A lot of people will shy away from doing push-ups, thinking they are either too simple or too difficult.
Yet push-ups are one of the best exercises for your body; a very good way to train, strengthen and tone the chest, deltoids and triceps.
They are especially good for women who generally have weaker upper bodies than men. By doing push-ups properly, and with the variations shown in this video-article, women can get more toned and stronger with each session.
My good friend, MMA trainer Alan Orr of Gym 101 in Tauranga, New Zealand, will show you several variations to help you get the most out of your push-up routine.
Kneeling push-ups position
If you find it difficult to do full push-ups, you can start on your knees, which is not as hard to do, will still allowing you to develop the reps and strength to eventually move on to the full push-up. Even then, it is quite acceptable to do them from a kneeling position anyway.
To assume a push-up position from the knees, it is best to have a pad or at least a towel under your knees to decrease the potential pain of having the knees pressing into the floor. Keep your body in a neutral position, and tighten your abs a bit to help tone that area while keeping the low back from sagging.
To prevent stress and potential injury, make sure your hands are not behind your shoulders. You want your shoulders to come just forward of your thumbs. Keep your chin tucked in by looking down at the floor, to keep your spine straight from tailbone to head.
Standard kneeling push-ups
To do push-ups properly, breathe in as you slowly lower your upper body down by bending your elbows, not letting your chest touch the ground. Then breathe out as you push yourself up by straightening your arms. Repeat for 5, 10 or more repetitions as you are able, and do several sets for best toning results.
Shoulder strengthening variation
To make push-ups a more complete exercise you can change the armature to hit different parts of the shoulder, triceps and chest.
1) If you widen the space between your hands, so your hands are outside the shoulder width, you will work more of the shoulders and less of the triceps.
2) If you have a shoulder injury and want to strengthen the area, you can release some of the stress on the joint by simply turning your hands outward.
O-Shape, range of motions push-ups
If you have healthy shoulder joints and want to develop your full range of motion, for health or sports or other activities that require a flexible joint space, you can do circular (O-shape) push-ups.
To do this, you want to lower your upper body to one side, laterally transfer your weight to the other side while in the lowered position, and then push back up on the new side. So, you can lower yourself down onto your left arm, then transfer your body horizontally over to your right arm, then use your right arm to push yourself back up to starting position. This method also helps strengthen the elbow tendon. Start with small circles and then increase as you can to larger circles.
With the proper form, using a kneeling position, and progressing through these several variations, push-ups can become an integral part of your health and fitness training repertoire. If so, they can yield great results.
