The cult of the body is doing great today, and fitness clubs are basically in every city. Paradoxically, a large percentage of our society is overweight. In addition, we constantly hear that someone is going on a diet or purchasing a gym membership.
By far the biggest buzz of this kind can be noticed just after Christmas, after the New Year and in the spring. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, people participating in this confusion have poor motivation and enthusiasm lasts for about 3-4 weeks on average. There can be several reasons for this. Most often, however, we are talking about incompetent planning of individual steps and poor goal setting. Moreover, the lack of a training companion can be a probable reason. Such examples can be multiplied and there are as many reasons to stop physical activity as people in the world.
However, there is a type of exercise in which these excuses fade away. These are pushups, because in principle we need only a few meters of the floor and our own body. However, if you still think that it does not make the slightes, then it is just lazy! Pushups are a great exercise because with their participation we can implement a number of different assumptions. It does not matter whether we want to burn fat, gain strength or increase muscle mass. It is all at your fingertips. Therefore, the rest of this text will look more closely at why it is worth doing push-ups and how to do them so as not to get injured. Why exactly pushups?
It is very simple because they belong to the most popular exercises. This is not surprising, since they have been known for a long time. Certainly, each of us performed them at school during PE lessons, while passing some fitness test, as part of some punishment or being inspired by Rocky Balboa and imitating him to the rhythm of the song “Eye of the Tiger”.
Thanks to this exercise, we are able to develop not only the chest muscles, but also arms, shoulders and abdominal muscles. This exercise is commonly used in strength and endurance training, and it is also treated as general development.
The indisputable advantage of this exercise is that we do not need to have any equipment to perform it and it can be done almost anywhere. It is also a suitable exercise to keep your current figure and well-being for a long time. In fact, just a little constipation and just a few minutes each day to notice the results. You may even be tempted to claim that our strength and endurance will increase day by day.
Another indisputable advantage prompting us to perform this exercise is its simplicity and accessibility. All we have to do is put our hands and feet on the ground and our training place is ready to initiate the whole undertaking. As a result, having a poorly organized lifestyle, frequent travel and other such circumstances mean that you may not be able to do the workout. In this particular case, you can take this exercise with you wherever you go. This clearly shows that there is no room for excuses and escape from exercise.
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Reasons to do pushups
By the way, it is worth adding that pushups are not boring and homogeneous exercise, because they have a number of varieties. Thus, even as the level of training increases, we do not have to give up this exercise to provide these stimuli. Pumps can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, and they do not necessarily have to be made only in a horizontal position.
You will strengthen muscles and more
Generally speaking, each type of push-ups activate shoulder muscles, anterior body, hip flexors. In addition, the front shoulder muscles, the larger and rectus pectoralis are also very active. In addition, hip flexors have an important role to play to ensure optimal pelvic posture for this exercise.
If we treat pushups as an isometric exercise, we will positively affect deep muscles and improve the stabilization of the spine, hips or shoulders.
Less risk of injury
In the context of the role of push-ups for individual muscle groups, leg spacing plays a significant role. Therefore, when the legs are narrowly spaced, the muscles that stabilize the body are more involved in the exercise. So this is a great way not only to develop these muscles, but above all the opportunity to avoid injury. It is not surprising then that all push-up exercises on unstable surfaces are so popular. What is more, you can apply variable pressure for all four support points here.
Lower risk of heart attack
Pushups can also have a positive effect on the cardiovascular system. A group of firefighters took part in the study conducted by the JAMA Network Open in February 2019. Men who were able to perform at least 40 push-ups in 30 seconds had a much lower risk of heart attack or failure and other cardiovascular problems over the next ten years
How do you do pushups correctly?
There was a bit about the pushups themselves and the benefits of doing them. Therefore, everyone who was encouraged to perform them should know how to properly perform this exercise.
Pushup training
We lie flat with the face to the ground. We place our hands flat at shoulder height, slightly wider than shoulder width.
We raise the body in an upright position. Then we lift the body up, straightening our arms. Remember to keep your body upright at all times. For this we eliminate the tendency to torso back. Our body should rest only on the hands and toes.
Further repetitions are performed by raising and lowering the body only by bending and extending the arms.
Do not lie on the floor between the pumps. Our support points should have only contact points, i.e. toes and hands.
This is how we learn to properly perform an exercise called a pump.
It is worth noting that push-up training also useful in other exercises. This is clearly seen especially in calisthenics, i.e. strength training using the resistance of our body. This is clearly visible especially on the example of maintaining a correct figure, maintaining a straight torso and tense abdominal muscles. Spine health depends to a large extent on these skills. It is worth remembering especially today, when we spend most of the time in a sitting position.
It should also be emphasized that pushups have a direct impact on much more advanced exercises. Having developed strength thanks to push-ups, we are able to do better pull-up on a stick, dips on handrails and all kinds of other exercises with straightening arms at various angles. Push-ups are also a kind of foundation for learning to stand on your hands. It is not surprising then that the seemingly banal pump is a general development exercise, which is the foundation of many amateur and professional athletes. It is not without reason that push-ups are a basic exercise performed by military units around the globe.
