The advantages of doing push-ups are many, ranging from visual effects, such as improving the appearance of the arms and back, through he alth benefits (strengthening the lumbar section), and ending with the variety and many variants of push-ups (narrow, wide, women's and men's push-ups e.t.c.). If you're still thinking of including push-ups in your daily activities, be sure to read the article below.

The advantage of doingpushupsis that you do not need a specially prepared place or specialized equipment to do them. All you need is a piece of the floor and a bit of motivation.

Visual effects for doing push-ups

If you think that you are only scratching your upper body muscles by doing push-ups, you are wrong. Push-ups are an exercise that shapes and strengthens many muscle groups, e.g. the muscles of the lower back and abdomen, buttocks and thighs.

You are able to do a full body workout by making modifications to this one basic exercise. Start with women's push-ups performed on the knees. You can do less of them, but focus on being technically correct. Practice push-ups at the mirror - thanks to which you can correct mistakes (e.g. back curvature in the lumbar region). Also remember that when doing push-ups, it is not only the phase of straightening your arms that counts, but also the moment of descending to the floor. Take this stage slowly, try to control it.

Narrow push-ups are a good way to tone the triceps area (triceps muscle of the arm), thanks to which you can get rid of the dangling skin on the back of the arms (so-called "pelicans", "butterflies"). Push-ups in a narrow and wide position of the hand will lift the bust, because this movement develops the pectoral muscles (larger, smaller pectoral muscles).

If you want to additionally strengthen and carve your belly, do spiderman push-ups. How to do them? When descending towards the mat or the floor, bring one leg bent at the knee to the elbow. Then straighten up, come back to the starting position and repeat the exercise to the other side. In addition to the thoracic and deltoid muscles, you also engage the dentate anterior muscle as well as the oblique and rectus muscles of the abdomen.

See also: PUMPS - take the 30-day challenge and do 50 push-ups in a row

He alth benefitsdoing push-ups

Do you have back problems? Do you have pain in the lumbar region? A properly performed pump makes the muscles of the back and abdomen, responsible for maintaining proper body posture, stronger. A strong torso protects the internal organs against damage and thus reduces the risk of injury.

In addition, by doing push-ups you strengthen the intercostal muscles and the muscles of the shoulder belt, which are involved in the mechanics of breathing. It is important to do the push-ups correctly and keep your back to pelvis straight! If you "break" your body in the lumbar region, you deepen the lordosis.

Dozens of pump variants

Another advantage of the exercise is the possibility of introducing changes and testing various variants, e.g. narrow, wide, diamond, men's, women's, Swedish push-ups, on one hand, in a handstand, with feet on a gymnastic ball, with one hand on a platform (e.g. on a medicine ball), on a TRX, with a load, etc.

To diversify your training, you can, for example, do push-ups on a platform (your feet rest on e.g. stairs). The difficulty of this version is that you have to go very low with your body. In this exercise, the muscles of the upper chest and shoulders work harder.

If you want to increase your level of advancement, try doing a push-up with your arms or legs placed on a gym ball. Why is such a pump more difficult to perform? The ball is flexible and not very stable, so the "core" muscles (abdominal cavity, back, pelvis, thighs and buttocks) tense more intensively. The stronger the muscle tension, the more effective the exercise.

Check:

22 types of push-ups for different muscle groups

How to do push-ups on bars (dips)? What are the effects?

Why is it worth doing push-ups? Addition to other activities

Push-ups are a good way to complement other workouts as they strengthen the entire body. This translates into better achievements in trained sports disciplines, such as gymnastics, acrobatics, martial arts or street workout.

In gymnastic training, you can replace an ordinary push-up with a push-up done on wheels. The wheels are very unstable, so you have to flex your muscles more intensively (similar to the aforementioned gymnastic ball). This type of push-up can be an introduction to more complex exercises with the use of gymnastic rings.

It is worth mentioning fist push-ups, which are a permanent element of karate training. When performing this exercise (body weight onindex finger and middle finger), you learn the correct positioning of the fist at the time of striking. An additional effect is the strengthening of the wrists and ankles, which eliminates injuries resulting from poor stabilization of the upper limbs.

Category:

Anatomy