Much to my horror I realized that my weight gain due to my stressors resulted in a vicious cycle that I knew I would never break unless I committed myself to a rigid exercise routine. After talking with my doctor, I decided that to begin my routine I must develop my upper body strength. This was going to be tricky, as I have both Systemic Lupus Erythamatosus and Fibromyalgia, and I had to find a way to exercise properly without throwing myself into a flare. That is where the Perfect Pushup came in. I remembered the infomercials selling the Perfect Pushup on late night TV from years ago. Unlike many "miracle products" hawked on TV, the Perfect Pushup always seemed to make sense to me. The claims of most people executing the proper pushup incorrectly and how we should rotate our arms as we performed them in order to exercise all of the muscles in our arms were logical, and seeing as how the price for one is certainly far less than a Bowflex or a gym membership, I decided to give these a go. After assembling the two Perfect Pushups (hereafter referred to as "PPs"), I looked at the photographs of how to properly perform a pushup (something that I was confident I mastered in elementary school), I placed the PPs on the floor, stretched out my legs, bent my arms to lower my body to about 2 inches from the floor and then "pushed" myself up. And by "pushed" I mean that I shakily pushed up, the PPs rotated, and I collapsed back onto the floor gasping. Yes, dear readers, I am a gigantic wuss. Construction The PPs are contructed from heavy-duty plastic with rubber accents. The inside of the grips has a light lining of soft rubber to make holding them easier on your hands, and the base of each has a circle of red rubber with concentric circles, presumably to help keep the PPs from sliding out from under you and your elbow ending up your nose. At first, the PPs seem too lightweight, like they would snap under the intense, repetitive pressure of the weight of a human body smashing them downward into the floor. In addition, when you assemble the PPs you can hear a very loud CRACK, sounding like the handles are breaking. Both of these observations certainy do not instill confidence. However, rest assured that the PPs ARE NOT FLIMSY and nor do they break from the mere act of assembling them. I would also like to point out that the cracking noise that you hear is the hooks on the handlebars inserting themselves into to a locking crevasse inside of the base. Since you would need to push both prongs in (similar to how you have to open certain childproof medicine bottles) and those prongs are hidden inside of the base of each PP, any attempt to remove the handle(s) WILL break the product. This fact is not noted well in the assembly instructions, and the other reviewers who attempted to take theirs apart for a refund probably had no clue that assembly of the PPs is intended to be permanent. That being said, I cannot think of a reason as to why you would want to disassemble the PPs in the first place. Even assembled they do not take up much space (each one is roughly the size of a softball), and once the grips are firmly seated in the base, they do not wiggle, move, or otherwise indicate that they are two separate pieces. If anything, this aspect of the PP is ideal, as anyone who has ever worked out with faulty exercise equipment knows. Simply put, I like knowing that me putting my full body weight against my wrists will not result in a horrible spiral fracture of my arm should the grip come loose. Operation Using the Perfect Pushup is child's play. That being said, do not automatically assume that you know how to perform a pushup with this product straight out of the box. Since the PPs rotate on their base (you will rotate your hand inward as you bend down, outward as you push up), if you are unbalanced you could give yourself a nasty injury. Whether you are a seasoned athlete or a newcomer to the world of upper body strengthening, YOU NEED TO TAKE THE TIME TO REFERENCE THE INCLUDED EXERCISE DIAGRAMS. True, there are no rocket science calculations required to execute a successful "perfect pushup", but learning where to place the units in relation to your shoulders means that you are exercising properly, and the likelihood of injury wil be minimized. The PP recommends that each pushup should stop above the ground (never coming to rest flat against the surface) and then you push back up while rotating the grips. The grips rotate fluidly; there are no catches or other obstructions as you push up and each subsquent pushup is as fluid as the first. And boy howdy, if you follow the instructions you will immediately feel the difference between which muscles are exercised while using the PPs as opposed to the traditional way of stiff-arming a pushup. Not only are your biceps and other upper body muscles going to burn, your abdominable and glutes will join in the party, too. Since you are using more muscles with each PP, you will probably tire out well before you would if performing traditional pushups. Like mentioned beforehand, the first attempt to do a full-body PP resulted in me wussing out after the first cycle. I had more success when I shifted to pushing up while placing the weight on my knees, but I was still gasping for breath after only ten repetitions. Compare that to my attempt to do the straight-arm pushups that I did in gym class during shool, where I was able to complete twenty in my first outing. And no, this is no an exaggeration. The PPs proved to me how woefully out of shape I am, something that I am ashamed to admit publicly on Amazon, but something that is the truth. I have never been a marathoner or even remotely an athlete, and while I never considered myself to rank just above "pathetic" on the "Stacy's Scale of Wussiness", the Perfect Pushup pulled no punches: I performed pushups incorrectly and I was also much more weak in my upper body than I ever imagined. The PPs were bluntly honest, and I think that everyone should be informed about their true upper body strength. It is certainly less painful than discovering this in a gym full of people! Overall If you: 1) Never attempt to take the Perfect Pushup apart, 2) Read the illustrated exercise diagrams included with the PPs, 3) Speak with your doctor before you begin any rigorous exercise routine, 4) Ensure that the PP is on a firm surface so there are few-to-zero chances of it slipping, and 5) Accept that just maybe (and I realize that everyone has a different perception of "weakness") you could learn a new way to perform an old trick, Then you will not only love the PP, you will slowly notice that you are gaining strength. The first few days of my exercise routine involving the PP only involved me doing two sets of ten pushups each. At that time, that was a challenge for me, and my body ached for a few days as I became accustomed to using my atrophied muscles. A week-and-a-half later, after dilligently performing my exercises each day, I was able to bump myself up to two repetitions of thirty pushups each day. Yes, my pushups are the modified style where my knees are the fulcrum point (some people refer to this style of pushup as a "girlie pushup"... but hey, I'm a girl!). After a week of two sets of thirty pushups I decided that I would try to perform an extended legs pushup, where your legs are straight and you use your toes to keep yourself off of the ground. The verdict? I was able to do four before I collapsed into my wuss-filled heap. But it was four "regular" pushups AFTER my sixty usual. And to me, that was a little less wussy. I am still a long way from being a toned, healthy adult, but I am getting there, in large part thanks to the Perfect Pushup. I am confident that if you give these a try, you too will see the changes. For twenty bucks I was able to go from ten pushups to sixty within a couple of weeks, in the privacy of my own home and without the mortification of sweating an
