MOVE OF THE WEEK: Push-up

Let me start by saying that push-ups are one of the best exercises ever invented. You can do them literally anywhere with zero equipment and they are easily countable so tracking your progress gets easy too. When done with proper form, they work all the right places and strengthen your pectoral muscles (your chest), triceps, and core muscles. There are many variations of push-ups that can place the load on different muscles, or make the push-ups easier or more difficult to do. The basic push-ups are great to start with. Lets see how to do them correctly.

The starting position is plank position on your toes and hands. The hands should be placed slightly wider than your shoulders. Remember, the wider apart you put your hands the heavier load your place on your chest. The rest of your body should be aligned with your legs and abs engaged. Now, lower your body slowly down to the ground, keeping your core nice and strong and then push yourself back up into the starting position. 

When you do the push-ups, always try to do them in the right form, that is keeping your body in straight line in all the reps, going down slowly and then fast pushing up, keeping your elbows steady and your abs and butt strong. Do 3 sets with as many reps as you can 2-3 times per week. Maybe, for the first time, you will only be able to do one push-up in each set. That is totally ok for the beginner. Push-ups are not an easy exercise. They require quite a work and strength. But you will get stronger each time you do them. Set your goal on doing one extra push-up in every session. That is, if you did 3 sets per one push-up, the next time you do push-ups, you will do 2-1-1, the session after do 2-2-1, and so on. This way you will build up your strength easily. Keep in mind that you should only do the push-ups in correct form and only those correct ones count.

This is a variation to make it more interesting once you mastered the regular push-ups. Just lift one leg and keep it lifted all the time. Those push-ups get harder as you will need to balance your body more. Strong!

 

Now get down and push!