Michelle Obama recalls Ellen DeGeneres pointing out a problem with her push-up routine: ‘I don’t go all the way down’

‘So I'm on her show doing push-ups, and I did more push-ups than her, but she still says I didn't go down all the way’ claimed Obama

The former first lady, Michelle Obama, has recalled to comedian Amy Poehler how she was challenged to a push-ups competition on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Discussing health and exercise on Poehler’s Good Hang podcast the pair got onto the topic of push-ups.

When Poehler asked if she could do them, Obama said: “Well, now I do them on my knees. It's like, I don't need to do regular push-ups. I have nothing to prove.”

Asked if she could do full push-ups, she replied: "I can, but it's – I think my arm length, I don't go all the way down. In fact, you know who pointed that out was Ellen," referencing DeGeneres.

"Sounds like Ellen," Poehler quipped.

Obama recalled the 2012 episode of Ellen, in which DeGeneres challenged her to a push-ups contest.

She said: “She challenged me to a push-up competition. I'm the first lady, and she heard that I worked out. So I'm on her show doing push-ups, and I did more push-ups than her, but she still says I didn't go down all the way.”

She reiterated: “Anatomically, I don't think I really can. My arms are very long, and she's a much smaller person than me.”

The former first lady appeared on Ellen numerous times, before and after her time in the White House.

In 2018, she appeared on the show to discuss life after Barack's presidency, and in 2019 the pair surprised an elementary school in Washington DC with charitable donations.

During the pandemic, Obama gave DeGeneres an exclusive interview about her family’s quarantine routine. Before the show ended in 2022, the pair took a tour of the Warner Bros’ Studio lot and stopped at the set of the hit sitcom Friends.

Ellen DeGeneres’ show was cancelled in 2022 (Getty Images for Live Nation)

67-year-old DeGeneres, who announced her retirement during her “Ellen’s Last Stand… Up” tour last year, moved to the English countryside alongside her wife, Portia de Rossi, 51, who she married in 2008.

The former chat show host offered her fans an insight into her new rural life as she shared a photo of de Rossi to Instagram on Monday, 21 April.

“Three things that make me happy: My wife, a rainbow, and my wife taking a photograph of a rainbow,” DeGeneres captioned a photo of her partner in front of a rural view.

The Good Hang with Amy Poehler episode was released on Tuesday (13 April). Other featured guests from the podcast’s first series include Paul Rudd, Jack Black and Tina Fey.