If you want to get in shape, do your age in push-ups. Why do your age in push-ups? Well, it's a good, tangible, precise goal to shoot for and it guarantees you'll always get better with age.

Most important, this goal reinforces a key fact of physical reality for moms with young children... Your children will keep getting heavier as they age, making the physical care of them harder and harder on YOUR body. Having a fitness goal like "doing your age in push-ups" will keep you ahead of the challenge.

Ok, hopefully you're on board with this so let's go for it.

If you've never done push-ups before, it's likely you may not be able to do even one full repetition. That's OK. Push-ups use stabilizing muscles in a way that's different from almost any other exercise. You need to condition these stabilizing muscles so you can move on to doing a full push-up. The best way to get you there is with a modification.

How to do a Modified Push-Up

A modified push-up gives your muscles a mechanical advantage until you get strong enough to push your full body weight. There are two primary ways to do this. Both are pictured at the begining of the post.

Modification One: On the ground you do push-ups from your knees instead of your toes.

Modification Two: Do a push-up leaning against a bench, wall or other elevation. The picture shows a StrollerFit class doing this modification from a ledge. (Click on the pic to really see the form)

Once you can do 15 back-to-back modified push-ups, you should be able to do one full push-up.

Full Push-Up Form:

Start in the modified form from the ground, but instead of pushing from your knees, raise them off the ground so only your hands and toes are touching the floor.

- Make sure your back is straight.

- Tighten your stomach

- Inhale and lower your body until your chest is just below your elbows (going lower than that can put unnecessary strain on your shoulders).

- Exhale as you push yourself back up and repeat.

- Get a good rythm. Don't go too fast or too slow.

- If you still are unsure of how to do a proper push-up, contact a good personal trainer or find someone who was in the military to demonstrate- they'll know for sure.

> Some people experience low back tightness as they do push-ups. If your back starts to hurt discontinue the exercise and try again in your next workout. Typically your low back muscles condition out of this as they get stronger stabalizing your torso during push-ups. Just don't push them too hard at first. They'll let you know when they've had enough for the day.

If you feel your back tightening while doing push-ups, it may be that your abs aren't tight and your back is sagging or arching. Be especially vigilant to keep proper form as you do your last few and hardest reps. This is when most people tend to sag or arch their backs.

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Now that you've got the form here's another tip...

Set incremental goals - set smaller age goals, like doing your baby's age first, then your cat or dog, then one of the Olsen twins - you get the picture.

*If you are doing push-ups as part of a longer workout, be sure to do them first or at least do them before you start additional exercises for your chest, triceps or shoulders.

Your Basic Mommy Muscle Do Your Age In Push-Ups Plan (Takes 21 minutes or less a week, 7 minutes a workout)

First Set: Warm-up with 10 modified push-ups to get some heat and blood into your muscles. Rest one minute.

Second Set: Do as many push-ups as you can. Rest for two minutes

Third Set: Do as many push-ups as you can. If it's at least half the number of your first set - congratulations, your workout is over. If you didn't get there, rest 2 minutes and do one more set of as many as you can. (This technique will keep you making fast forward progress even if you're having an off day)

*Note - your goal should be to do at least one more push-up on the second set of each workout. Try and do a little better than your last workout each time. Don't be to hard on yourself if you don't improve every workout. Fitness development can sometimes follow a one step back, two steps forward pattern. The key is a weekly upward trend.

Keep a piece of paper handy to record your progress and watch your numbers rise. By the way, these workouts should take you no more than seven minutes.

Do this workout 3 times a week on non-consecutive days and you'll see rapid and steady impovement toward your incremental goals. If your consistent, you'll be doing your age in push-ups before you know it.

Curt Conrad, CSCS, is Founder and President of StrollerFit Inc. an international product and franchise company that helps parents exercise with their babies. He is author of The StrollerFit ExerBook. His companies have helped thousands of clients enjoy better life through better fitness. http://www.strollerfit.com