Improve your strength

Pushing and pulling is something we do everyday in our daily lives and routines. Even more so in physical activities, games and sports. Practicing these movements helps build muscle strength, improve your balance and centre of gravity, and refine motor skills!

Helps you:

  • Move objects around the house or clear things out of your path
  • Pull your toboggan up a big hill or win a tug of war
  • Perform in a Rugby scrum, in sliding sports like bobsled, and even in water sports like swimming and rowing

 

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How to do it

Pushing

  • Start by standing with your feet shoulder width apart with a slight bend in your knees.
    • Stagger your feet so one leg is slightly more forward. This way, you won’t fall over when you try to push something.
    • Lean into an object, placing your hands firmly onto the object (it can be a large household object such as a chair or an old cardboard box).
  • Slowly walk forward and push the object for 10 steps, making sure that the object stays on the ground.
  • Come to complete stop.

Pulling

  • Change your hand grip on your object if needed.
  • Widen your feet a bit further than shoulder width apart. Keep your knees slightly bent and your back as straight as you can.
  • Slowly walk 10 steps backwards, pulling your household object back to its starting point.

Challenge yourself

  • If possible, change your path to push and pull the object in different directions (e.g. right or left instead of forward and backward).
  • Change your object. You can add weight to it (e.g. fill a box with cans of soup). Or try an entirely different object to force yourself to change your knee bend and hand placement.
  • Try to walk faster or add a slight jog when you’re pushing.

Try these activities to work on your pushing and pulling:

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