Jan 27, 2015 The barbell bench press is great for building chest and arm muscles. The muscle-building results were the same. People who did pushups used an elastic band for resistance, as shown in the. Push-ups are a great exercise to develop explosive speed training for the bench press. When you do a push up you lift approximately 60% of your bodyweight. And unlike weight training exercises, you can lift more explosively by doing push ups. I am sure that you have seen people do 'clap your hands' push ups before. The 3-Day Workout Program. These exercises can be combined together to form two training days full of compound lifts only, which will make it be a full body workout. This means that you will need a rest day following each training day, and the end of the week is two consecutive rest days.
Do Them Right, Then Make Them Tougher
May 28, 2019 Decline pushups are just as they sound. Instead of being on an incline, your upper body is positioned lower than the rest of your body. You can still use the same box or bench to do an incline pushup.
Nowadays, push-ups are either mocked, considered useless, or worse, forgotten about altogether. That's a huge mistake, and one that we need to address ASAP.
Why Do Push-Ups?
- They're great for the shoulders. Push-ups not only improve timing between the scapulae, shoulders and elbows, but they also work to open up the upper back. One of the reasons we have so many shoulder problems today is because we don't put a strong enough emphasis on proper push-up technique.
- They're great for the core. If you want to get stupid-strong, you need to bench press. But one of the downsides to the bench press is that it's performed on your back. In a push-up, you have to unify or tie together your upper and lower body. Your core is the tie that binds, and if it's weak, unstable, or imbalanced, it's going to affect your ability to do the push-up correctly.
- They can be done anywhere. There's always enough space to get a quick and dirty push-up workout in.
How Do You Do Push-Ups?
I can't tell you how many 'experienced' lifters I've worked with who have absolutely no clue how to perform a proper push-up. Seriously. No clue. Here are some areas that need focus:
1 – The Upper Body
Too many people want to think in absolutes. Either they want the elbows flared out to 90 degrees, or they tuck them in hard by the sides. Neither option is great for your shoulders.
With the elbows flared excessively, a ton of stress is placed on the shoulder joint. It's also an incredibly disadvantageous position biomechanically, so not only will it feel like crap, but you'll perform like crap, too.
On the flip side, tucking the elbows in hard to your sides isn't a great idea, either. While most do this with the intent of sparing the shoulders, what ends up happening is that this excessive tucking causes the humerus to glide forward in the glenoid fossa. In normal people talk, you start to get an 'owie' in the front of your shoulder.
Instead, find a balance. Make a 45-degree angle with your elbows, or simply 'make an arrow.' This cue works like a charm for shoulder health and performance.
2 – The Lower Body
This part is easy. Just keep the lower body tight. Sure, you can squeeze the glutes and flex the quads, but you don't need to go full-blown high-threshold when you're doing a standard push-up. Instead, find a normal amount of tension for the task at hand. Save all those high-tension strategies for when you're doing those single-arm, blindfolded push-ups on a medicine ball.
3 – The Core
This is arguably the most important part of the body when performing a push-up. After all, tying together the upper and lower body is the reason we perform push-ups versus bench presses. Find and hold a neutral spine position throughout. If you laid a PVC pipe or broomstick on your back, you should have three points of contact:
- The back of the head
- The upper back
- The buttocks
If you want extra credit, make sure that you only have a slight (1 inch) space in between your lumbar spine and the stick. This will make sure your abs are optimally engaged.
Now getting into this position may be relatively easy, but the hard part is staying there when you actually do the movement. What you tend to see is a lowering of the body, followed by deepening lordosis, a caving of the upper back, and a head that droops towards the floor. Instead, lock the spine in throughout and you'll not only get a great upper body workout, but a great core workout as well.
4 – Natural Movement
Most people make push-ups unnatural and unathletic. If you're thinking about 'pulling' your shoulder blades together when you lower yourself down, stop!
When most people think about pulling the shoulder blades together, they inevitably slam them together at the beginning of the movement and run out of motion at the scapulae. At this point, they continue to lower down, and all of that movement (and stress) moves to the shoulders.
To remedy this, think about making the movement athletic again. Don't think about pulling the shoulder blades together. Simply think about moving the scaps, shoulders, and elbows at the same time.
But if you're really patterned to first pull the shoulder blades together, you may need to think about the opposite: bending the elbows first. It sounds counterintuitive, but thinking about bending the elbows first will typically clean up the movement in a matter of reps.
5 – Reaching
The second critical element of a great push-up is to focus on reaching at the start and the finish. Many athletes are locked into a poor position through their upper back and thorax:
- The thorax is pushed forward, which doesn't give the scapulae a place to rest.
- The scaps are looking for stability, so muscles such as the rhomboids become overactive and 'pin' the shoulder blades back and down.
Push-ups are a great tool to help remedy this, but only when done correctly. You may have seen that bro on Instagram cranking out sets of 50, 75, or 100 push-ups, but you'll note that he never actually finishes a rep. Sorry, but that's making things worse.
