Michelle Obama called out Ellen DeGeneres for making her do push-ups on the comedian’s former talk show.
The former first lady recalled the awkward TV moment while discussing how she doesn’t bend her arms all the way while doing push-ups on Tuesday’s episode of the “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” podcast.
“I can [do regular push-ups] but it’s hard. I think my arm length, I don’t go all the way down,” she said, before sharing, “You know who pointed that out was Ellen, because my first term, she challenged me to a push-up competition.”
Obama remembered thinking to herself, “I’m the first lady, you know?”
The “Becoming” author, 61, said that DeGeneres, 67, had heard that she works out daily and challenged her to a push-up competition during the interview.
“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,” Obama said, adding, “Anatomically, I don’t think I can. My arms are very long and she’s a much smaller person than me.”
Obama explained that she now does push-ups on her knees because she doesn’t “need to do regular push-ups.”
“I have nothing to prove. But I can do push-ups on my knees, I can do a lot of them,” she said.
Earlier in the episode, Obama admitted that she’s at the age where she wakes up with sore shoulders.
“Don’t get me started,” Poehler, 53, replied. “I had frozen shoulder a couple years ago. And guess what? Nobody knows what causes it and there’s nothing you can do about it, like every ailment for women in their fifties.”
In 2012, DeGeneres famously grilled Obama on how many push-ups she could do while discussing her daily gym routine.
“I can do some, can you?” Obama asked the stand-up star, prompting DeGeneres to explain, “I can do some. I was just wondering if you could do more push-ups than I could do.”
Obama hilariously fired back by razzing DeGeneres about back pain.
“You know, it depends on how your back is, I know you get these back issues,” Obama said in a sassy tone.
DeGeneres shook her head in disbelief before removing her blazer. Obama followed suit, taking off her leather coat so they could have a push-up competition.
Obama ended up doing 25 push-ups, beating DeGeneres by five.
“That was amazing,” DeGeneres said with a laugh, joking that she only stopped because she didn’t want to make Obama “look bad.”
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