Why Are Push-Ups Such A Popular Exercise?

The push-up is very likely the first resistance exercise many of us learned to do. Whether you learned it in gym class, or from a parent or a friend, you know what a push-up is. Throughout your life, you’ve no doubt seen many a push-up done, and have probably done a few yourself.

While push-ups are well-known as one of the best chest exercises, they hit many other muscles as well. Of course, the shoulders and triceps are gonna get some good work from them. In fact, by moving your hands closer together, they can become more of a triceps exercise. The core is also involved in keeping your body stable throughout the movement. Some of the best push-up variations will even involve the back and biceps muscles.

 

Classic Push-Ups

The classic push-up is done by getting facedown on the floor. You get on your toes and place your hands on the floor a little wider than shoulder width. You then push up from the floor until your arms are either straight or have a very slight bend in them. All the while, you have to keep your body straight as well. At the top, you slowly lower your body until the upper body gets very close to the floor before starting another rep.

Even the classic version of the push-up can be modified so you get more out of them. In all likelihood, you push straight up when you perform a push-up. However, one small tweak will enhance the exercise. The key is to push back toward your feet as you push up. Believe it or not, you will feel the difference when you make this small change in form.

 

Bad Push-Up Form

As with many exercises, form is abused by many when it comes to doing push-ups. You should be striving to get work out of the chest and other upper body muscles while doing it. Unfortunately, a lot of trainers are just trying for a number as opposed to getting real reps in.

One common way people cheat themselves on push-ups is to do partial reps. The point of even doing the exercise is to go through a full range of motion. At the bottom of each rep, you should get a nice stretch in the pecs. At the top, you should flex the chest muscles. This being said, once you can’t get more full reps, some partials have their place if you really want to finish off your pecs.

Another push-up no-no I often see is the body bent toward the floor as people do push-ups. This just doesn’t look right for a reason. Holding your body straight while doing push-ups will engage the core muscles. This is just another benefit of doing them properly.

 

Hand Placements

Some of the most popular push-up variations will involve how close or wide you place your hands from each other. The common way is to have them placed about shoulder-width apart. Placing your hands farther apart will place more emphasis on the pecs. Closer hand placements will give the triceps more work. You can also try a staggered hand placement push-up to work on stability as well.

 

Are They Too Difficult?

While push-ups can be easy for some of us to do, this just isn’t the case for everybody. This is especially true for people new to exercise. Whatever the reason, there is a way push-ups can be made easier.

The most obvious way to make push-ups easier is to do them from your knees. It’s simple enough to do this. Just get on your knees and into a push-up position before starting the exercise. Make sure to keep the body straight and do full reps. You should be ready for regular push-ups in no time.

 

Are They Too Easy?

For many seasoned weight trainers, push-ups alone can become almost too easy. When you get to the point where you can do a high number of reps you may decide it’s time to find ways to make the exercise harder to do so you get more out of it.

If you can bang out over 50 push-ups, one thing you can try is to slow down your reps. Finishing off a chest workout with a set of push-ups with a ton of quick reps is fine. However, you’ll find that if you slow your reps down and make sure to go all of the way up and down it won’t take near as many reps to get to failure.

 

Add Resistance

One of the ways to make the common push-up into a more difficult exercise is to add resistance to it. Because of the position the body is in while doing push-ups, this will take some getting used to. Ideally, a workout partner will put weight on your back and spot you. It’s possible to do it yourself though. Ultimately, you can definitely get weight onto your upper back.

I will start on my knees with a 25 or even 45-pound weight plate that I carefully get onto my back. This is done by holding the weight with one hand as you slowly get to the point where you are on your knees and one hand is on the floor. It may take some small adjustments but I know when I’ve found the sweet spot in the middle area of my upper back.

One great advantage of performing weighted push-ups is that they force you to use better form. You can’t just pound quick rep after quick rep if you want to keep that weight on your back. It’s also essential to keep your body straight so the weight doesn’t move around.

 

Elevate Your Lower Body

One of my favorite push-up variations is to elevate my legs so my body is angled downward when I do the exercise. This will target the upper pecs as it emulates an incline bench press. A bench at the gym can be used to get your toes on for push-ups done this way. I like to press my feet against a wall at an elevated level to do push-ups.

It’s of course possible to combine elevating your legs and using weight to do weighted push-ups. This gives your upper pecs more resistance. Once again, a lot of stability will be required to pull this off while keeping the weight on your upper back.

 

Bosu Ball Push-Ups

Another way I like to make push-ups tougher is to do them on a Bosu ball. Put the rounded side of the ball facing down so you have the flat side up. You then get into a push-up position with your toes on the floor and your hands placed on the flat side of the ball. Then push-ups are done.

When the toes are on the floor when Bosu push-ups are done, the body will obviously be angled a bit upward. It’s perfectly fine to do them like this. However, I like to straighten my body by getting my feet elevated enough to make it so I’m not at much of an angle.

