Welcome to pushups 101. Getting the basics right opens the door to tons of great chest exercises. And not just chest exercises. You will get the whole body involved.
Everybody knows how to do a pushup, right? Well if that’s true why do we always see people with their butt either way up in the air or sagging down on the ground? Why is that guy’s head pointing down?
Take a second and remind yourself of the right form. There isn’t much to it, but it’s important. Proper form will not only work the chest muscles, but will work the front of the shoulders, back, triceps, stabilizer muscles in the core, and the hips. It will also protect your lower back from unnecessary strain.
So let’s get to it. Like I said, I’m guessing you know most of this stuff already. I’m just reminding you of some details so you get the most benefit and look like you know what you’re doing.
Maintain that straight line. Don’t stick your butt up in the air and don’t let it sag during the movement. And especially don’t let your hips sag while you’re pushing up and then pop them back in line at the top. That looks ridiculous.
This movement should look very, very simple to the outside observer.
The pectoral muscle is a big, fan-like muscle that spans over your chest. I haven’t seen convincing proof that there is such a thing as working the “upper pecs” and “lower pecs” by doing incline and decline pushups. But you’ll still read that everywhere.
What those variations WILL do is work your muscle fibers differently. By working the muscles differently, you can keep yourself challenged and push past plateaus.
Challenging the muscles in ways they are not used to causes progress.
These modifiers (or variations) are listed from easiest to hardest.
Against a wall:
This is for the beginner. There won’t be much resistance at all. It will incorporate all the same muscles, but even if you are just getting started or recovering from an injury, hopefully you will graduate beyond this pretty quickly. The idea is simple. Position your feet a few feet from the wall, put your hands flat against the wall, and do what is basically a vertical pushup.
Incline:
Placing your hands on a raised platform like an aerobic step, weight bench, park bench or anything else that is sturdy will make the classic pushup easier.
Knees:
Get in the classic pushup position, but instead of your lower body resting on your toes it is resting on your knees. This also makes the pushup easier.
When I am doing a set of as many pushups as I can do, I like to throw in 10 knee pushups at the end when the regular ones fail. That little extra!
Decline:
Place your feet on an elevated platform. This makes the pushup harder mainly because your upper body is carrying more weight.
Make the exercise even more challenging by putting your feet on an unstable surface like an exercise ball. That will bring a lot of other muscles into play to maintain stability.
Here is an idea for the pushup superset.
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