild my strength. Here, my most noticeable benefits from doing daily push-ups:
The truth? This challenge was harder—and stayed hard—longer than I expected. It takes weeks to build muscle, and one important part of muscle growth is allowing time for recovery. In a 30-day challenge, you miss out on the 48-72 hrs of recovery time that allows for physiological adaptations to occur. This can get in the way of making strength gains.
The first couple of weeks were the hardest. I did a lot of modifying to account for this. By week three, I started to feel stronger. I noticed improvements not just in my ability to do the 10 daily push-ups, which were easier on some days compared to others, but in my ability to do just about anything else. The strength gains transferred into my lifts, my core workouts, and my daily life.
One area of my body that has changed since turning 40 is my upper body muscle definition and tone. Tone that once took little effort to maintain, now takes regular training to achieve. But this push-up challenge gave me almost instant improvement. By week two, my chest, shoulders and arms looked more toned and trim. I could tell my body was responding.
Any woman who has had a baby and carried a child for months or years knows that your posture can be impacted by motherhood. After all the physical changes of pregnancy and postpartum, then caring for a small child who is often located below eye level, we tend to spend more time than ever hunched and rounded forward. Undoing this and building the muscle strength to return to a strong upright posture takes time.
Even after working on this for years, I realized that the push-up challenge quickly improved my posture. Holding myself upright felt more effortless and natural than it had in years, and I noticed much better endurance maintaining this upright positioning throughout the day.
After a couple of weeks of daily push-ups, I noticed the gains transferred into other workouts. Whether I was going for a run, joining a yoga class or lifting at the gym, I started to feel more weightless and energized. I even increased the amount of weight I was lifting for the first time in months. My body felt stronger and more stable. Daily push-ups seemed to give me a full-body boost.
I've always been proud of what my body can do, especially as a mom. But it was hard to accept losing some of the strength that I associated with my identity for so long. While motherhood softened me in some ways, it also made me stronger in other ways. Not being able to do 10 push-ups was a reality check I didn't want, but maybe one I needed. As a woman in my 40s, I've learned that being strong is no longer free—you have to put in the work to maintain and build muscle.
Between the improved muscle tone, increased strength and better posture, I found myself standing taller and feeling empowered. The way I used to feel. There's something about being able to do 10 full push-ups that just makes me feel like me. In many ways, this challenge brought me back to myself. It gave me a confidence boost that I didn't know I needed. It reminded me that, more than ever, my physical strength will be determined by what I do. I'm ready to put in the work.
We all have good days and bad days due to a slew of factors ranging from hormonal cycles to stress to sleep, so I had to implement strategies to succeed at this challenge. For starters, I was determined to do the 10 reps every single day, no matter what. But I determined early on that a 'push-up' could be any of five varieties of a push-up. I started with knee push-ups. Some days I reverted to incline push-ups when I was fatigued or my wrists hurt, and a couple times after a run, I did five full and five modified push-ups. The key was for me to get through 10 push-ups in any form, every day.
Wall push-up
Incline push-up
Knee push-up
Full, standard push-up
Triceps push-up
While I was able to succeed at doing 10 push-ups everyday for 30 days, being consistent had its challenges. Common barriers included fatigue, wrist pain (I tore several ligaments in my wrist about 10 years ago), or lack of motivation. International travel, a college reunion, and several long travels days could have gotten in the way, but here is how I overcame these obstacles:
Modify. There were two or three days when I realized I hadn't done my push-ups yet while I was brushing my teeth. As soon as I was done, I put my hands on the edge of my bathtub and got 10 incline push-ups done before bed.
The takeaway: There is always time, and a place, to do 10 push-ups. It takes less than 30 seconds! Just be creative.
Pair them with workouts you already love. My favorite form of exercise is running. To make sure I didn't forget my push-ups, I always finished a run with one to two sets of 10 push-ups. Interestingly, I always felt strongest when I paired them with other workouts.
The takeaway: Pair your push-ups with a workout and see if it helps you crank out an extra set.
Do them anywhere. Thankfully, no matter where you go, all you need is a floor, wall or bench to complete a push-up. The ability to do them anywhere, without equipment, allowed for some creative improvised push-ups but helped me get the job done.
The takeaway: If you're thinking about doing your daily push-ups, do them right when they're top of mind. No need to wait for perfect conditions.
commit. Whether you're feeling too tired, unmotivated, or just not in the mood, committing to a challenge will help motivate you to stick with it. If you're feeling any of these things, keep it simple and light – use a wall to do your 10 push-ups or break them up into two sets of five. And here's a secret: You'll always feel glad that you did them.
The takeaway: Commit to yourself, or do the challenge with a buddy, and you will find yourself with more motivation and fewer excuses.
Of course, if you experience an illness, injury or any other type of medical event, you should always listen to your body and put your health first. If you experience wrist pain, try wall or incline push-ups which put less pressure on your wrists, or consider doing your push-ups while holding dumbbells on the floor.
In push-ups, and in life, progress isn't always linear. Some days I felt strong while others were a grind. But showing up daily – no matter how the reps looked – was empowering. I was reminded that building strength from one activity can have benefits that translate far beyond that movement. I was also reminded that consistency, not perfection, is what actually drives results.
There are plenty of reasons why push-ups are one of the best bodyweight exercises you can do. For starters, they are weight-bearing, which is so important for building and maintaining bone in the wrists and arms—one of the most likely body regions to fracture as we age. One in two women over 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis, so the earlier you build bone, the better. Research shows that doing push-ups regularly can even have a positive impact on your cardiovascular health.
Lastly, push-ups work the entire body, especially the muscles of the shoulder blades, arms and core. By strengthening these muscles in a way that mimics how your body naturally uses them (pushing a heavy door, supporting your body when you are climbing out of the pool, etc.), you are setting your body up for success and independence now and for decades to come.
By day 30 of my push-up challenge, I felt stronger physically and mentally. I decided to take a week or two off from push-ups to recover, only to realize I missed push-ups. Much to my surprise, I found myself craving them and how they made me feel.
Even though the challenge is over, I am going to continue to do 10 push-ups regularly. I am doing them for the athlete I was, the person I am now, and the version of myself I want to be when I'm older. And I encourage every woman to do the same.
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If Your Body Feels Like It's Falling Apart After 45, It's Not In Your Head—It's A Medical Syndrome
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Of the more than 47 million women in the world who begin the menopause transition each year, more than 70 percent of them will experience musculoskeletal symptoms—and 25 percent will be disabled by them. Those startling stats are based on research by Vonda Wright, MD, an orthopaedic sports surgeon and author of Unbreakable. And yet, many women that Dr. Wright sees in her practice are only aware of more-talked-about symptoms like night sweats, hot flashes, and brain fog. The musculoskeletal symptoms—which includes arthritis, tendonitis, and osteopenia, and are linked to the drop in estrogen that happens during menopause—seem to come as a surprise. '[Women] come into my office and, without prompting, they'll say, 'I don't know what's happening, but I feel like I'm falling apart because it's not just one body part, it's multiple body parts,'' Dr. Wright says. 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'[They] will tell me 'I became postmenopausal and, overnight, I felt like I became an old lady... everything hurts.'' The good news is that understanding why this happens—and how to fight back—can help you treat or prevent these symptoms altogether. What Musculoskeletal Syndrome Actually Is The symptoms related to this syndrome all have to do with the loss of estrogen that leads to inflammation in the body. 'Estrogen is a potent anti-inflammatory, so without estrogen, we're highly inflamed,' Dr. Wright says. Estrogen sits on the receptors on every tissue in the body, including the musculoskeletal system, which includes tendon, ligament, bone, the discs in your back, cartilage, fat, muscle, and stem cells. Less of the hormone can lead to excruciating pain and loss of motion without an injury or event. Dr. Wright has patients come in knowing something is wrong but insisting nothing happened, exactly, to trigger it. 