Pushups

The push-up is a popular bodyweight exercise that is commonly used in military and tactical physical fitness tests. It’s a classic movement to build upper-body muscle and strength, emphasizing the chest, triceps, and shoulders, but also working the upper back and core.

Benefits

  1. Strengthens the chest, triceps, shoulders, and abdominals
  2. Increases core strength and hip stability
  3. Engages lower-body muscles to maintain plank position
  4. Easy to regress or progress by raising or lowering torso
  5. Can add pauses or manipulate tempo to increase difficulty
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Pushups Images

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Pushups Instructions

Pushups muscle diagram
  1. Lie on the floor face down and place your hands about 36 inches apart while holding your torso up at arms length.
  2. Next, lower yourself downward until your chest almost touches the floor as you inhale.
  3. Now breathe out and press your upper body back up to the starting position while squeezing your chest.
  4. After a brief pause at the top contracted position, you can begin to lower yourself downward again for as many repetitions as needed.

Variations:

If you are new at this exercise and do not have the strength to perform it, you can either bend your legs at the knees to take off resistance or perform the exercise against the wall instead of the floor.

For the most advanced lifters, you can place your feet at a high surface such as a bench in order to increase the resistance and to target the upper chest more.

Alternative Exercises for Pushups

Dumbbell Bench Press thumbnail image Dumbbell Bench Press thumbnail image

Dumbbell Bench Press

Muscle Targeted: Chest
Equipment Type: Dumbbell
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Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip thumbnail image Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip thumbnail image

Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip

Muscle Targeted: Chest
Equipment Type: Barbell
9
Average