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Push Ups / Press Ups - Bodyweight Strength Workouts

Push ups (a.k.a. press ups) are one of the core bodyweight exercises. They are often overlooked by people looking to improve strength and condititing, even though they are the staple exercise in the military and martial arts school. Push ups can strengthen the back, shoulders, triceps and forearms. Push ups are common in both traditional Eastern exercises as well as Western fitness routines. Many yoga asanas (postures) appear in push up variations, such as the plank (the standard starting position with straight arms and back), the cobra and downward dog. Indian push ups are known as baithaks, and are similar to the Chinese press-ups practiced in many traditional Chinese martial arts clubs. Press ups can be modified to suit people of all strengths, from press ups against a wall (not actually a push up, more a push away), to three-quarter push ups, which are done on the knees rather than the tips of the toes; push ups on stability balls, either with hands or feet on the ball; to the most extrem, handstand push ups. These are usually done with the feet against a supporting wall. Some martial artists have demonstrated one handed handstand push ups.

In addition to performing push ups on the palms, people also pus hup from a closed fist or even finger tips, to help strengthen and condition the hands for combat.

Personal training: Push ups

Demonstration of how to properly do push-ups, with examples of poor form.

Hindu Pushups / Chinese Push Ups

Demonstration of hindu push ups, or Chinese push ups, which are relaly good for combat sports. They help strengthen forearms, shouldersn and work the ribs a little too. In this demonstration the elbows stay high off the ground. With Chinese / kung-fu press ups, the elbows should almost touch the floor as you lower down and forward. This provides excellent training for creating a more explosive punch.

Chris Comfort's Push Up Workouts

This is a great introduction to push ups. Several variations are demonstrated. Push up bars are used in a lot of the exercises to help with wrist positioning and stability training. Push ups should be done slowely to allow maximum musclualr gain. Push ups should be performed with a 2-3 second lower, then a brief pause, and a 1 second raise. This leads to increased micro-traumas in the muscles which promotes muscle growth.

To develop explosive power "one and a half push up" with a "plyometric pop" are recommended, as this promotes muscluar growth as well as honing the nervous system. This is ideal for football players.

Also demonstrated is the triceps close grip press up. This is very intensive and done on the knees (three quarter press ups). It exercises the upper chest and shoulders as well as the triceps. Also, as the hands are held close together as fists, it improves stability too.

Finally the dive over push up is shown. Thes are done on tip toe, and when lowering you push with your feet so that your shoulders "diver over" your hands.

The most important recommendation here is that you perform five perfect full push ups rather than many rapid push ups with poor form.

Here various different tools are used to allow different press ups, such as the Swiss ball, Push Up plates, Medicine Ball push ups, and weighted push ups. There is also an alternative exercise which adds a one arm row after each push up.

We hope to display more video tutorials soon, as we source the best press up training videos online. If you have made a push up video tutorial and would like it shown here, just contact us!


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