Best “Take-Anywhere” Upper Body Workout: THE PUSH UP

The simple push up, it can be done anywhere, anytime, and in many ways. You don’t need fancy equipment or a gym membership to do these.  The push up is a complete workout that everyone can do.  Not only are you training your chest, triceps, shoulders, and anterior deltoids, but you are also stretching your biceps and back.  The push up is not only limited to just upper body, but it could serve as a formidable core workout as well.  For instance, you must use your core so that your back does not sink down when you complete the motion.  You need one simple thing to complete this workout….space!!!  You can do push ups at home, at the office, in the living room, during the commercials of your favorite shows, etc.  Another great thing about the push up is that it is probably one of the most modifiable workouts ever.  It can become one of the easiest things you’ve ever done or the hardest.  Challenge yourself.  Try to do 100 push ups a day!  I’m not saying do it all in one sitting, but spread them out throughout the day; you will begin to see results.  Below are some different modifications to the push up.  Take your pick and have fun!

• Feet elevated push up - feet on a step, chair, or your bed; as long as your feet are about 1 foot higher than your hands. The higher the feet, the harder the push up!
• Elevated hands - hands on step, or chair
• Stability ball push ups - hands on the stability ball or feet on the stability ball; not only will this work the upper body, but really get into your core muscles!
• Clap push ups - perform a normal push up, but on the up movement, explode off the ground and clap your hands before landing; this is an advanced push up, so only try if you have mastered the traditional push up
• Push ups from the knees - if you are a beginner, this is a great way to start to build to the full push up; just perform the push up with your knees on the ground
• Hand stand push ups - this is another advanced push up, so only perform this one if you have mastered the other push ups and have good core and shoulder strength
• Wide/narrow push ups - hands are wider than shoulder width apart
• Triceps push ups - elbows are kept close to the body
• Diamond push ups - hands on the floor placed directly under the breastbone, forming a diamond with the index and thumbs of both hands