Push ups are one of the oldest and most common exercises used for the human body. Push ups are great for working your chest, but also do a terrific job of working your stomach, triceps and shoulders.

Push ups, also known as press ups can be performed no matter where you are, and best of all, they are completely free and require no special equipment or exercise machines. All you need is the floor and your body. Push ups are great if you’re looking to develop your upper body strength but you will also find that your core/stomach strength will be improved as well.

Correct Form And How To Do The Push Up

1. Lay down on the floor on your stomach or another surface that is able to support your full body weight
2. Place your hands under yourself on the floor, a little wider than shoulder width apart. If you are uncomfortable placing your palms on the ground like this you could use a push up grip (they look like handles you put on the floor), or push up with your fists
3. Hold your feet up with the balls of your feet so that your toes are pointing upward towards your head
4. Push yourself up using your arms. At this stage, your body should only be supported by your hands and the balls of your feet. Make sure your body is in a straight line from your head down to your feet. This is called the plank position which is also used in other exercises, but here it is the beginning and end of 1 single push up
5. You now bring your body down to the ground until your lower and upper arm form roughly a 90 degree angle.
6. Push into the ground and raise yourself back up the plank position. Breathe out as you push back up
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the remainder of your repetitions

Push Up Variations

There are three types of push ups that use different muscles. They are the close-hand, regular, and wide-arm push ups. The closer your hands are together the more you will engage your triceps, the wider apart the more you will engage your chest and shoulders.

Other variations include bringing the thumbs and index fingers of both hands together to make a diamond as well as having the elbows point towards the knees. These two methods make the triceps do more of the work rather than just the shoulder and chest muscles.

When both hands are unbalanced or on uneven surfaces, this exercise also works the body core. Raising the feet onto an elevated surface emphasizes the upper pectorals and raising the hands onto elevated surface works the lower pectorals. In all variations of the push up, you will be lifting approximately 60 percent of your body weight or more.

What is the 100 Push Up Challenge?

So with all this push up talk I thought I would jump on the band wagon and give this push up challenge I keep seeing a go. Created by Steve Speirs, the 100 Push Up Challenge was set up with the notion of challenging people by doing something positive to make them a stronger, fitter and healthier person. The site was launched in June 2008 and has seen some of the best bloggers in the health and fitness space join up to take the challenge.

“If you’re serious about increasing your strength, follow this six week training program and you’ll soon be on your way to completing 100 consecutive push ups! Think there’s no way you could do this? I think you can! All you need is a good plan, plenty of discipline and about 30 minutes a week to achieve this goal!”

My 100 Push Up Initial Test

So the initial test is simply to do as many push ups as you can until failure which determines your starting category.

I managed to push out 18 until my face went totally red and my arms felt like they were going to explode. According to the site and the initial ranking test that puts me at the lower end of rank 3 as i am under 40 years of age.

So tomorrow I will start week 1 of the 6 week course and i’ve got to get through around 55 push ups over 5 sets. Wish me luck!

I’ll keep posting updates as i work through the 6 week course on the way to 100 push ups.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Subscribe via RSS or or Twit This