1. There is no need to "gently push up" once inverted to get -1G. You are already there just by being inverted.
Surely I'm not the only in this thread who's flown inverted. There is indeed a need to "push" once inverted. I'll see if I can explain it.
A trimmed aircraft in level, unaccelerated flight is usually presented in basic aerodynamic texts books with four opposing vector arrows pointing up, down, forward, and aft representing, in order, lift, gravity, thrust, and drag. We can ignore thrust and drag for the moment. The g meter will read 1 in this instance.
If the aircraft is rolled inverted without making any other changes then the lift vector and gravity vector arrows are both pointing in the same direction. The aircraft will accelerate toward the earth rather rapidly unless the pilot does something to prevent it.
If level inverted flight is the goal, then the pilot will push forward on the stick far enough to produce a lift vector equal the the weight of the aircraft or, put another way, he will produce sufficient negative lift to offset the force of gravity. A new drawing will show the same four vector arrows, but this time the lift vector will be extending from the belly of the aircraft; i.e. the vertical forces on the aircraft are reversed. To maintain level inverted flight in a conventional aircraft, you gotta' push to overcome the significant out of trim condition.