The Best Exercises You Might Not Be Doing, #3, push ups

I’ve had a few emails from readers lately, who provided me with a breakdown of their workouts. Most of them were relatively standard, but I did notice a few exercises that seemed to be missing. So I decided to write up a quick series of articles on some of the best exercises that most people are missing out on. Number 3 is going to be push ups.

The Basics

Unlike our last two exercises, the lunge and the deadlift, push ups work the upper body. In fact, they work the entire upper body, from arms and shoulders to chest and abs. They even recruit some back and neck muscles to maintain good posture. Like the lunge, a push up is a simple movement. Straighten your whole body and balance yourself on your arms and toes. Now slowly lower your body down by bending your arms and then push up again. Here’s a video from Cooper’s on how to do a push up.

A couple of things about this video. First of all, Cooper’s likes to refer to a push up as a press up. That’s fine, it’s the same thing. Second, the variant shown here is a wide grip push up. There are quite a few variations which we will discuss a bit later.

Proper Form

My only comment about the Cooper’s video is the usual one, it’s too fast. Good form to me means going a bit slower. Remember the 3 and 3 rule. 3 seconds going down and 3 seconds coming up. Otherwise, this is great form for a push up. Note how the entire body is straight. Many people tend to either stick out their butts or sag around the middle section. Either one of these is bad. You should try to keep your whole body straight by tightening your abs and back muscles.

Benefits

The push up is an excellent upper body exercise. It uses quite a few muscles and recruits others to help in stabilizing your body. It’s completely equipment free which means you can do it anywhere. You do need a bit more space but that’s all. The push up can even be used as a cardio exercise of sorts. Just limit your movement and speed it up. That is, instead of lowering your body all the way down, lower it just part of the way down. Do that a few dozen times at a really fast pace and there you go, a bit of improvised cardio. The push up is relatively free of injury risk.

Warnings

The push up is relatively free of injury risk. The only things to watch out for are shoulder injuries. As usual, if it hurts, stop. If it keeps hurting, see a doctor.

Variations

The push up has dozens of variations, but here are a few:

• Kneeling push up – Instead of balancing your lower body on your toes, you’re going to be kneeling and just pushing your upper body up and down. This is a much easier variant and a good way for people to start out.
• Medicine Ball / Floor – And on the “I’m so fit I need to show off!” side of the spectrum, we have this variant which uses both the floor and a medicine ball. Don’t try this one unless you’re really well balanced and have a ton of upper body strength.
• Clapping Push Up – Another showy variant. I’m not a big fan of this one. It’s mainly for people who like silly gym tricks. To me, this adds too much injury risk without really adding enough workout benefit.
• One Handed Push Ups – And the ultimate in show off forms, the one handed. No clue why you would do this one. It’s not that good of an exercise.
• Close Grip Push Up – A bit more of a reasonable variant. This one will work your arms a bit more and your shoulders a bit less. Requires more balance work but I think it’s a great option to try out every once in a while.
• Hindu Push Up – I’d never even heard of this until a few months ago, but I got to say, I tried it and really liked it. It’s not as challenging on the arms but it’s a great whole body exercise. Plus it was a great back stretch.

Who’s Missing Out?

Quite a few people aren’t doing push ups.  Women seem to think of them as a “man’s exercise” while men tend to see pushups as something soldiers do, not gym goers.  I guess too many movies filled with “drop and give me 20 push ups!” have given the push up a bad image.  So let me clarify.  For you women, the push up will not make you into a body builder or some sort of super soldier.  For you men, it’s ok, not all gym exercises need to include weights.  Everyone can benefit from push ups.  Heck, I do them at home sometimes as a way of stretching if I’ve been sitting down too long.

Summary

There’s a reason the push up has become a standard for military training.  It’s an amazing all around exercise that uses a lot of your muscles and raises your heart rate.  It’s not meant to build up big bulky muscles, just to tone up the ones you have right now.