How to Do Pushups Properly?

If done properly, pushups are a classic strength-building exercises that can help build muscle in the arms, chest, and back while also improving cardiovascular health. They’re one of the most popular exercises among trainers and fitness enthusiasts for a reason.

But what is a pushup exactly? What does it look like when you do it right? It’s not always clear from looking at photos or videos on the internet how to perform pushups properly.

Technique

What is the correct technique when doing a pushup? Here are three tips to follow.

1. Start by taking your head and chest above the floor, don’t drape yourself over it
2. Keep your elbows in close to your sides. Hands contribute to the strength of your muscles, not only in the arm but also in the entire back
3. Don’t let your lower back arch excessively because this could put strain on and damage ligaments in the lower spine. The most common mistake when doing pushups is not keeping your body on an even plane with the floor, especially towards the bottom of every repetition (eccentric portion).

How to train yourself to do pushups perfectly?

Well, in order to do pushups properly you must think about the process. Firstly, it is important to remember that you must always assume a correct position for doing the push-up.

If your hands are on a floor and your body is positioned in an arc, then you will do several exercises simultaneously. In this position, the main load falls on the chest muscles (pectorals), as well as on the triceps.

However, if there aren’t any obstacles in front of you and your body is positioned in front of them, then all its weight will fall not only on your triceps but also on your chest muscles (sternum area). The back muscles will work with such weight distribution too.

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Thus, train with a free weight bar. Use its ends to create a certain load on your triceps until they’re exhausted. Then, switch to a barbell with weights.

As you can see, correct technique of pushups significantly increases the load on different muscles of your body and helps them to get stronger. Most importantly, remember about the position of your elbows in relation to the body before doing any push-ups. This position will allow you not only to improve your core strength but also to protect yourself from injuries during training.

The following exercises are variants of pushups:

• 1) Push-up from knees – in this exercise you’ll use padding for your knees.
• 2) One-arm push-ups – simply do the regular push-ups using only one hand.
• 3) Clapping push-ups – this exercise is performed while raising your hands to the level of your shoulders, then bending your elbows and clapping as if you were clapping at someone.
• 4) Push-up dip – this exercise consists of doing a regular push up using one arm and then returning under it to the starting position by lowering yourself down on it, repeating this procedure with all arms.
• 5) Pushup bar – simple bar with pull-up bar or resistance band attached to it, where you do a regular pushup against this resistance.
• 6) One legged pushups – another variant of a pushup is the one-legged pushup.
• 7) Push-ups to hands – this exercise is performed with the lower part of your body on the floor and you have to get your palms under your shoulders. So, raise you chest up and straighten out at the bottom, bending at the knees. The best way to do it is to do them while holding a dumbbell in one hand or heavy iron barbell in both hands.
• 8) Front push up – done by dropping down from a high position on your toes with bent legs and bringing your body back up again in front of you in a stretched position, then repeating this process several times.

Bottom Line

Hope this article helped, and now you can do push ups properly. Have a look at our other posts: