Secrets Your Friends Never Told You about How to Do Push-ups

You don’t need to join the military to learn how to do push-ups properly. A properly done push-up builds muscle in your chest and arms, and you can easily increase the difficulty as you get stronger. To do simple push-ups, you won’t need anything more than your arms and your body weight, and you can do them anywhere, as long as you find a flat surface and enough space for you. To expand.

Lie face down on the floor. Keep your feet close to each other. Place your weight in your chest.

• Place your hands flat on the floor, roughly at shoulder level. Your elbows should be pointed towards your feet.
• If you are on a rather soft surface, such as a carpet, you might lean on your fists, between the first and second knuckles, to make the push-up more difficult. If the surface you are working on is too hard, consider investing in push-up handles (the kinds of handles you will put on the floor).
• Curl your toes up (towards your head). The sole of your foot should touch the ground.

Get up on your arms. Your weight should then be supported by your hands and the soles of your feet. Keep it in a straight line from your body to your head to your heels. This position is called a ‘plank’ and is used for many other strength training exercises. This is the starting and ending position of a single pump.

Choose the type of pump that’s right for you. There are three variations of simple push-ups that work different muscles. The difference is in the position of your hands in the plank position. The closer your hands are to each other, the more you will work your triceps. The further apart they are, the more you will work your chest.

• Normal: your hands should be slightly more apart than your shoulders. This will work your arms and chest.
• Diamond: place your hands close to each other, so as to form a diamond between your thumbs and index fingers. Place your hands directly under your chest. This will make your arms work much more than with a normal push-up.
• Wide: place your hands well away from your shoulders. This variant allows the chest to work and requires less force in the arms.

Lower your torso to the floor until your elbows form a 90° angle. For more resistance, keep your elbows close to your body. Keep your head pointed forward. Try to point the tip of your nose straight in front of you. Hold your body in a flat plank: don’t let your hips drop. Inhale as you lower yourself.

• How close you get to the ground will depend on your strength and body type, but try to lower your body about a fist off the ground.

Lift yourself up as if you are trying to push the ground away from you. Exhale as you push. The strength needed should come from your shoulders and chest. The triceps (the muscles behind your upper arms) are also contracted, but won’t be the most used muscle group. Don’t be tempted to help yourself with your butt or stomach. Keep pushing until your arms are almost straight (but not stiff).

Continue to lower yourself down and get up at a steady pace. Each pair of shares counts as a single pump. Continue until you have completed a set or reached your maximum.
Do slammed push-ups. Lift yourself off the ground, high enough to have room to clap your hands while you are in the air. This is a plyometric exercise.

Do diamond push- ups. In a plank position, place your hands in a diamond shape, under your chest. Now do your push-ups while maintaining this position. This exercise will require a lot more strength in your arms.

Do scorpion push- ups. Start by doing a normal push-up or a basic variant. Once you have lowered your body, lift one leg off the ground and bend your knee to the side. Do individual sets for each leg, or switch legs between each push-up.

Do Spiderman push- ups. Do a normal push-up or a basic variant. Once you’ve lowered your body, lift one leg off the floor, and bend your knee to the side, toward your shoulder. Do individual sets for each leg, or switch legs between each push-up. If you are doing this exercise correctly, you should exercise your core in addition to your arms.

Do push-ups on one arm. Spread your legs more than the other push-ups (for balance), place one arm behind your back, and do your push-up on one arm.

Do push-ups on the knuckles. Instead of leaning on the palms of your hands, lean on your fists, resting on the first two knuckles of each hand. This exercise requires more strength in the arms and wrists, and it is a good way to work your knuckles for boxing or a martial art.

Do push-ups on your fingertips. If you are very strong, you can try push-ups using only your fingers, not your palms.

Do push-ups while raising. You can increase the difficulty of your push-ups by raising your legs off the floor.

Do push-ups on the knees. If you can’t do full push-ups yet, try resting your weight on your knees rather than the soles of your feet. Run the push-up normally, and when you feel ready, switch to regular push-ups.

Do incline push-ups. You can make push-ups easier by placing your hands on a surface somewhat higher than your feet. Stand on sloping ground, such as a hill, or lean on a piece of furniture to begin your workout, until you are ready for a level surface.

• When you are just starting out, you can use a slightly soft surface, such as a mat or yoga mat, so that the push-ups are less hard on your wrists.
• Normal push-ups are quite difficult to perform even for someone in good physical shape, and especially for beginners. If you shake slightly while doing a push-up correctly and slowly, you are doing a push-up too hard for you (or you haven’t warmed up enough!)



• Concentrate on working your chest muscles, contracting them as you stand up. This will allow you to build muscle faster. If you can’t contract your muscles, do an easier variant of push-ups where you can. Consider doing incline pushups in front of a mirror so you can see your chest muscles and make sure you are working them out. Start slowly!
• One of the major advantages of pushups is that you can do them anywhere. Find a space large enough that you can stretch out, undisturbed. The surface should be firm and non-slippery. This surface should preferably be pleasant for your hands, not gravel, for example!
• If you have a mirror, use it to check your position.
• Warm up before you start. Do a few simple arm movements and stretches. Warming up reduces the risk of injury, and prepares the muscles for more activity. You will be able to lift / push / pull. More if you have warmed up properly instead of directly starting the exercises. Make sure to stretch your arms and wrists, which are the essential joints for doing push-ups. Once you are done, stretch before relaxing your muscles.

• As with any strength training exercise, if you experience severe and / or sudden pain in your chest and / or shoulders, stop immediately! If the pain is in your chest and / or shoulders, you’ve either done more push-ups than you could, or you undertook an exercise that you are not ready for. You may need to start with lighter exercises to work your chest before you jump into the push-ups. If the pain is elsewhere, you are not positioned correctly. If pain persists, see a doctor.
• When your lower back gets tired, stop doing push-ups. Do not slouch or you could injure yourself?
• Position your hands close to each other so that the pump is more difficult to negative effects. Placing your hands too close to each other may make it difficult to balance your torso when lifting up and lean too hard on the bones in your arms and shoulders. You might have bone pain long after exercise, or long term shoulder joint problems. The danger zone varies from person to person, and from one morphology to another. As a general rule of thumb, follow this rule: when placing your hands on the floor, extend your thumbs inward, towards the other hand. If your thumbs are touching, you’re at the limit. Consider the other methods mentioned that will increase the difficulty of your pump. Trying to clap your hands once your arms are straight is an interesting variation. When doing this, always make sure that your body is straight and tense.