Best Exercises The Push Up

The push up remains one of the most important yet underrated body weight exercises in the exercise handbook. The reason that push ups, along with many other body weight exercises, are underrated is because of the competition from so many free weight systems. These systems have created the inaccurate impression that push ups are ineffective. Well, nothing could be further from the truth as the push up remains one of the absolute most important exercises one could perform.

Muscles Worked

Push ups generally work the chest area and aid in building muscle mass as well as muscular endurance in the pectoral area. But, this particular exercise in not just a chest exercise as it does not strictly isolate the chest. There is a great deal of secondary benefit provided to the triceps, shoulders, biceps, and forearms as well. So, it can be said that the common push up is the grandfather of all upper body exercises.

How to do them

Basically, the way a push up is performed is by lying chest to floor and placing your palms on the floor with the elbows in close to the body. Then, push upwards with the arms while exhaling. During the downward lowering to the floor it becomes important to inhale. If you do not inhale/exhale properly then you run the risk of tiring out during your exercise which could lead to your cutting the exercise short. Needless to say, this would deny your acquisition of the benefits that push ups are designed to deliver.