Push Ups: Do It
Okay, so you decided to get in shape…but you’re not ready to buy a gym membership. You want to lose weight, get stronger, and look better without spending any money. Also, you don’t have any equipment and you don’t feel like buying any. Well, you cheap S.O.B., you’re in luck.
You need to be doing push-ups, and lots of them. I’ll tell you why.
When guys say they want to get in shape they think of big muscles (and hot women hanging off them)…Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are your guns and pecs (that’s arms and chest muscles to the layperson). Think of push-ups as Level 1. Let’s talk about why push-ups are so good for you and so versatile:
When you complete a full push up shown here in the image (no it’s not me), you use every muscle in your chest, shoulders and triceps to complete it. You know what three muscles give you that full “holy crap that guy is jacked” look? Bingo! chest, shoulders, and triceps. Now, if you’re next comment is “no, biceps make your arms bigger,” I would reply with a simple yet effective “you’re a jackass.” It’s actually your triceps that give your arms most of their size…so don’t worry Rocky, we’ll get to your back and biceps in another post. Right now, let’s just worry about these three muscles.
When you do a push up, your chest, triceps (which is composed of three muscles (tri, three, get it?), and shoulders all work in harmony to lift your body up and down off the floor…and I’m not just talking your main muscles either, but all of your stablizer muscles too. These twitch muscles keep your body stabilized as you rise and fall and also help promote growth. One exercise, three muscle groups worked? Brilliant! So much more efficient than isloating each muscle group.
Proper Push Up Technique: Lie facing the floor with your hands, fingers pointing at 12 o’clock, just wider than shoulder width apart. When you push up, make sure your head, shoulders, back, butt, and legs are all lined up in a single line. Don’t stick your ass in the air, and don’t sag either. You’re only cheating yourself! Inhale when you are lowering yourself, and exhale when you are raising yourself. Sounds simple enough, right? This is the building block to all exercises, and one you need to absolutely master before moving on to anything more advanced.
Push Up Varations: Bored already? Well, there are all KINDS of variations to mix things up for you.
-If you want to isolate your chest more (putting greater empasis on your pecs), move your hands farther apart so the distance between them is wider.
-If you want to increase the workout of your stabilizer muscles, do your push ups onto an exercise ball. This is a personal favorite of mine, because it’s freaking hard as hell. If you can do more of a workout in the same amount of time, why not, right? Place both of your hands on a big exercise ball, and try to do your pushups as slowly as possible. Expect to wobble a lot. That wobbling will cause every single muscle fiber in your chest, arms, and shoulders to try and stay balanced, working them in a way they’ve never been used before.
-If you want to increase your shoulder size and upper chest, try some decline push ups. Get into the normal push up position, but put both your feet up onto a chair/bench/younger brother so that your moment is more downward. You’ll really feel this in your shoulders and upper chest.
-If you want to isolate your triceps more, and really give them a workout, move your hands closer together (forming a diamond between with your hands. Note these are VERY advanced, so make sure you know what you’re doing before you begin them.
If you’re going to do these different variations (and variety is good…keeps your muscles guessing and growing), do the push ups that isolate your chest first, then the ones that work your shoulders, THEN the ones that isolate your triceps. Think about it, if you isolate your triceps and wear them out, you won’t be able to do any more push ups because your triceps will break down before your chest does (chest is a bigger muscle, stronger, get it?). However, if you wear out your chest, and then your shoulders, you can still do exercises that work your triceps. Exhaust all three of them, and you’ll get the best growth out of them.
How many should you do, and how often?
I stumbled across this site, hundredpushups.com, where they set you up with a weekly plan to get yourself on the path to doing one hundred consecutive push ups. Sounds impossible right? Sounds like you want to give up? Want to say it’s all over? Well let me tell you something, “was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor!?! Hell No!” Visit the site, take the initial test, and place yourself at that level.
IMPORTANT: When doing these push ups, you might get excited and want to do them every day. Bad idea. When you exercise, you essentially destroy your muscles during the workout. During the next 48 hours, your muscles are slowly rebuilt a little bit bigger and stronger. If you try to exercise the same muscle two days in a row, especially after really working hard…you’ll get as much action as the salad bar at fat camp. This goes for all of your muscles when trying to build strength…give it at least an extra day off. For pushups, if you’re following the hundred pushups routine, go with Monday, Wednesday, Friday and don’t train those muscles on other days.
This is a start for your newbies out there. Eat right, do this push up routine on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday…and your interval training on Tuesday and Thursday, and you’re well on your way to getting into great shape…plus you’re already doing more than like 75% of the country. Pat yourself on the back. We’ll talk diet later on in the week to make sure your body is getting the most out of these exercises.
-Steve
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Andrew
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Steve
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John R