Instead, think about finishing each rep. Keep the chest out while simultaneously reaching long through the arms, or thinking about pushing the body away from the floor.
When done correctly, it should feel like you're stretching the area in between your shoulder blades at the start and finish of each rep.
How Do I Make Push-Ups Harder?
It's funny when someone says, 'Push-ups are easy! Can't we find a way to make them harder?' Then when you actually watch them do some push-ups, their hips are dragging the floor, their shoulders are all over the place, and their neck is protruding like an 80-year-old with osteoporosis.
Push-ups aren't the sexiest exercise, but first learn to do them correctly before seeking new challenges. Once you do that, there are three routes you can typically take to make them harder:
1 – Strength-Focused Progressions
Use these if you want to go full-blown meathead and just get super strong. These include anything that increases the external resistance:
- Bands
- Chains
- Weighted vests
- Plates loaded on your back
2 – Stability-Focused Progressions
These are great options if you want to bulletproof your body and make sure things are in balance. It's not uncommon to see super strong guys who have shoulder or lower-back problems, so doing stability-focused progressions can clean up those weak areas and fix them up for the long haul.
Stability-focused progressions would include any exercise where there are elements of instability involved: unstable surface push-ups (TRX, Blast Straps, Jungle Gym, gymnastic rings, etc.) and push-ups with the hands on medicine balls.
3 – Rotation-Focused Progressions
Strong and explosive athletes have a tendency to get locked in the sagittal plane (driven into extension). If this becomes excessive, they lose access to their frontal and transverse planes, which can cause injuries up and down the kinetic chain.
To remedy this, offset push-up variations can be crucial in getting trunk rotation back. Push-up variations in this category can include: offset variations off a box (see video), offset variations with one hand on a medicine ball, and push-ups to a single-arm support.
Based on your needs and goals there are tons of different options at your disposal. And if you want the best of all worlds, simply rotate your emphasis every 2-3 months to help build a strong, well-balanced, and bulletproof physique.
Related: The Very Best Push-Up for Pecs
Related: Push-Ups: You're Doing Them Wrong!
Popular & Trending
Think bodyweight exercises are just for beginners? It’s time to challenge that assumption. A new study shows push-ups can build as much muscle as the bench press.
If you’ve ever hit the gym at peak time when it’s incredibly busy, you’ll be familiar with the usual frustration of having to wait for a bench to become free. This can hamper your workout and impact the level of volume and intensity you’re able to apply.
Bench Press For Sale
As two hugely important variables for greater muscle growth, this is pretty important business. It’s also a massive pain in the backside if you’ve got places to be and can’t afford to wait around.
What if there was an alternative? You may be under the impression that you can’t garner the same gains from a push-up when compared to the bench. This is false, as new evidence shows.
The study
Researchers at North Dakota State University compared push-ups with the bench press on matters of muscle growth and strength.
While you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, it was discovered both groups saw a similar surge in muscle thickness (MT) and bench press one rep max (1RM).
Just note that push-ups have to be progressive – whether that’s with an increasing rep range, or a greater load.
Weight plates, weighted vests or (if you trust them enough) your training partner are all cool ways to pump up your pecs if all the benches are busy – or if you can’t get a full workout in.
Progressive push-ups
One simple set of push-ups won’t cut the mustard. This study put progressive push-ups under the microscope.
This essentially means that you should perform your push-ups with an ever-increasing number of reps, or an increasingly heavy load. You can achieve this by adding weight plates to your back, wearing a weighted vest or (if you trust them enough) asking your training partner to hop on.
How to perform a push-up
Bench Press Workouts
Now you know why the hype is real, here’s how to perform a proper push-up:
- Begin with your hands shoulder-width apart and arms fully locked out
- Keep your elbows tucked in. They should be in line with your shoulders and wrists
- Slowly lower to the ground while keeping your core engaged and back straight
- Pause when your chest is brushing the floor and hold for 1-2 seconds
- Push back up to the beginning
Note: You can add further tension with an incline push-up. You’ll need to elevate your feet onto a raised surface such as a flat bench, couch or chair.
Bench Press Equipment
Push-up mistakes to avoid
With the positives of the push-up clear, it’s worth mentioning the most common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Elbows in: Flaring your elbows out too far places undue stress on the shoulder joint, taking tension off the target muscle groups and instead placing it on the joint.
Engage your core: Keep your abs engaged at all stages of the movement. Not only will this make you stronger, you’ll perform more reps and so place your muscle fibers under sufficient stress.
Bonus push-up tip
When performing a push-up, find the hand placement position that is most comfortable for you. Then, have a friend measure the distance between your two hands.
Take this measurement over to the bench press. When setting up to press, your hands should be this very distance apart. A lot of people struggle with bench press technique and form, and this an easy way of alleviating that.
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