PUSH-UP
PUSH-UP
You
can do the push-up as part of a bodyweight exercise session, a circuit training
workout, or a strength workout. The push-up builds both upper-body and core
strength. It has many modifications; beginners can start with easier versions,
while more advanced exercisers can use a challenging variation.
How To Do Push-Up
The push-up builds both
upper-body and core strength. It has many modifications; beginners can start
with easier versions, while more advanced exercisers can use a challenging
variation. You can do the push-up as part of a bodyweight exercise session, a circuit
training workout, or a strength workout.
Get on the floor on all fours,
positioning your hands slightly wider than your shoulders. Don't lock out the
elbows; keep them slightly bent. Extend your legs back so you are balanced on
your hands and toes, your feet hip-width apart.
1.
Contract your abs and tighten your core by
pulling your belly button toward your spine.
2.
Inhale as you slowly bend your elbows and lower
yourself to the floor, until your elbows are at a 90-degree angle.
3.
Exhale while contracting your chest muscles and
pushing back up through your hands, returning to the start position.
Other Variations of a Push-Up
Whether you are a beginner and
need to make this exercise easier, or you're advanced and want more of a
challenge—or want to better target a specific muscle—there is a push-up variation
for you.
1.
Bent-Knee Push-Up
This is a modified version of
the standard push-up performed on the knees rather than on the toes. Be sure to
keep the knees, hips, and shoulders all in a straight line. Do not allow
yourself to bend at the hips.
2.
Incline Push-Up
You can also do incline push-ups
to make this exercise a bit easier. Stand several feet away from the table or
bench. Use the same push-up technique as above to lower yourself until the
elbows are at 90 degrees, then raise back up. Keep your core engaged throughout
the movement.
3.
Stability-Ball Push-Up
Add core stability work for
increased difficulty and effectiveness. Make sure you can do about 20 basic
push-ups before trying stability ball push-ups.
4.
Decline Push-Up
Decline push-ups are a more
difficult push-up, performed with the feet raised up on a box or bench. You can
adjust the box height to increase or decrease the resistance using just your
body weight.
5.
Clapping Push-Up
This is a plyometric exercise
in which you push yourself up with enough power so that your hands come off the
floor and you clap in midair. This exercise is not for novice exercisers. You
can get injured very easily if you haven't worked up to these.
6.
Diamond Push-Up
The diamond push-up variation
targets the triceps brachii.5 It is done with your hands close together and the
index fingers and thumbs of one hand touching the other hand, making a diamond
shape on the floor. You then do push-ups with your hands touching the center of
your chest and elbows close to your sides during each rep.
7.
Push-Up With Lat Row
This variation adds
alternating dumbbell lat rows to the top of each rep. This modification
increases the intensity of the exercise, activates the core stabilizers, and
engages the latissimus dorsi (back) muscles.
8.
Medicine Ball Push-Up
Perform a standard push-up
with one hand on top of a medicine ball. This works the shoulder in a slightly
different range of motion, which increases shoulder stability. You can also do
an alternating medicine-ball push-up by rolling the medicine ball between each
hand after a rep, which can help improve your balance.
Benefits of Push-Ups
The upper body muscles that
come into play in the push-up are the deltoids of the shoulders, the pectoral
muscles of the chest, the triceps and biceps of the upper arm, the gluteal or
hip muscles, and the erector spinae of the back.
The functional fitness you
develop with push-ups provides the strength needed to perform these movements.
Working the stabilizer muscles around the shoulders can help protect you from
rotator cuff injuries.
A 2019 study also found that
people who can do 40 push-ups have fewer cardiovascular disease events than
those who cannot complete 10 push-ups.