The thing that stands out about Bosu ball push-ups is that you have to keep steady as you do them. This will involve the core more than a normal push-up would. Honestly, you should feel the difference through all of your upper body muscles, as they are working to keep your body steady.

You will only be able to place your hands so wide on the flat side of a Bosu ball. I put my hands all the way to the edge. Sometimes I will even grip the edges of the Bosu platform when I do this type of push-up.

Once again, combining weighted push-ups and a Bosu ball can be done, as well as elevating the feet. A combination of all three will really force you to stabilize your body. This is something I will add to my routine here and there with my chest workouts.

 

Tyson Push-Ups

Another great push-up variation is the Tyson push-up. In fact, this is my favorite version of the push-up at this time. It’s named for boxing legend Mike Tyson, who was known for doing insane workouts in his prime. If you want to try a truly tougher style of push-up that involves more muscle groups, this is the one for you.

The Tyson push-up is started with the feet against a wall. You should have your legs bent a bit with your butt up and your arms and hands out in front of you on the floor. To start the exercise, you push forward with the leg muscles and straighten your body into a push-up position. You then do a push-up that has you pushing back toward the wall as opposed to straight up. As you push back, tuck your head under as well.

One great benefit of this exercise is that it targets many muscles besides the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Your legs get work as you should be exploding forward once you learn the proper form of the movement. As you reach the floor, your core will engage to stop your body. Pushing back and tucking your head under will hit the upper back area as well.

It’s a certainty that you won’t get near as many reps on Tyson push-ups as you can while performing normal push-ups. One thing I like to do is to do a superset of Tyson push-ups followed immediately by normal push-ups. This is an excellent superset after you’ve done your heavy chest sets.

Training The Triceps With Push-Ups

While the triceps will get work from any type of push-up, placing the hands closer to each other will make them more of the focal point of the exercise. It’s also essential to keep the elbows close to the body to target the triceps as well. I’ve tried the weighted, Bosu, and Tyson versions of the push-up with close hand placement, and they all work great for the tris.

 

One-Arm Push-Ups

Another type of push-up that’s meant for triceps training is the one-arm version of the exercise. The one-arm push-up was a highlight in the original Rocky training montage but has been forgotten by most.

One-arm push-ups seem pretty obvious in how you perform them. It’s basically doing a push-up with one arm at a time. However, there is more to it than just that.

For instance, where do you place your feet while doing one-arm push-ups? Go ahead and try to keep your feet close and do one. Unless you’re seasoned at doing the exercise you will find it quite difficult if you can do it at all. When you first try one-arm push-ups, the best option when it comes to foot placement is to put the leg opposite the arm you are doing push-ups out to the side. This means that if you are doing push-ups with your left arm, the right leg should be placed out to the side for balance.

As you continue practicing one-arm push-ups, form and strength will certainly improve. When you feel the time is right, you can try placing your legs closer. This will likely make the exercise tougher, but that’s the point anyway. The closer you get your legs to each other on one-arm push-ups, the more your core will have to work to stabilize your body.

I prefer doing reps until failure with one arm before going to the other arm. Alternating arms on each rep seems like too much of a pain to me. Of course, if you do one arm to failure, you should start with your weaker arm.

Staggered Push-Ups

Staggered push-ups are a variation of the traditional push-up exercise that targets different muscle groups and increases the level of difficulty. In this exercise, one hand is positioned forward on the floor in front of where it normally would and the other hand is positioned behind just as far.  This creates a staggered stance.

This great push-up version changes the angle of the push-up and places a different type of stress on the chest, triceps, and shoulders. Additionally, the unstable nature of the staggered stance works the core and stability muscles. Staggered push-ups can be a great way to challenge yourself and add variety to your workout routine.

 

Where Push-Ups Belong In Your Workouts

There are so many ways you can incorporate push-ups into your workouts. Being such a versatile exercise makes them great for any spot in an upper body training routine.

Home workouts are particularly excellent for push-ups. If you have very limited equipment, doing a variety of push-ups can really do the job. Start with some of the more difficult types of push-ups before finishing off with easier ones.

Going hand in hand with this is using push-ups for workouts when traveling. If you can’t find a gym or don’t have time to, push-up workouts can easily be done in a hotel room.

As far as gym workouts go, push-ups can get you nicely warmed up for a heavy chest workout. They can also be used to finish off the pecs with some high-rep “pump” sets.

I like to incorporate some type of push-up toward the end of my chest workout. After my heavy sets, I like to do a superset of Tyson push-ups, followed by staggered push-ups, and finished with normal push-ups. This gives me a very full feeling in the pecs.

 

Take Advantage Of Push-Ups Now

As you can see push-ups are incredible for helping you get into shape. With such versatility, your entire upper body is going to get some great work. Practice them often to get the proper form down to start. As you get more advanced, try the best push-up variations described above. In the end, you will see great results.