Aug 12, 2012

Push up

Pushup is a great basic upper body exercise. Most of you will find it easy, some of you won't. I never had problems with pushups, but I wasn't fantastic at them either. Usually I can do around 50 pushups, but on the other hand i never train for quantity. What makes me really sad is the fact that people who are not into exercises think that pushups are a way to measure someone's strength! The more you do, the stronger you are - they think. Pushups are a great way to build some basic strength, but at some point you will need a harder pushing exercise. Don't worry, there are plenty variations, some will even take years to master. Today I'll present the basic version of pushup. Let's get started!
To perform a pushup, lie down in prone position. Place the palms of your hands on the surface at shoulder width and straighten your arms at the elbows. The rest of your body should be perfectly straight. Only the palms of your hands and your hands and your toes should be touching the surface. To begin the exercise, start bending your arms at the elbows and lowering your body down until your chest touches the surface. Now from this position, push with your hands and start straightening your arms at elbows until you are back at the starting position. Remember to keep your whole body straight and to go as low as you can while performing the exercise. Also, try to do the exercise slowly and with control. Pushups train mainly your pectoral muscles (chest), triceps and anterior and lateral deltoid (front nad middle part of the shoulders).
The most non-stop pushups record was set by Minoru Yoshida from Japan in 1980. He managed to perform 10,507 pushups without stopping. Well, thats a lot of pushups. We don't need to do as many, but including a couple of sets of pushups to your routine will benefit you in no time. Next time, I'll post some variations for people who can't do a normal pushup. For all of you who can, check often, because I'll post something harder for you as well. Keep training and see you next time!

3 comments:

AlanV said...

10,507 pushups??!! O.O

Anonymous said...

my god thats a lot of push ups

Anonymous said...

lol I do more

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