'As I explore their age and that they're perimenopausal, I know that means their estrogen has declined,' she says. How the Loss of Estogen Impacts the Body Tendons and ligaments: 'The ligaments and tendons become more brittle and are more susceptible to injuries such as tennis elbow, Achilles tendonitis, [and] plantar fasciitis,' Dr. Wright says. This weakening of the tendons and ligaments can also lead to tendon tears while lifting weights or playing sports—even if you lifted the same amount of weight you'd done in the past or didn't make any new moves, Dr. David says. Muscle: 'Although it's critical at this time of life to make muscle, we make it less effectively,' Dr. Wright says. In a 2024 systematic review in Muscles, researchers noted that the decline in estrogen during menopause leads to reduced muscle strength in addition to mass, although hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can mitigate some of this in addition to resistance training, and certain dietary interventions. (More on those soon.) Bone: Bone is dependent on estrogen for a process known as remodeling. 'Bone is in a consistent state of building and breaking down; every 10 years, we get a whole new skeleton,' Dr. Wright says. 'When the cells that break down bone [are] not controlled, then we have more breakdown than we do building, and that's when we become osteopenic, which is moderate loss of bone density, or osteoporotic, which means weak bone, [which] puts us in much more danger of fracture.' Dr. Wright says her personal 'hill to die on' is the fact that bone health is a lifelong concern. 'Yet none of us pay attention to our bones unless we're looking in the mirror at our gorgeous cheekbones or our clavicles,' she says. 'But the reality is that without estrogen, we're going to lose 15 to 20 percent of our bone density in the five to seven years surrounding perimenopause and menopause. And if we have not laid down enough bone by the time we're 30, which is very common, then we get to perimenopause and we rapidly start losing bone to the tune of one in two women will develop an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime.' Joints: 'Before age 50, men have a much higher incidence of arthritis usually due to trauma,' Dr. Wright says. But after 50, women are the ones typically experiencing rapid progression of arthritis in the knee and hip, she adds. This is because cartilage—which helps with shock absorption—has estrogen receptors and without estrogen sitting in those receptors, the cartilage starts to break down. That leads to women over 50 dealing with joint pain in their hands, knees, and hips. Similarly, the gel-like cushions between the disks in your spine can break down and cause back pain, which impacts 50 percent of women, Dr. Wright says. Frozen shoulder—when the joint becomes stiff and starts to hurt for no apparent reason—is another condition she often sees in menopausal women. 'The other thing from an inflammatory standpoint that women experience, which I think is often mislabeled as fibromyalgia, is arthralgia, which is total-body pain due to inflammation,' Dr. Wright says. 'It's not one joint. It is your whole body [that] feels inflamed and painful.' How to Know If You Have Musculoskeletal Syndrome There's no quick and easy test for this syndrome. 'You can't really do an x-ray or imaging that confirms and says, 'this is definitely due to the loss of estrogen,'' says Dr. David. Instead you need to work with your provider to put together a full picture. If a woman is postmenopausal and not on hormones and says she cannot exercise the way she has in the past, or that she's dealing with more injuries or pain, and/or other symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, those would be clear indicators, Dr. David says. Both doctors say that women tend to underreport symptoms—don't be one of them. 'Sometimes patients will say, 'oh, it's just in my mind,' and they're doubting themselves, but then when they come in, I tell them, no, this is a real thing that's happening due to that loss of estrogen,' Dr. David says. 'Don't feel like you can't come to your provider or to a menopause specialist to discuss this, because women need to have these things addressed.' How to Reverse (Or Prevent!) Musculoskeletal Syndrome 'What I want women to do to treat the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause is multifactorial,' Dr. Wright says. Here, all the ways to empower yourself to prevent—and fight—back. 1. Stay educated. 'Number one, you have to be educated,' Dr. Wright notes. For this reason, she and her team decided to pay whatever money was necessary so that the paper on the syndrome would not be placed behind a paywall. 'I encourage people to print the paper, read the paper, print another one, take it to your doctor, [and] give it to five girlfriends so that everybody knows,' she says. 'The more literate you are in midlife, the more powerful you can be to feel better.' 