Movement of the Day: Push Ups

When it comes to fitness, many people overthink it. You don’t need a home gym, a gym membership, or even dumbbells, although they are all very helpful. For those who wish to be minimalist or just dip their toes in the water of bodyweight exercises, the push-up is a great stop.

The push-up is a chest and arm exercise that only requires a bit of space to perform. To perform the exercise, I like to start laying prone on the ground with my hand under the shoulders. Engage the core by squeezing the abs and pulling the shoulders down (to engage the core muscles of the back and flex the glutes. Once you have braced your body, push against the ground up until your arms are fully extended and you are in a plank position. Then you lower yourself back down and repeat. My suggestion is to do as many reps as you can until you believe you only can do two more. Record this number. The next time you do push-ups, match or beat that number.

Now, the obvious question is, “What if I cannot do push-ups?” Well, there are alternatives you can do to build up to doing push-ups. Wall push-ups are the most beginner friendly. In these, you will be doing push-ups against the wall with your body at a slight angle. Incline push-ups then become the next level. The higher the incline, the easier the push-ups will be. The very clear progression is to lower the incline when you can perform a certain number of push-ups. A fair number is 30 reps. So, once you can perform 30 wall push-ups, move to a high angle incline push-up. Then once you reach 30 reps, lower the incline. And repeat to you reach your regular push-ups. If you wish to look at higher difficulty, decline push-ups became the obvious choice, and you can repeat the same process except increasing the decline until you reach handstand push-ups (using the wall if you do not have the balance for the movement).

Different variations can be used to focus on certain aspects. Close “grip” and diamond push-ups are used to focus on the triceps, archer and wide “grip” are used to focus on the chest, and pike push-ups are used to focus on the shoulders. Plyometric versions just as typical plyometric push-ups and clapping push-ups recruit more muscle fibers as it takes more fibers to produce explosive movements. if push-ups become too easy, weighted push-ups are a fantastic addition. With a sturdy backpack, weight can be continually added and while the bench press is recommended that you have a spotter when reaching very high weights, the weighted push-up does not need this as the floor is your spotter. Push-ups have a myriad of versions for many different goals.

I highly recommend incorporating push-ups into every training program for everyone (unless injury prevents the performance of push-ups). They are a stellar exercise that you can do neatly anywhere and can be adjusted to many different goals.