The Perfect Pushup

Pushups have been around for a long time. Athletes have used them forever to tone arms and chest, add strength and just generally be fit. There are dozens of really great workouts designed around the pushup (for example: Turbulence Training and the Complete Bodyweight Callisthenics Workout Program).

The Perfect Pushup

1. Assume a prone position on the floor or other hard surface that's able to support your body weight. Keep your feet together.


2. Place your hands under your shoulders with your palms on the ground. Curl
   your toes upward (towards your head) so that the balls of your feet touch the ground.


3. Raise yourself using your arms. At this point, your weight should be supported by your hands and the balls of your feet. This position is called "plank," which is used for other various exercises. This is the beginning and the end position of a single push-up.


4. Lower your torso to the ground until your elbows form a 90 degree angle. Keep your head facing forward. Try to have the tip of your nose pointed directly to the front as you're going down. Draw a breath as you lower yourself.


5. Raise yourself by attempting to push the ground away from you. Breathe out as you push. The power for that push will inevitably come from your shoulders and chest.
   The triceps are also contracted but the primary exercise for the triceps isn't the push-up. Continue the push until your arms are just about straight.


6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remainder of the exercise

Stretch the chest and shoulder muscles during your cool down cycle. Proper stretching and cool down routines are just as important as the warm up, but are quite often overlooked.

Some Pushup Tips and Variations

• Breathe out while pushing up on pushups. Do NOT hold your breath, this can raise blood pressure and in extreme cases, can cause dizziness or unsteadiness.


• Do not let your chest touch the floor while coming down, your weight will be supported by the floor and not your chest and shoulders. Since they aren't supporting your weight anymore, the chest and shoulders will relax. Therefore, they will experience a more violent contraction when you start to push (not to mention the one second they aren't contributing to increase your upper body strength). Similarly, when coming up, if you let your arms become completely straight (i.e. lock your elbows) your weight gets supported by the bones in your arm (i.e. the skeletal structure) rather than your muscles.


• Imagine a straight line from your shoulder blades to your knees and try to keep it straight. If you bend at your hips, you will not only reduce the effectiveness of the exercise (since you aren't exactly lifting your whole body anymore), but might also get unnecessary pain in your abs or lower back.


• For variation, you can let your elbows shoot out from your torso when you come down or keep them tucked to the sides. This variation has no significant effect on the difficulty of the exercise but rather changes the muscles worked. If you keep your elbows to the sides, you will use more of your triceps; if you keep them wider, you will use more of the chest muscles.


• The biceps have little involvement in this exercise, at the most, they act as antagonists or stabilisers. Hand pointing different ways have little effect. The main movers are the front deltoids, triceps and pectorals major and minor.


• If you want an easier exercise, you can do the push-ups with your hands being on higher ground than your feet. You might do this by putting a box or some books between the hands and the floor. The more "vertical" you get, the easier the exercise will be. Conversely, raise your feet higher than your hands (bench, exercise ball etc) to increase the difficulty and stress on the upper pectoral.