2. Talk to your provider about hormone therapy—asap. "I encourage all of my patients to go on hormone optimization with estradiol [and], if they have a uterus, with micronized progesterone,' Dr. Wright says, adding that sometimes she gives them low-dose testosterone as well. 'Women just want to feel like themselves and do what they've always done, and these three things, I have found in my own life and [in] the women that I serve, can go a long way [in combatting] the root cause of some of the reasons we don't in midlife,' Dr. Wright says. Dr. David's patients, too, tell her they feel much better—they're joints and muscles don't hurt as much, for example—once they're on hormone therapy. That said, hormone optimization is a decision every woman needs to make for herself and with her provider, the doctors agree. But, Dr. Wright says to make that decision sooner rather than later. 'I think we should be making it in the critical decade, which in my book is 35 to 45 when most of us still have our estrogen flowing,' she says. That way, when you start feeling perimenopause, and possibly overwhelmed, you already know what you're going to do and where you're going to get it. 3. Start lifting heavy if you're not already. 'I have a lot of patients that think that they have to go into a gym and do heavy lifting, and I tell them small weights can really help preserve your bone density and probably help with keeping your muscle mass,' Dr. David says. 'Make sure that you're not doing more than what your body can do,' she says. 'Especially if you've had a period of time where you haven't done physical activity, you can't necessarily jump in and begin where you left off. You might have to build back up to that level.' 4. Follow the 80-20 rule of exercise. 'We can stop burning ourselves out with high-intensity interval training every day and do the 80-20 method,' Dr. Wright says. That means that 80 percent of the time, you work at a lower heart rate with activities like brisk walking, cycling, or using the indoor rower. Then, twice a week, you push your heart rate as high as your doctor says is safe for you—but for short (perhaps 30 seconds) periods of time with longer (say, one to two minutes) periods of recovery. Master these six exercises in your 60s for longevity Working at those ends of the spectrum, in addition to heavy lifting, is the key to changing body composition and maintaining muscle. Dr. David adds that stretching regularly is also important to prevent joint injuries. 5. Consider working with a physical therapist. If you're experiencing some of these symptoms already, working with a physical therapist can be very beneficial, Dr. Wright says, because they can assess you, understand where you are, understand your limitations, and then prescribe exercises that you can build upon. Dr. David, too, says finding a physical therapist that's educated around menopause can be a wise move during this time of life: 'I do get worried that sometimes patients will say, 'I just need to work out with a personal trainer, and that will really help me,' and they may not understand where you're coming from,' Dr. David says. 'A physical therapist, especially one who understands musculoskeletal syndrome, can understand where these patients are coming from, what they are able to do without harming themselves further, and then build upon that.' 6. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet. 'I prescribe anti-inflammatory nutrition,' says Dr. Wright. The key components of this, she says, are to avoid added sugar and to focus on protein and specifically fiber-rich carbs (e.g., whole fruit instead of fruit juice). 'For bone health, make sure that you're getting enough calcium [and] that you're getting enough vitamin D to help absorb that calcium,' Dr. David adds. The aforementioned 2024 review also notes that omega-3 fatty acids can be effective in supporting muscle health across all life stages. If this list has you feeling overwhelmed, fear not, Dr. Wright says. Just start with one thing. Maybe start by taking two walks this week, then cut back on sugar next week, then layer on protein, and finally, weight lifting. 'You layer on one at a time [and] it simply becomes your lifestyle,' she says. 'It's not a diet. It is not a six-week exercise program. It's just how you live—and all of these things will help your musculoskeletal pain stay in check.' And while the sooner you start some of these lifestyle habits, the better, it's also never too late: 'There is never an age when your body will not respond to the positive stress, the strategic stress, in the form of all the things on this list," Dr. Wright says. You Might Also Like Jennifer Garner Swears By This Retinol Eye Cream These New Kicks Will Help You Smash Your Cross-Training Goals
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'I Did 10 Push-Ups Every Day For A Month. These 5 Changes Surprised Me The Most.'
