I love push-ups. You can do them anywhere, anytime, and there are many different levels and variations you can use as your strength improves. It’s one of the best resistance training exercises for upper body strength, and you don’t need any equipment or a gym membership. It works your chest, shoulders, arms, core and lower back, and you can even isolate certain muscles by changing your hand position. For example, having your hands wider apart helps to target your chest, while having your hands close together underneath your chest targets your triceps (the muscles in your upper arm).
Like all exercises, there are some important technique tips to follow to prevent injury and help you get the most out of every movement. Here are some key pointers on performing the perfect push-up:
Now that you’ve nailed the right technique, here are some variations on push-ups which highlights their versatility, and gives you options as your strength improves. You can also adjust the difficulty by altering the depth of your push-ups:
As a rough guide, aim to perform push-ups three times a week, and always have at least one rest day in between. Find a level of difficulty (see the variations above) where you can perform at least 10 repetitions, but no more than 20. Do at least two sets (two lots of 10 – 20 repetitions), and combine these with other body weight exercises such as sit ups, lunges and dips.
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