Types of Push Ups

Since years, we have heard push-ups being the fitness mantra of health experts. But it is also for sure that initiation of gyms and state-of-the-art machines have gradually propelled push ups and its workouts to the rear, when it’s about popular exercises. Nowadays, pushups are regarded as a secondary exercise and are only taken in the workout program of serious athletes and body builders. People, who go to gym regularly and are aware of every type of strength and weight training equipment, give push-ups their last concern. No matter what is practiced, still push-up is the best exercise to get overall body fitness. There are many types of push-ups, infact so many that they cannot be discussed in one go. Here, we will discuss some easy push-ups which don’t require any technical equipment and you can easily practice them at home.

Basic Push Up

Initially, lie down on the ground with your face down. Keep your palms flat on the ground shoulder-width spaced out. Make sure that your feet are together, whereas legs and back should be straight.
Look ahead and while you go down, try to touch the floor with your chin.
When you rise, try not to bend your back while you push up.
While going up, breathe out.
Take a pause and again repeat the course of action.

One Handed Push Up

Open your legs wide while keep one hand under the center of your chest and place the free hand at your back.
Follow the same process as mentioned in the basic push-ups.
Try to do this five times, using each hand.
Don’t overdo these push ups since they cause heavy strain on the elbow.

Fingertip Push Up

Start the fingertip push ups by bringing your hands in the position like of bear claws.
Keep your hands approximately 3 feet apart.
Follow the same guidelines as mentioned in the basic push-ups.
You can increase the difficulty level by consecutively lifting fingers off the ground.

Push Ups on the Backs of the Hands

To practice, lie down on the floor and keep the hands under your chest.
Following the same procedure, try to do at least ten push-ups.

Diamond Push Up and Wide Push Up

For this, get your thumb and forefinger mutually in the shape of a diamond.
Place your hands beneath the center of your chest and do push ups.
To do a wide push up, keep your hands about 4 feet apart.

Ballistic Push Up

To do Ballistic Push Ups, simply do the basic push ups but now you have to come up very fast so that you can clap your hands in concert before going down.

Knuckle Push Up

Before doing knuckle push-ups, make sure the surface where you are doing is absolutely hard.
Start doing push-ups employing the first two knuckles of each hand.

Slow Push-Ups

With chest on the ground, lie down in push up position.
Raise your chest six inches above the floor and hold the position for a count of ten.
Raise yourself up two inches more and hold the position for a count of ten.
Continue lifting two inches every time and counting ten till you can maintain.
If possible, go down and repeat the process.

Benefits of Push-Ups

Push-ups proffer the benefits of stretching, weight lifting and cardio vascular exercise as well.
It also helps to get more toned shoulders, trunk, butt, upper and lower body.
Push-ups exercise, if pursued rightly, increases upper body strength and brings about more abdominal and hip stability.
A workout program of push-ups works on large number of muscle groups and helps to retain whole body fitness.
It actively works the chest, triceps and deltoids together with stretching of back and the biceps.
Undoubtedly, push-up is the best exercise for chest, but it is a great exercise for the abdominal and lower back muscles. Besides all of the above, it works for the quadriceps too.

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