DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am a 68-year-old male. For a number of years, I did back exercises on a floor mat and concluded with 50 pushups. About 18 months ago, I had the first of two knee replacements. My surgeon suggested that I not do pushups on the floor in order to protect my new knee. I began to do pushups at about a 40 degree angle against the stainless-steel handrails by my swimming pool.

I’ve been told that these faux pushups don’t really do much of anything for me. I would appreciate your advice on this. — S.J.

ANSWER: Your pushups are strengthening your chest, shoulder and behind-the-arm muscles. Continue. Don’t listen to the critics.

A regular pushup is done with body face down on the floor. The hands are shoulder-width apart. The exerciser raises the body upward by straightening the elbows with body weight supported on the hands and toes. The body should be in a straight line. Then the body is lowered to floor slowly. If you’re in good shape, don’t rest on the floor but begin the next pushup when the face and chest are still a little distance off the floor.

Variations on the pushup are many. Bringing the palms closer together or moving them farther apart puts stress on different muscles.

Some find the pushup impossible to do. They can keep their knees on the floor throughout the exercise to make it a little easier. Or they can do a pushup on stairs. The hands are placed on the fourth or fifth stair, and the feet are on the floor below the bottom step. Push upward as you would do a regular pushup. You can do a pushup by standing with the palms planted on a wall. Push yourself away from the wall.

Weightlifting is important exercise for people of all ages. Aging shrinks muscles and strength. The only way to combat that loss is with resistance exercise (weightlifting). A pushup is weightlifting. Rising up from a chair and then sitting down again, done successively, is weightlifting. Your body is the weight lifted.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am 17 and play football. I am 6 feet tall and weigh 190 pounds. Most of my weight is muscle, but I haven’t been tested for that. I want to put on 15 more pounds, but I don’t want it to be fat. How do I do this? — R.M.

ANSWER: You have to have a smattering of nutrition knowledge. A teacher at your high school can help you.

For an active, big athlete like you, a daily intake of 4,000 to 5,000 calories would be a reasonable estimate. You have to add around 400 more calories a day. Fifty percent of those calories ought to be carbohydrate calories — breads, pastas, fruits and vegetables. Twenty-five percent are protein calories. That’s more protein than recommended for the average person. Nuts, beans, meats, fish, eggs and poultry are the best protein sources. The rest of your calories can come from fats, mostly good fats like olive oil and canola oil.

Eat within two hours of a heavy exercise session. During those two hours, more amino acids from food (amino acids are the precursors of muscle protein) are incorporated into muscles.

It would be good to have your percentage of body fat measured. Perhaps someone at your school knows how to do that. For an athlete like you, body fat should be between 12 percent and 20 percent of your total body weight.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am 43 and have joined a gym for the first time in my life. My gym has no free weights. I have asked around, and it seems that this is standard practice for gyms in my area. Why? They have only weight machines. — D.R.

ANSWER: Probably because more injuries occur with free weights (barbells and dumbbells). Clubs don’t want the legal repercussions that could come from injuries with free weights. (That’s only a guess.)

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.

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