Press Ups fall into the family of Calisthenics exercise, which involve using simple movement and your own bodyweight to increase your strength and flexibility. What better bodyweight workout then the traditional Press Up. At its simplest it involves laying on the floor with your chest to the ground and then using your arms to slowly raise and lower your body, keeping your body in the prone position.
Benefits of Press Ups Workout
A great benefit of Push Ups is that you won't need any equipment. Press Ups have been a mainstay of many workout programmes and are used in many military conditioning workouts. Due to its simplicity there are many variations on the simplest press up. A great side affect of press ups is build a great set of chest and shoulder muscles.
It's a workout that can build great strength, help to tone up your various muscle groups including your deltoids, pectorals, biceps, triceps and so on. Different muscle groups can be targeted based on the type of press up you perform.
Different Press up variations
Beginners Press Up
If your new to the world of press ups then you will need to condition your body to the workout. Start with three sets of 10 repetitions in each set. As your get stronger you can increase the repetitions and then move onto more advanced press up variations. Start the workout as follows;
Step 1 - Kneel on the floor.
Step 2 - Place your hands out in front of you, positioned them just wider than the shoulders.
Step 3 - Straighten tour arms.
Step 4 - Lower your upper body towards the floor until your elbows are at 90 degrees.
Step 5 - Finally push your upper body back up to the start position.
Common/Traditional Press Up
A step up in difficulty from the beginners press up will be the common press up. The main difference will be to keep your body in a prone position to the floor throughout the workout.
To begin the workout;
Step 1 - You will need to lay on the floor with your chest facing the ground, make sure your body is straight, with your chest, abdominals, thighs and shins all touching the floor at the start.
Step 2 - Place your hands besides you chest and position them just wider than your shoulder.
Step 3 - Slowly raise your body until your arms are straight, make sure your body is kept in the prone position (must be straight at all times, do not let your bum move out of place)
Step 4 - Hold your body at this raised position, than slowly lower your body so you are back to your starting position as in step 1.
Step 5 - Repeat steps until you have completed your set.
Variations on Traditional Press Up
The pull up workout is very versatile and its difficult can be increased easily after you may have mastered a certain variation. By changing the variation you can target certain muscles groups with a more intense workout. Common ways in which you can increase the difficulty of the press up workout are;
Step 1 - Position your hands closer together
Step 2 - Position your hands next to each other, with your thumbs touching each other, and your first fingers touching each other, make sure they form a triangle.
Step 3 - Raise the position of your feet, you can place them on a bench or other raised platform.
Step 4 - Position a weight on you back, you may need assistance for this.
One Handed Press up
The one handed press up is an advanced position as it will require you to have mastered the traditional workout. Your body will need to body conditioned correctly so that you can complete at least a single repetition and then build up as the weeks progress. To start the exercise;
Step 1 - You will need to lay on the floor with your chest facing the ground, make sure your body is straight, with your chest, abdominals, thighs and shins all touching the floor at the start.
Step 2 - Now comes the important step, select your stronger arm and place that hand under your chest. So if you right arm is stronger place your right hand under your right chest. Place your other hand on your back.
Step 3 - Move your feet so they are positioned wider than your shoulders
Step 4 - Slowly raise your body until your arm is straight, make sure your body is kept in the prone position (must be straight at all times, do not let your bum move out of place)
Step 5 - Hold your body at this raised position, than slowly lower your body so you are back to your starting position as in step 1.
Step 6 - Repeat steps until you have completed your set.
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