In Praise of the Pushup

If everyone could do only one exercise, pushups would be a great choice. It’s a classic upper-body strength builder, but the real benefit is teaching the body to coordinate the upper and lower body as one unit. I’ve said many times that pushups are a core exercise BEFORE they can even become an upper-body strength exercise.

Another awesome benefit is that anyone can do them because the difficulty level is easy to adjust.

In this article, you’ll learn the basics of how to do a good pushup, and let you know some common mistakes. 

Everyone knows what pushups look like, but it’s easy to miss a few things as you’re getting set up, so don’t take your starting position for granted! Start in a straight-arm plank position with your arms at a 90-degree angle to your body. This should put your hands directly below your shoulders. (As I mentioned, your starting position is extremely important, and one common mistake is a poor arm angle.)

Pro tip: Grab the floor with your hands and try to pull it apart. This will engage the muscles in your upper back, allowing your core to tie your body together.  

After grabbing the floor, pull yourself down to the floor. Notice I didn’t say, “lower yourself down to the floor.” While this may seem like a small detail, it’s really quite important. Pulling yourself down engages your upper back and core, keeping you in a good position. Lowering yourself will likely result in your shoulders and/or neck taking the brunt of the exercise. You can see what I mean in the pictures below.  

Once you pull yourself down, keep grabbing and pulling the floor apart and push it away to bring yourself back to your starting position. Notice the cue “push the floor away.” Again, this may seem unimportant, but it can help you engage your core and upper back.  

I hope you notice that I keep mentioning engaging the upper back and core. These are not things most people tend to think about when performing push-ups, but they are truly two of the biggest benefits of doing them!

If you’re worried you won’t be able to do pushups, the way to make them easier is to put your hands on a higher surface, such as a chair, a desk, or even a wall. This allows you to use less of your body weight. In our gym, almost everyone does some pushup variation and if you need any help figuring out the best way for you, just drop me an email, and we’ll figure it out.