Summary: Push-ups are a form of exercise that you can do anywhere and anytime. You don’t need special equipment or a team to train with. All you need is the perfect technique and the time to practice. Do it a few times a week and you will find some positive improvements in your abdonial core muscels as well as in your overall fitness level. In this post we write about how to do a perfect push-up and what benefits you can expect from doing it reguarly.

An exercise that helps to build strength and endurance

Push-ups are easy to do anywhere and everywhere. Some people swear on them as the one core exercise that helps to build endurance and strength the best. Others just dread when need to execute a single one during a fitness class. The reality is that push-ups are indeed an ideal bodyweight exercise that helps to increase the endurance and strength levels of the upper part of the body.

To begin with, push-ups work your chest muscles, triceps groups and your anterior deltoids (front of your shoulders). When practiced in conjunction with other exercises, it certainly translates into a muscle and energy burning routine.

Ultimate fitness standard

The maker of the ‘Training for Warrior System’, Martin Rooney, is of the opinion that push-ups are a vital and core exercise to master. According to Martin, Push-ups will help you burn fat and increase strength in addition to enhancing both mental strength and confidence. They involve every single muscle in your body from top to bottom, in addition to strengthening your abs, triceps, chests, and shoulder. It does not come as a surprise that an article in The New York Times classified push-ups as the ultimate fitness standard.

Nevertheless, if you happen to fall into the category of people who are sedentary for most parts of the day, apart from when you need to use the bathroom or food breaks, doing push-ups a few times every week will indeed prove to be a great workout for you.

Benefits of regularly doing push-ups

1. Engage the whole of your body:

By simultaneously working on most of your body muscles, push-ups will go a long way in making you feel and appear fitter. Push-ups primarily engage your shoulders, chest, arms but the lower part of your body gets a workout in the process too. They essentially help build your muscle strength.

2. Helps to build stability and balance:

David Nordmark, the writer of the book Push-Ups for Everyone, explains that push-ups help to develop the reflex system as it helps to train the prospective muscle fibers – these are microscopic nerves that help to balance your body. Every time you attempt a push-up, these nerves are constantly trying to stop your body from tilting to either side. Thus, building your body balance and can help greatly improve your speed and overall balance.

3. Helps build muscle density

With aging, we naturally start losing some muscle density. This aging process transforms the way how we balance our body as well as how we burn energy. Push-ups help to reduce and limit this process by helping to retrain muscle density.

4. Strengthens our core

A strong core became one of the focus points of recent exercise movements. When your core is strong, you are able to perform fitness activities with less effort, with higher coordination and of course in better quality. Our aim should be to build a strong core that supports us during our everyday life as well as when completing various forms of sports. If your core is strong, you have a better chance to avoid various aches and pains such as spinal injuries, back and knee pains. Push-ups are a good way to strengthen our core in the abdominal section.

What does a perfect push-up look like?

Some people easily tackle push-ups while others feel that even completing one or two requires a substantial amount of energy. And it isn’t only about our upper body strength.  Some people have stronger frames for their lower body and find it harder to execute push-up with a perhaps lesser strong upper body. There is a solution for these types of problems of course. What would that be? Well, simple as it is, just keep on practicing push-ups.

For beginners, we recommend doing one perfect push-up a day, three times a week. Once that is done, move on to two, five, and then ten and so on. You will see in a reasonable time with some committed efforts, you will be doing 20+ push-ups in one go. We don’t recommend to do push-ups every day because your muscles need recovery time and you don’t want to wear them out.

Here are a few pointers on how to get started:

• Do the right motion, slowly and with focus. No use to do many with sloppy arms.
• Keep your body in a straight line going down and moving back. If you can’t go close to the floor yet, don’t worry. Just try as low as you can while keeping your body aligned.
• Keep your hips in one line with your neck and feet.
• Place your hands wider than your shoulder width,  but in line with your shoulders. This position results in less fatigue.
• Keep your shoulders down. When lifting your body off the ground ensure you are only moving your shoulder blades backward.

There are many variations to doing push-ups, if you have a good one, do get in touch and email us your recommendations. If we find it a good one, we might dedicate a post to your routine.