Push-ups always came easy to me. In my 20s and 30s, I could crank out more than 30 a day if I wanted to, and I loved how strong they made me feel. But the other day, when I went to do a set of 10 push-ups, I was shocked to realize how hard they had become. At 41, I could barely get through two full push-ups. As a physical therapist, mom and lifelong athlete, I was determined to reclaim my strength. The truth is: I wasn't shocked. I know that muscle strength can decrease as women age due to numerous factors including hormonal changes that occur during menopause, but I also know that muscle can always be rebuilt. While humbled by my sudden realization that my upper body strength had decreased, I was also emboldened by a new challenge. Download our exclusive push-up PDF training plan According to Vonda Wright, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon and mobility and musculoskeletal aging expert featured on The Mel Robbins Podcast: 'Every woman should be able to do 11 regular push-ups' for overall health and longevity. This comment got people (and women in particular) buzzing over push-ups. Of course, any amount of push-ups is a great start, and better than none! But I love a fitness goal and knew I could get there. My plan? Commit to 10 push-ups every day for 30 days. My goal? Do 11 full push-ups by the end. While I am happy to say I accomplished my goal, what I gained from this challenge turned out to be completely different from what I expected. Before starting this challenge, I assumed I'd make incremental progress that would turn into easy push-ups by the end. But my progress wasn't linear. While some things improved quickly, I was surprised how long it took to really rebuild my strength. Here, my most noticeable benefits from doing daily push-ups: The truth? This challenge was harder—and stayed hard—longer than I expected. It takes weeks to build muscle, and one important part of muscle growth is allowing time for recovery. In a 30-day challenge, you miss out on the 48-72 hrs of recovery time that allows for physiological adaptations to occur. This can get in the way of making strength gains. The first couple of weeks were the hardest. I did a lot of modifying to account for this. By week three, I started to feel stronger. I noticed improvements not just in my ability to do the 10 daily push-ups, which were easier on some days compared to others, but in my ability to do just about anything else. The strength gains transferred into my lifts, my core workouts, and my daily life. One area of my body that has changed since turning 40 is my upper body muscle definition and tone. Tone that once took little effort to maintain, now takes regular training to achieve. But this push-up challenge gave me almost instant improvement. By week two, my chest, shoulders and arms looked more toned and trim. I could tell my body was responding. Any woman who has had a baby and carried a child for months or years knows that your posture can be impacted by motherhood. After all the physical changes of pregnancy and postpartum, then caring for a small child who is often located below eye level, we tend to spend more time than ever hunched and rounded forward. Undoing this and building the muscle strength to return to a strong upright posture takes time. Even after working on this for years, I realized that the push-up challenge quickly improved my posture. Holding myself upright felt more effortless and natural than it had in years, and I noticed much better endurance maintaining this upright positioning throughout the day. After a couple of weeks of daily push-ups, I noticed the gains transferred into other workouts. Whether I was going for a run, joining a yoga class or lifting at the gym, I started to feel more weightless and energized. I even increased the amount of weight I was lifting for the first time in months. My body felt stronger and more stable. Daily push-ups seemed to give me a full-body boost. I've always been proud of what my body can do, especially as a mom. But it was hard to accept losing some of the strength that I associated with my identity for so long. While motherhood softened me in some ways, it also made me stronger in other ways. Not being able to do 10 push-ups was a reality check I didn't want, but maybe one I needed. As a woman in my 40s, I've learned that being strong is no longer free—you have to put in the work to maintain and build muscle. Between the improved muscle tone, increased strength and better posture, I found myself standing taller and feeling empowered. The way I used to feel. There's something about being able to do 10 full push-ups that just makes me feel like me. In many ways, this challenge brought me back to myself. It gave me a confidence boost that I didn't know I needed. It reminded me that, more than ever, my physical strength will be