Powerful chest muscles, strong arms, good posture, and excellent well-being are not all the benefits you will get from regularly performing this exercise. The benefits of push-ups are undeniable, you can do them anywhere and anytime, informs Ukr.Media.
Push-ups are familiar to each of us since school physical education classes. This exercise is universal. Today we will talk about the benefits (sometimes not obvious) that you will get if you add this exercise to your training program.
Benefits for physical and mental health
Strength training in general has many benefits for physical and mental health and well-being, such as improving strength and posture, increasing energy, feeling happier and more positive. As well as reducing the risk of depression and stress. While just a few push-ups won't do much, a proper workout program that includes push-ups will help keep you in shape.
Available anytime, anywhere
One of the biggest benefits of push-ups is that they can be done anywhere, anytime. While there is some equipment you can use to change the difficulty of the exercise, at the end of the day, this is essentially a simple bodyweight exercise. Whether you decide to roll out of bed and do a set of 20-30 reps to start your day, or maybe you need a quick “pick-me-up” in the middle of the workday, all you need is enough space to do a bench press.
Different muscle groups are trained
As a basic exercise, push-ups engage many different muscle groups to varying degrees, including: arms (triceps), shoulders (deltoids), chest (pectoralis major and minor, serratus anterior), core (abdominals), and legs (glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps).
Improves cardiovascular health
By working your major muscle groups at the same time, your heart has to work harder to pump blood to your muscle tissue. Daily exercise can help lower your blood pressure, body weight, and bad cholesterol levels. While push-ups alone won't completely improve your cardiovascular fitness or health, they're a great addition to any exercise program.
Many variations
You can choose different variations of push-ups, making the exercise easier or harder. From something as simple as a single leg raise to a more complex one-arm push-up. Or to extremely challenging explosive push-ups with a cotton ball in your palm. The options are almost endless. With each variation and different arm and leg positions and depths of the push-up, different muscle groups will be involved. You can also use a variety of equipment to help make your push-up routine more challenging: bands, kettlebells, or dumbbells.
Helps improve balance and stability
By maintaining proper posture during regular push-ups, your muscles are constantly working to keep your body in the correct position. When you add an element of instability to your push-ups, your stabilizer muscles help improve your flexibility and mobility. Many people tend to forget this when they hit the gym.
Reduced risk of injuries
Push-ups and other bodyweight exercises help maintain bone strength. As bone mass tends to naturally decrease with age, bones become more fragile and prone to injury. Push-ups help strengthen the entire body, making them a great exercise for protecting the rotator cuff and lower back.
Push-ups are a functional exercise.
Every day you push a shopping cart, a wheelbarrow in the garden or your child on a swing. We use pushing movements several times a day, often without even realizing it.
Push-ups are a great way to stretch different muscle groups.
With the right pace, the downward phase of push-ups stretches the back muscles well, and the upward movement helps stretch the biceps.
You will look great and feel great!
Everyone likes to look good, whether it's in their favorite T-shirt on a sunny day or a suit for a formal evening. A strong, muscular chest against a toned stomach will give everyone confidence. Different variations of push-ups will provide you with just that.
Correct push-up technique
If you do push-ups incorrectly, you won't get any results. So, if you're new to this, try practicing this exercise in front of a mirror first to see yourself from the side and correct any mistakes. Here are some rules for perfect push-ups:
- Make sure your legs and torso are straight, and your pelvis does not protrude upward or sink downward.
- Your arms should be shoulder-width apart and when lowering, they should bend along your torso, not to different sides.
- You need to stand on your toes, not lower your head down and look straight ahead.
- Your chest should barely touch the floor when lowering, but in no case should it touch it.
- As you descend, inhale and exhale sharply as you rise.
Types of push-ups
In addition to the regular push-ups, there are many modified types of push-ups. Each of them is designed to develop individual muscle groups.
Fist push-ups
If regular push-ups are too easy for you, you can make it harder by doing push-ups on your fists. Your fists should be parallel to your body, with your thumbs facing forward. This exercise makes the push-up process more difficult because it increases the distance to the floor. This not only strengthens your chest muscles, but also your back, abs, obliques, and chest.
Push-ups on the parallel bars
A great way to significantly increase your shoulder and triceps strength. When doing push-ups on the parallel bars, keep your hands as close to your body as possible, otherwise you will break and fall. Don’t go down too far — this can damage your shoulder joint. It’s better to go down shallowly, but quickly and without stopping. Over time, you will learn to do push-ups on the parallel bars very quickly, making lightning-fast jerks upwards from a bent-arm position.
From the wall
More therapeutic than a strength exercise. It is sometimes recommended for girls or simply people with weak arms. Stand near a wall at a distance of straightened arms and place your palms against the wall. Do push-ups without spreading your elbows in different directions. The exercise helps prepare the elbow joints and shoulders for regular push-ups. It is also useful for a morning warm-up.
Push-ups on fingers
This is much more difficult than doing push-ups on your fists. First, the distance from your chest to the floor increases significantly. Second, this exercise puts a strain on your fingers and hands, which in untrained people cannot support the weight of your entire body. However, having learned this type of exercise, you will strengthen the entire shoulder girdle, chest, back and abs.
Diamond push-ups
Another very difficult type of this exercise. Its essence is that you have to put your hands next to each other and do push-ups, trying to barely touch your palms. This is very difficult to do without skill, because at first you will lose your balance and fall. But over time your arm muscles will develop and you will learn to hold on without falling. Here another problem will appear: diamond push-ups involve those muscles of the shoulders and chest that you have not previously trained by doing regular push-ups. Therefore, doing push-ups in such a stand will be twice as difficult, but at the end you will develop a great chest.
Push-ups with cotton
The point is that you do regular push-ups, but you do the exit so hard that you fly up a little, and at this moment you clap your hands. The exercise greatly develops the jerking strength of the arms, and also improves coordination. It can be done by those whose chest and muscles around the elbow joints are powerful enough to “shoot” the whole body upwards.
Contraindication
People who have recently suffered injuries to their arms, chest, and torso should not do push-ups. This can aggravate the situation and injure the body even more. Also, complex types of push-ups are contraindicated for people with hypertension and arrhythmia. Beginners are recommended to start practicing exercises in a kneeling position so that the body gradually gets used to the loads.
Джерело: ukr.media
