When you think of a total bodyweight exercise, Push-up comes to mind. This is one exercise if performed properly with good form works your entire upper body, core, glutes, and legs.
That’s right—it takes every major muscle group to lower and lift your body from the ground.
Ya, I know sounds suspicious right? But it’s a fact, try it out yourself and especially with so many variations out there you can simply get a full-body workout with just this one exercise. Sounds too good to be true but don’t take me by my word, try it out yourself.
Push-ups are great for building strength without equipment. In a traditional wide grip, the chest is the major muscle group worked. If done properly, push-ups are also a great core exercise because you have to keep your abs and back tight and supported through the whole repetition,”
No matter your fitness level, you can easily intensify or dial down a push-up by changing the placement of your hands, lifting your hands or feet, and incorporating more movement in your legs.
If you’re a beginner, for instance, you want to start with a modified push-up on your knees until you’re able to build a greater upper body and core strength.
And if you’re a seasoned athlete, maybe you’ll challenge your balance and core stability by incorporating shoulder taps.
“As you progress in push-up variations, strength is increased through increased core engagement, increased engagement of minor muscle groups—namely triceps—and the introduction of balance. “The more unstable the push-up, the harder it is to perform, and the more you have to draw on increased strength.
To ensure you’re challenging your body in new ways, I have put together the best push-up variations to try as you progress. Incorporate a variety of them into your current workout routine for eight to 12 reps each. “Consistency is key. The more consistent you are in doing them, the stronger you’ll get.
Push up is my go-to exercise whenever I cannot think of anything else this is what I do, here are some of them shown below, have included beginner variation as well, so feel free to try it out and see how you feel.
It’s pretty easy once you get into the habit of doing it daily, my mantra is simple, “Just Do IT”. Of course, sounds like Nike ha-ha, but it works every time.
Sure push-ups are never easy trust me even after doing 1000 burpees at a go and working out since 11 years, I still find push-ups challenging and that’s what I love about this exercise as it challenges me in every sense to do more and never gets boring once you try doing it with variations. You can get creative with it as you progress but first get the form and basics right.
So, guys, let us jump to it right away
- Modified Push-up
A modified push-up is a great way to introduce the exercise to your workouts, especially if you’re new to fitness or just getting back into a routine. It forces you to keep your core tight and to engage your chest, back, and arms.
- Standard Push-up
As you get stronger and progress, you can try a standard push-up by keeping your knees off the ground. Mastering a proper push-up comes down to the placement of your shoulders and wrists. You want your hands to be shoulder-width apart or just outside of shoulder-width. Having your hands farther apart makes the move more difficult and harder to engage the right muscles.
- Hand-Release Push-up
Trainers love this variation of the push-up because it emphasizes the “push” part of the movement and forces you to engage your chest because you bring your entire body down to the ground.
- Chaturanga Push-up
As a classic yoga flow, this variation of the push-up, also known as a dive bomber, forces you to recruit your shoulders, triceps, and core, while improving your range of motion.
- Triceps Push-up
This push-up variation calls for a narrower grip to engage your triceps, the muscles in the back of your arms. Building strength in your triceps is important because they provide shoulder stability, which is essential push-and-pull movements like opening a door.
- Alternate-Leg Push-up
If you want to challenge your core strength, this push-up variation will test your stability. Lifting one foot off the ground forces you to use your core to keep your body lifted and in a straight line.
- Push-up to Frogger
Incorporating a frogger into your push-up will get your heart rate up and fire up your core, shoulders, and calves. This push-up variation is also a great way to introduce plyometrics into your workouts because it activates your fast-twitch muscle fibers.
- Blast Off Push-up
A blast off push-up will ignite your core and use the momentum from your legs to lower your body toward the floor. It will also get your heart rate up to burn calories and rev up your metabolism.
- Spiderman Push-up
Your obliques, aka your side ab muscles, are put to work in this push-up variation. Aim to bring your knee to elbow as close as you can to crunch those sides. This variation will also help you improve the depth of your push-up by forcing you to get lower.
- Negative push–up
Negative push up is a calisthenics exercise in which you lower yourself down very slowly, 5 seconds is a good time to lower your body to the ground then come up at a normal pace. This primarily targets the chest and to a lesser degree also targets the abs, lower back, middle back, shoulders, and triceps.
- Push-up with Shoulder Taps
Shoulder taps test your core strength and stability. To get the most out of this move, you want to move with control and avoid rocking your body from side to side when you lift your hand off the ground.
- Scapular Push-up
This wide hand placement push-up variation works your shoulders and back through retraction and protraction. If you sit at an office job all day, chances are your back is hunched over and stiff. Scapular push-ups work to un-hunch your back and improve mobility in your shoulders.
So guys hope you enjoy trying out the different variations yourself and keep your workouts fun and challenging at the same time.
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