Last week I covered various locations where you can exercise. This week I am going to go in depth with my favorite exercise- the pushup. It is perhaps the oldest, most common, most effective, and most versatile workout available. Today I will explain how to do various types of pushups and later in the week I will look into the benefits of pushups and how they affect your body.
The basic pushup is performed by laying flat on the ground with your stomach on the floor. Keep your legs together and stay on your toes. Your hands should be shoulder-width apart or slightly further; now you are going to push your body straight up keeping your back straight, your bum down. It is imperative that you maintain good form for the pushup to be most effective. After you are in the up position with your back straight, arms straight, and on your toes, the next step is to go down. Bend at the elbows and go until your elbow is at a 90 degree angle, now you are ready to push up again.
If you are unable to maintain good form while performing a regular pushup, you can do an incline pushup. To do this you want to lean against a wall or counter or chair and then push yourself up, again, keeping your feet together and your back straight. As you progress with this you can keep decreasing the height of the object that you place your hands on. This will increase strength and endurance until you are able to do a pushup on the floor.
Once you are able to do a large number of normal pushups you can do various other types with more difficulty. Diamond pushups are much harder than normal pushups. These can be performed by taking your hands and forming them into a diamond shape. Touch your index fingers together, in addition to touching your thumbs together. Using the same form for a normal pushup, place your hands in the diamond shape and then do a pushup. Try to keep your arms directly underneath your torso to increase balance and strength during the exercise.
Another form of pushup is performed by placing your hands as wide as possible, while still being able to push yourself up. There are also clapper pushups; these are performed by doing a normal pushup but at the bottom of the rep you want to push yourself up as hard and far as possible and then either clap your hands in front of your body or behind your back (behind the back is quite a bit harder). Make sure for these that you are comfortable with the motion and are confident that you will be able to perform them otherwise you could get quite injured. Next time I will cover more types of pushups.
Sacrifice precedes victory…