Benefits of the push-ups exercise

Push-ups exercise benefits

You might already know this, according to Wikipedia, a push-up (USA English), or a press-up (UK English), is "a common strength training exercise performed in a prone position, lying horizontal and face down, raising and lowering the body using the arms."

Push ups are a basic exercise used in civilian athletic training or physical education and, especially, in military physical training and will develop the pectoral muscles and triceps, with ancillary benefits to the deltoids, serratus anterior, coracobrachialis and the midsection as a whole."

So as you see push-ups exercise is the oldest trick in the big book of fitness exercises that has been around for so long that even Roman soldiers have performed it.

Although, it certainly does look ancient, and it feels ancient this extremely simple and effective exercise can help you build those great looking pectorals.

How do you perform push-ups?

Push-ups exercise is a great exercise mainly because of it's simplicity and the fact that can be performed basically anywhere you want.

To perform push ups you have to lie prone on the ground with hands placed as wide or slightly wider than shoulder width.

Keep the body straight, lower body to the ground by bending arms at the elbows.

Raise body up off the ground by extending the arms. Repeat.

Body weight is lifted by the arms; don't be tempted to use your butt, stomach or the lower half of your body to pull yourself up. To maintain correct body alignment, imagine a straight line running from your head down to your ankles.

Push-ups exercise is meant to strengthen your pectorals, triceps and, to some extent, your deltoids but are also good as core body strength exercises

Try some variations

There are some variations of Push-ups that you can try:

You can of course use some variations of press-ups if you want to put pressure on your shoulder and chest muscles. Press-ups are actually the military or athletic version of the push-ups.

The press-ups exercise is performed with the back and legs straight and off the floor. When you are at home, you can put your feet on a low chair or armchair. If you're in the park, you can use a bench to prop up your feet.

Do not raise your legs too high above the shoulder line.

There are other variations that you might be interested in. They include push-ups performed using just 4 fingers at each hand, only 1 hand, clapping your hands, or pressing against a wall instead of using the floor (the farther your feet are from the wall, the harder the exercise).

NOTE: When you start doing one of those exotic variations of push-ups, first carefully try to do it for a once or twice to see if you can perform them safely and not to injure yourself!

You should do it!

We strongly recommend you not to avoid push-ups exercises when you try to lose a weight and fit your body. For you as an overweight person they will help you to get back into shape.

By doing the push-ups exercise you can learn so much about carrying your own weight!

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