Pushups, an excellent go-anywhere exercise, work several parts of your body at once. You work your chest, shoulders and triceps with pushups, and also get a good core workout as your abs, back and hips work to keep your body stable. One of the biggest advantages of pushups is their versatility. Not only can you do them almost anywhere, you can easily adapt the difficulty to suit your capabilities.
No Equipment
Although you can use equipment such as pushup handles, so-called "door gyms" or dumbbells as a base for doing pushups, technically, you don't need any equipment at all to do this exercise. You can just drop to the floor and do a few repetitions, no matter where you are.
Time Saver
Ideally, you should work all the major muscle groups at least twice a week. Because pushups work several muscle groups at once, they help you meet this exercise recommendation in less time than it would take to work each muscle individually. Working multiple muscle groups together -- and moving your body around, instead of weights -- also more closely approximates the muscle and nerve actions of everyday movements, such as pushing a heavy box across the counter or pushing yourself up from the floor.
Easy Modifications
You can create easier pushup variations by elevating your hands on a bench or against the wall, or bending your legs and doing pushups from your knees. You can also make pushups more difficult by introducing instability by placing your hands or feet on a stability ball, wobble board or suspension trainer. Wearing a weight vest or having a friend hold a weight in place on your back throughout the repetitions also makes pushups more difficult, as does elevating your feet on a bench or other stable surface while your hands are on the ground.
Versatility
Pushups offer a surprising amount of versatility so you can focus on working certain muscles harder. Moving your hands close together, far apart or farther down toward your waist, elbows in, allows you to shift the emphasis of the exercise to the inner fibers of your pecs, outer pectoral fibers, or shoulders and triceps, respectively.
Core Strengthening
Full pushup position is essentially a plank position, which provides an intense core workout. Strengthening your core muscles with exercises like pushups doesn't just sculpt an attractive midsection, it also reduces your risk of injury and makes everyday movements easier. You can intensify the core-training element of pushups by introducing instability or holding one leg slightly off the ground throughout the set, then switching to the other leg for the next set.
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