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How To Do Push Ups

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How To Do Push Ups

Push ups are a great way to improve upper body strength and are a low cost exercise that can be done anywhere. Here are our top tips to make sure you are doing them correctly. Push ups are a great way to improve upper body strength and are a low cost exercise that can be done anywhere. Here are our top tips to make sure you are doing them correctly.

Step 1: Find somewhere comfortable

You must make sure you are in a comfortable environment to carry out your exercise. If you are in a gym make sure you are not obstructing other people. Make sure the floor is flat and level.

Step 2: Start position

Lie on your stomach with your hands, palms flat underneath your shoulders. Fully extend you fingers. Put your feet together with your toes bent underneath. Keep your legs straight.

Step 3: Action

Straighten your arms and push your body up. Remember to keep your back and legs straight. When you reach the top pause for a second and then lower yourself back towards the floor until your chest is 2 inches from the floor and your elbows are at 90 degrees.

Step 4: Amount

Never exceed your comfort zone. If you are starting out try doing a set of 10 push ups and as you begin to get more confident increase the amount of repetitions by 5 each time. Remember to the a few minutes between each set if you want to do more than one set.

Step 5: Tips

To make sure you are keeping your back straight you can imagine that you are attached to a plank of wood and this needs to stay attached to your back. Exhale as you push upwards. If you want to work your triceps more you can move you hands closer together. To concentrate more on your chest muscles try moving your hands further apart.

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Tips & Comments
  1. tejolson

    I'm a heavier guy. Because of this I should probably be grabbing onto something but it would have to be stable. Us heavy people have more weight to push. Which means there is more stress on our joints. If you are like me you might wanna do karate stuff to improve bone density (I don't personally). Likely all you need are hand/arm stretches (and to be grabbing onto something). I work on knuckle push ups but I sort of cheat. Like I said, I'm a heavy guy (270 lbs), it won't be easy for me to do knuckle push ups on a solid floor. I use a mat. Maybe in the distant future I'll be able to do it on solid floor but that's not likely.

  3. chrisjej

    This is a good video apart from the bit about starting with 10. If you don't know how to do a push up - chances are you lack the upper body strength to do one. The video needed to mention the variations on knee based push ups which are much easier when beginning.

  4. Anonymous

    yeh

  5. fhinz

    I think that's a good idea, making a video on imagining a plank of wood glued to our backs. Actually, lots of exercise tips give something like, "imagine ...". some are easy to imagine, some are not :D

  6. Anonymous

    I'm having trouble imagining keeping a plank of wood glued to my back, anybody wanna make a video on that subject?

  7. Anonymous

    you would be suprised how much easier an action becomes when you commit it to muscle memory. I never really did push-ups in high school i just lifted weights. After joining the NAVY and completing boot camp a push-up became as easy as breathing.

  8. Anonymous

    haha.... my PE teacher always ask us to do pull-ups and push-ups.... can someone teach me other methods to do them????

  9. Anonymous

    FILL THE BOTTLES WITH SAND OR GRAVEL TO GET MORE WEIGHT

  10. Anonymous

    press ups are'nt actually that hard. i could never do them before but i practised everyday for a month and i finally got there. i suggest that you start building your arms with dips first