Pushups sure feel like vigorous work when you're doing them, and they have a knack for tiring out your arms and upper body. All of that effort definitely does show up in more toned and defined muscles, but since pushups aren't an aerobic activity, they don't burn enough calories to act as a reliable weight loss exercise.
Calorie Burn
To lose weight, you must consistently burn more calories than you eat. Thus, at least in the short term, exercises that are the highest calorie burners are most useful for shedding fat. But compared to other exercises, pushups burn relatively few calories. According to HealthStatus.com, a 160-lb. person who does pushups for an hour will burn only about 365 calories. In contrast, MayoClinic.com states that an hour of jogging burns close to 600 calories for a person of the same weight, and an hour of rollerblading burns more than 900.
Pushup Benefits
Just because pushups don't burn as many calories as aerobic exercises doesn't mean they're useless in a quest for weight loss. Especially if the alternative is no exercise at all, doing pushups can help boost your energy level and your strength and encourage you to be more active. The pushup is a strength-training movement, so it also has benefits for specific muscles on the arms and upper body. If your objective is to get a toned, strong physique as you lose extra weight, pushups may help make the difference.
Cardio Combinations
One way to get greater calorie burn from a pushup workout is to combine the move with cardio activity. If you have the core strength to do clapping pushups, for example, you'll burn many more calories in the same period of time because of the added energy required to continually push off the ground and safely come back down. You can also try interval training, which involves alternating periods of moderate activity, such as pushups, with more vigorous cardio activity. For example, do two sets of 12 pushups each, run on the treadmill for five minutes and then repeat the routine. According to MayoClinic.com, interval training burns more calories than traditional workouts and can improve aerobic capacity.
Considerations
Even though pushups work arm, chest and upper body muscles, it's also important to realize that they can't spot reduce fat on those areas, since fat reduction also requires significant calorie burn. However, you can work muscles harder depending on where you place your hands during the move. According to an August 2005 study published in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research," a narrow pushup hand position encourages the greatest muscle activation in the pecs and triceps.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Exercise for Weight Loss: Calories Burned in One Hour; December 2009
- HealthStatus.com: The Most Accurate Calories Burned Calculator
- MayoClinic.com: Interval Training: Can It Boost Your Calorie-Burning Power?; February 2010
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Comparison of Muscle Activation Using Various Hand Positions; R.M. Cogley; August 2005
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