determined by what I do. I'm ready to put in the work. We all have good days and bad days due to a slew of factors ranging from hormonal cycles to stress to sleep, so I had to implement strategies to succeed at this challenge. For starters, I was determined to do the 10 reps every single day, no matter what. But I determined early on that a 'push-up' could be any of five varieties of a push-up. I started with knee push-ups. Some days I reverted to incline push-ups when I was fatigued or my wrists hurt, and a couple times after a run, I did five full and five modified push-ups. The key was for me to get through 10 push-ups in any form, every day. Wall push-up Incline push-up Knee push-up Full, standard push-up Triceps push-up While I was able to succeed at doing 10 push-ups everyday for 30 days, being consistent had its challenges. Common barriers included fatigue, wrist pain (I tore several ligaments in my wrist about 10 years ago), or lack of motivation. International travel, a college reunion, and several long travels days could have gotten in the way, but here is how I overcame these obstacles: Modify. There were two or three days when I realized I hadn't done my push-ups yet while I was brushing my teeth. As soon as I was done, I put my hands on the edge of my bathtub and got 10 incline push-ups done before bed. The takeaway: There is always time, and a place, to do 10 push-ups. It takes less than 30 seconds! Just be creative. Pair them with workouts you already love. My favorite form of exercise is running. To make sure I didn't forget my push-ups, I always finished a run with one to two sets of 10 push-ups. Interestingly, I always felt strongest when I paired them with other workouts. The takeaway: Pair your push-ups with a workout and see if it helps you crank out an extra set. Do them anywhere. Thankfully, no matter where you go, all you need is a floor, wall or bench to complete a push-up. The ability to do them anywhere, without equipment, allowed for some creative improvised push-ups but helped me get the job done. The takeaway: If you're thinking about doing your daily push-ups, do them right when they're top of mind. No need to wait for perfect conditions. commit. Whether you're feeling too tired, unmotivated, or just not in the mood, committing to a challenge will help motivate you to stick with it. If you're feeling any of these things, keep it simple and light – use a wall to do your 10 push-ups or break them up into two sets of five. And here's a secret: You'll always feel glad that you did them. The takeaway: Commit to yourself, or do the challenge with a buddy, and you will find yourself with more motivation and fewer excuses. Of course, if you experience an illness, injury or any other type of medical event, you should always listen to your body and put your health first. If you experience wrist pain, try wall or incline push-ups which put less pressure on your wrists, or consider doing your push-ups while holding dumbbells on the floor. In push-ups, and in life, progress isn't always linear. Some days I felt strong while others were a grind. But showing up daily – no matter how the reps looked – was empowering. I was reminded that building strength from one activity can have benefits that translate far beyond that movement. I was also reminded that consistency, not perfection, is what actually drives results. There are plenty of reasons why push-ups are one of the best bodyweight exercises you can do. For starters, they are weight-bearing, which is so important for building and maintaining bone in the wrists and arms—one of the most likely body regions to fracture as we age. One in two women over 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis, so the earlier you build bone, the better. Research shows that doing push-ups regularly can even have a positive impact on your cardiovascular health. Lastly, push-ups work the entire body, especially the muscles of the shoulder blades, arms and core. By strengthening these muscles in a way that mimics how your body naturally uses them (pushing a heavy door, supporting your body when you are climbing out of the pool, etc.), you are setting your body up for success and independence now and for decades to come. By day 30 of my push-up challenge, I felt stronger physically and mentally. I decided to take a week or two off from push-ups to recover, only to realize I missed push-ups. Much to my surprise, I found myself craving them and how they made me feel. Even though the challenge is over, I am going to continue to do 10 push-ups regularly. I am doing them for the athlete I was, the person I am now, and the version of myself I want to be when I'm older. And I encourage every woman to do the same. You Might Also Like Jennifer Garner Swears By This Retinol Eye Cream These New Kicks Will Help You Smash Your Cross-Training Goals
