All about Pushups
(Chest)
BENEFITS & MUSCLES WORKED: Chest, Arms, Shoulders, Core
Watch: my Pushup video
START POSITION: Lie on the floor face down, and then push yourself up onto your hands and toes. Keep your feet apart at the back, about hip-width apart. The width of your hands should be pretty wide – the wider, the harder. Too narrow and you will risk injury. Don’t cheat. Wider is better.
NOTES: Difficulty Rating: 75%
There is a similar exercise, the Diamond Pushup, but this one will work the Triceps more than the Chest. You can also find a position somewhere in between so that you will work both Chest and Triceps, but if I’m honest, I really think that there are better ways to build other muscles. I prefer to stick with classic forms wherever possible and ensure I perform them correctly to minimize the risk of injury.
The Chest Pushup I teach is where the hands are always placed wider than shoulder-width apart (and never with fingers pointing inwards – they should point straight ahead or slightly outward).
Back in the old-school days, literally when I was at school in the South West of England, UK, this exercise was often used as a punishment! Yes, it was. So I was a bit of a rebel, and I somehow forgot my kit on Sports day, Boom! – P.E. detention for Mr Mojoh.
The punishment involved something they called ‘Sweat Sessions,’ and I have fond memories of being told by the P.E. teacher to go home early because I had ‘worked hard enough. ‘ I was enjoying it, and I wasn’t supposed to be enjoying it. It was supposed to be a punishment. I vaguely remember running all the way home (3 miles) because I didn’t care. They couldn’t break me lol.
Anyway, pushups were part of the punishment. Later, when I left school and went to work, and started to dream about my athletic potential, I realised that Push-ups were an essential tool towards athletic success.
They still are, and they always will be.
Keep your back/spine straight and neutral. Pause at the bottom and do not fall short of the lower position because this is where the enormous benefits come. Form is everything. I saw so many people cheat with push-ups. If I had a pound for every person I saw cheat with pushups, I would be a wealthy man now.
Sometimes it’s best not to compete with others, but to push your limits and compete with yourself.