maratoolPush Ups
How to do the push ups
- Start with a basic push up, lay face down on the floor, or a mat; with your feet together curled slightly so you rise onto the ball of your feet.
- Place you hands shoulder width apart on the either side of your chest.
- Draw your abs in.
- Inhale as you raise your body up till your arms are straight.
- Keep your head and neck level with your body (don’t look up or down) and don’t allow your back to rise or fall.
- Exhale out as you lower your body back to the ground.
- Repeat.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
How this movement works
Everything happens at one joint. That gives you direct control over where the tension sits; the trade-off is that the muscle gets no help, so the load that feels hard here is a fraction of what a multi-joint version of the pattern would take. Slow, complete repetitions beat heavy ones.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Single-Arm Cable Crossovercable
- Smith Machine Bench Pressbench + smith machine + machine
- Smith Machine Decline Pressmachine
- Smith Machine Incline Bench Presssmith machine + bench + machine
- Wide Grip Decline Bench Pressbarbell + bench
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.