Push-ups give you the ability to exercise when you are at home or away on vacation. All you need to perform them is an open space to fit your body. This is never a problem when you are outdoors, but the weather is not always on your side. Push-ups might be able to make you stronger, but there are variables involved.
Specific Muscles Targeted
When you perform push-ups, your legs get little in the way of recruitment. You have to contract your quadriceps to maintain good alignment, but this will not contribute much to strength gains. However, the pushing and lowering motion of push-ups does cause you to activate your pectorals, deltoids and triceps. If you were to only do push-ups in workouts, you will increase your upper body strength but not your lower body strength.
Variations
If you only do conventional push-ups, you will only target one area of your chest. By changing the position of your body, you can recruit more muscle fiber and boost your strength levels. Decline push-ups, for example, with your feet placed on a weight bench, will cause you to work your upper chest. Doing the opposite and placing your hands on the bench will more so work your lower chest. Your goal to achieve more overall strength is to incorporate these varying body positions into your workouts. Your shoulders and triceps get worked no matter what angle your body is at.
Good Form and Strength Gains
Regardless of whether you are building muscular strength or muscular endurance, good form is of pivotal importance. This means you need to move through a full range of motion rather than relying on momentum. Take the basic push-up, for example. To begin, lie on your stomach with your hands spaced slightly wider than shoulder-width on the floor and fingers facing forward. Keeping your feet together, push yourself off the floor by fully extending your arms. When you get into this position, it is important to maintain a straight back. Contract your abs, and keep them tight as you bend your elbows to lower your body down. Once your chest is right above the floor, push yourself back up and repeat.
Added Weight
When doing push-ups, you are limited by the weight of your body when it comes to making progressive strength gains. To change this, strap on a weighted vest, or have an assistant hold a weight plate on your back as you do push-ups. When you first start doing push-ups, aim for 10 to 12 repetitions. You will be able to do more as your strength levels increase. Once you can do 15 with good form, start adding the resistance.
Muscular Endurance
Push-ups not only build strength, but they also build muscular endurance. Muscular endurance enables you to do a series of repetitions over a long span of time. This makes push-ups beneficial for sports and activities that involve repetitive pushing movements. In football, for example, you repeatedly have to push yourself off the ground after making tackles and push against opposing players to make blocks.
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