Bodybuilding Tips

Unique Benefits of Different Types of Push Ups

In addition to the many benefits of standard push ups (elevated heart rate, total body conditioning, etc.), there are many variations on the simple exercise that will allow you to specifically target different muscle regions. None of the push up variations require extra equipment, with the exception of the elevated push up, which requires a chair or some other means of elevating your feet.

The Standard Push up:

Proper position is with your body in a straight, horizontal position, with you hands shoulder-width apart. One proper repetition involves lowering your body to the point that your chest touches the ground, and then lifting yourself back to starting position.

Wide-stance Push up:

This type of push up is designed to place more emphasis on your chest than the standard push ups. This is very similar to a butterfly machine. By placing your hands in a wide position, i.e. wider than shoulder width, you will be forcing your chest to do more of the work. This push up also lightens the load on your triceps, so it is a good substitution towards the end of your workout, if your triceps are too exhausted to continue, and you feel like trudging on.

Diamond Push up:

Place your body in a straight, horizontal position. Slide your feet apart to approximately shoulder-width. Place your hands together, directly under your sternum, with the tips of your index fingers and thumbs touching. Your fingers and thumb should form sort of a diamond or triangle shape. This type of push ups puts a heavy emphasis on the triceps, and lightens the load on the pectoral muscles.

Elevated Push up:

The elevated push up is exactly the same as a standard push up, but it involves elevating your feet by placing them on a chair, or surface. By lifting your feet, you will be accomplishing two things: increasing the amount of weight being lifted, and shift emphasis to the upper pectorals. This is very similar to an inclined bench press.

The elevated push up can also involve elevating your chest and upper body while leaving your feet on the ground. This is significantly easier. By doing this, the load is shifted to the lower chest, similar to a declined bench press. Wide-stance and diamond push ups can also be done in an elevated position for chest and triceps isolation training.

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Build Beautiful Arms By Doing Pushups

If you want sexy arms and defined triceps, you need to do pushups, not triceps pushdowns. This will help you get nice arms, and avoid batwings.

You want nice arms, master the pushup.

You want to pass your physical recruitment test for the police academy or military, master the pushup.

You want to push other athletes around on the court or field (within the rules, of course!), master the push-up.

You want to be mobile, athletic, lean, and sexy? Master the advanced pushup variations.

If you can't do a pushup, start with these 3 basic steps. If you can do a bunch and want to take it to the next level, see the 3 advanced steps below.

Beginner 3-step progression for push-ups.

i) Kneeling Pushups
Start with 1 set of 8 if you are a beginner. Add 2 reps each workout for the first week, so that you are at 1 set of 12 after 3 workouts.

In the next week, add 1 set each workout, so that you are at 3 sets of 12 by the end of the week. Then try for 3 sets of 15 the next workout.

The problem with kneeling pushups is that you can only get so strong. Eventually, you'll be able to do 15 kneeling pushups, but you still won't be able to do a full pushup...so onto the Incline Pushup.

ii) Incline Pushups on Smith Machine
Set the smith machine bar at chest height. Stand about 2-3 feet away from the bar. Lean forward and grab the bar with an overhand grip. Keep the balls of your feet on the ground and lower your chest to the bar.

Do 3 sets of 8 repetitions per workout.

Each workout, lower the bar one notch on the Smith Machine until you get to the lowest rung. You're almost at full pushups now!

iii) Push up Holds
But you still might not be able to do more than 1 or 2. So let's get stronger where we are weaker - at the bottom.

From the top of the pushup position, lower your body slowly (for 2 seconds) to the bottom position.

Hold this position for 5 seconds.

Then slowly lower your body all the way to the floor, drop to your knees and then get back up to the full pushup position.

Do 3 sets of 3 repetitions of the 5 second hold.

Add 1 repetition each workout until you are up to 3 sets of 6. By now, you should be able to crank out quite a few pushups.

Advanced Pushups

Here's a progression to build you up to the Spiderman Pushups...

i) Pushups with Your Feet on the Ball

ii) T-Pushups

iii) Spiderman Pushups

These are advanced pushups, and will require photos, video, or personal instruction.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Start Today - Pull Ups and Chin Ups

Pull ups and Chin Ups are one of the best upper body exercises you can do. Read this article right now to discover 5 reasons why you should be doing them and how they can help you build muscle, burn fat, increase your functional strength, get more muscle tone, and much, MUCH MORE!

Almost everyone has heard about pull ups, but lots of guys don't realize how important they are... what a great exercise they are, or all the benefits you can get from pull ups and chin ups.

So why would you do pull ups and chin ups? What are some of the benefits?

Here's 5 big benefits of these exercises:

1. Functional Strength - The strength you build with pull ups will carryover to every area of your life and is a type of strength you might have to use one day (hanging off a building, climbing a wall, etc)...

2. Builds muscle - The pull up is one of the best ways to pack muscle onto your back, shoulders and arms...

3. Sport strength - Almost all sports require you to do a lot of pulling to play well, pull ups help in this regard...

4. Exercise Carryover - You pressing numbers will go up as you get better at pull ups...

5. Joint and Muscle Health - Making sure you do as many pull ups as you do presses will ensure you don't have any muscle imbalances and you'll stay healthy...

The last point is important because a lot of guys do tons of bench presses, incline, decline and other pressing movements and do hardly any pulling movements.

This is bad for many reasons, the biggest of which is muscle imbalances... another big reason why you want to avoid this is because you should (generally) be able to pull much more than you push for functional strength reasons.

So if you haven't started doing pull ups and chin ups, then you need to start today...

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Gym Iron Pull Up Bar

I've recently acquired a pull-up bar made by Iron Gym products. I have to say, I've had my eye on one of these for a while. Now I do have a full squat rack of where I'm able to do pull-ups from, but am I able to fit my squat rack in between my door way or in the hallway? Nope, I don't think so. With that said, the mobility of the pull-up bar is phenomenal.

Right when I get out of bed in the morning, all I have to do is simply slip the pull-bar in between my door way and walla! I can knock out a mini workout or warm-up whenever I want. Not to mention the benefits of doing pull-ups are simply outrageous. Pull-ups is an exercise very few people can do, simply because of the lack of upper body strength. I know a few people who can power clean over 250lbs but at the same time they have hard time doing 5 regular pull-ups.

With this piece of gym equipment, you can do a variety of exercises. Not only can you do under hand pull-ups, but you can also do over hand pull-ups as well. Wide or close-grip, you choose for the better. The pull-up bar can also be used as a push-up platform on the ground. With push-ups, it allows you to hit more muscle fibers of the chest and thus allowing you to get more of an effective workout that what regular push-ups offer. Anyways, for $30, you can't go wrong with the price. If you've always wanted to set up your own home gym, the pull-up bar is an awesome start. If you're wanting to buy this product, it can be located at your local sports store.

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