I'm no fitness buff but doing push-ups doesn't strike me as the thing for losing weight.
Push-ups are also horribly unergonomic - just see how guys in the video are arching their backs. Better to go to the gym and use a machine that isolates the excercise to the exact muscles you want while not straining unrelated muscles and joints in evil ways.
I'm sorry, I try very hard to avoid being the typical arrogant internet jackass, but I just can't not respond to that.
I'm an athlete first, and a technology worker second. And what you just said ("better to ... use a machine that isolates ... while not straining unrelated muscles") is the fitness equivalent of something that would be a top post on The Daily WTF.
That is almost exactly the wrong idea. I mean, so precisely opposite of correct information that I hope you didn't write that as a joke and I'm not getting it.
The only time isolation movements make sense is if you're already a very competitive bodybuilder who walks around with hundreds of pounds of lean muscle mass. Otherwise, isolation movements (especially when performed on machines rather than with free weights) are a genuinely terrible idea. At absolute _best_ they will make you gain muscle and lose weight vastly more slowly than you could. Most likely, they'll make you wind up with a chronic injury.
Please, please, please don't go to the gym and work on machines. Do compound movements instead. If you're interested in making physical improvements, go pick up Starting Strength. It's $30 and the author is an absolute genius.
[That was officially my first flame. I feel so hollow inside ...]
Push-ups give me a headache. I don't know if its the blood rushing to the head or the neck tension, but they are uncomfortable for me for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual excercise. Same thing for pull-ups, sit-ups or whatchamacallit.
Machines are comfortable while still maxing out my muscle capacity. They are the sole reason that I am now, after many years of repeatedly failing to start a weight regimen, enjoying gym excercise.
You are probably right in everything you said, since I know fuck all about fitness, but I know what I like.
You're asserting that the average person starting a lifting regimen is more likely to injure themselves on a machine rather than with fundamental lifts like dead, bench and squat?
"... I'm no fitness buff but doing push-ups doesn't strike me as the thing for losing weight, etc. ..."
Nerd excuse.
A push-up is the simplest measure of ones fitness. You don't need a machine, someone helping you. It's not something you have to read a manual on or get coaching. Next to chin-ups and running what else do you need? :)
Gym machines don't exercise your stabilization muscles, and they only work one muscle at a time.
When you do pushups (if you do them right), you exercise your triceps, shoulders, biceps, back muscles, and your pectorals all in one go.
Calisthenics are amazing and completely underutilized in today's gym-heavy environment. Did you notice that the military doesn't use gym equipment at all? Ever wonder why?
Push-ups are also horribly unergonomic - just see how guys in the video are arching their backs. Better to go to the gym and use a machine that isolates the excercise to the exact muscles you want while not straining unrelated muscles and joints in evil ways.