Push-Ups: The Ultimate Secret to Building Strength and Shedding Pounds Fast!

The push-up is a powerful and comprehensive bodyweight exercise that provides many obvious benefits. The push-up is considered a staple to effective workout routines. You can do it anywhere, anytime and use it to build a stronger, healthier body. Are you interested in learning about some of the many reasons why you should incorporate push-ups into your daily routine? Push-ups may seem like a basic exercise that works only your upper arms and chest, but when you do them the right way, they use muscles all over your body. Push-ups are a convenient exercise that you can do anywhere. They don’t need equipment or a gym membership. You can also adjust them to meet your own physical ability or to target specific muscles.

Mastering the Push-Up: Form is Key

To make the most of every push-up, it’s important to focus on maintaining proper form. If you don’t know how to do a push-up, it may feel a little awkward at first, but it will get easier. As with any exercise, form is the key to getting the most benefits:

Start in a plank position, face-down with your body straight.
Put your palms flat on the ground with your arms straight, in line with your shoulders. Keep your arms straight - avoid locking the elbows.
Keep your feet together or about 12 inches apart, with your weight on the balls of your feet.
Make sure your back is straight and your weight is evenly spread out. Engage your core so that your back doesn’t sag downward.
Look down as you do your push-ups to make sure your spine is in line from your neck all the way down.
Lower your body toward the ground, using controlled movement, until your elbows are at 90-degree angles.
Then push back up to a plank position. Push yourself back up to the plank position.
For best results, lower slowly and push up quickly. When you begin, try taking 2 seconds to lower and then 1 second to push up.

Remember that form is more important than speed or the number of push-ups you do. If it helps, take a video of yourself to see how you can improve your form.

Push-ups for Beginners and Beyond: Modifications for Every Level

Push-ups can be adjusted to fit any ability level. If a regular push-up is too difficult, you can make changes so you can build up your strength.

Wall Push-ups: Try leaning against a wall to do push-ups. Place your hands on the wall with your feet on the floor a little bit away from it. This uses less of your body weight. For wall push up, face a wall and plant your palm, shoulder-width apart, on it. Adjust your feet by taking one or two steps back, until your arms are extended. Your elbow should be slightly bent when you’re in the up position. Lower your upper body until your nose almost touches it.
Incline Push-ups: If wall push-ups are too easy, try leaning at a 45-degree angle by putting your hands on a couch or a chair. These push-ups use around 36% to 45% of your body weight, instead of the 50% to 75% of standard push-ups.
Knee Push-ups: Once you build up the strength, you can move to the floor. Start by doing push-ups with your knees on the ground, instead of your feet. For example, if you are just starting out, you can perform push-ups on your knees
Standard Push-ups: The final step is to do push-ups in the standard plank form. At first, your elbows may not reach a 90-degree angle, but you can try to go a little lower each time. Once you’re able to do a plank push-up, challenge yourself to do more of them at a time.
Seated Push ups: For seated push ups, you need a firm bench. Sit with your back straight, palms on the bench on either side of your body, then push down.
Push-up Bars: Push up bars help increase a person’s range of motion. However, if you have a shoulder injury, avoid using push up bars until you’ve consulted your physician.
Varying Intensity: Add intensity by slowing down as you lower yourself to the ground and raise up. To burn more calories, you can speed up your push-ups.

Targeting Different Muscles: Variations for a Full-Body Workout

By changing your position, you can focus on different muscles. Push-ups work many muscles in your body, including your: Chest Arms Stomach muscles (abdominals) Hips‌ Legs.

Read also: Is Push Health Right for You?

Narrow Stance Push-ups: According to the Journal of Physical Therapy Science, if you want to target your chest muscles, the pectoralis minor and pectoralis major, the most effective form is a narrow stance or when your elbows are tucked to your side when you’re doing pushups. This position also helps develop your triceps for stronger arms.
Wide Push-ups: For example, if you put your hands closer together, you’ll work your chest muscles. If your hands are farther apart, you’ll work your triceps more. Switching between the two gives a full-body workout.
Diamond push-up: Targets the triceps and inner chest more intensely, which can lead to increased muscle engagement and burn more calories. Form a diamond with your hands by touching your thumbs and index fingers together. Lower your body until your chest nearly touches the ground, then push back up.
Clap push-up: Explosive movement increases intensity and heart rate, helping you burn more calories and muscle power. Same as standard push-ups. Lower your body quickly to the ground, and push it with enough force to clap your hands together before returning to the starting position.
Suspension Push-ups: A 2014 study revealed that suspension push ups are the best type of exercise to activate more of your abdominal muscles.

No matter how you do push-ups, always tighten your core muscles and pay attention to your form.

The Myriad Health Benefits of Push-Ups

Push-ups offer many health benefits, including:

Building Strength: Push ups develop the muscles of the upper body, specifically, the arm and the chest muscles. As a compound exercise, push ups make use of different muscles and strengthen them.
Strengthen Back and Core Muscles: But studies have shown that push ups can also help strengthen back muscles as well as core muscles.
Improving Functional Strength: Because push ups activate upper body and lower body muscles, it also improves a person's functional strength. Your workout routine should provide benefits beyond just helping you look slimmer and more toned. Push-ups will help by giving you more strength to do everyday tasks, such as pushing open a heavy door.
Cardiovascular Health: Push ups strengthen the muscles and each repetition causes your heart rate to go up. It also results in more blood being delivered to various parts of your body. While primarily a way to build muscular strength, push-ups can also help to support your cardiovascular health. Remember, push-ups engage multiple muscles at once.
Burning Calories: Pushups are a full-body exercise that increases your heart rate and burns calories, which helps in weight loss when combined with a balanced diet. How many calories can you burn while doing push-ups? The answer depends on several factors such as your gender, age, height, and weight, as well as the intensity of your workout.
Protecting from Injuries: Protecting your shoulders and lower back from injuries
Improving balance and posture: Push ups strengthen your core muscles which are responsible for maintaining proper posture. You will notice that you’re standing taller and your back is straighter.
Improving your flexibility: Improving your flexibility
Improving your performance in sports and athletic activities: Improving your performance in sports and athletic activities
Slowing Down Bone Degeneration: As a bodyweight exercise, push ups help your body slow down bone degeneration. Strong bones are also a huge benefit of jumping rope.

Push-Ups and Weight Loss: What You Need to Know

If you are trying to lose weight, you cannot miss push-ups! Here are some of the best variations of push-ups for weight loss and to burn calories effectively. Push-ups allow you to contour your physique, increase metabolism, and speed up weight loss. Push-ups are a great way to lose weight, as found in a study published in the International Journal of Fitness.

Here’s how it helps you in weight loss:

Burns calories: Pushups are a full-body exercise that increases your heart rate and burns calories, which helps in weight loss when combined with a balanced diet. So, if you are looking for easy and effective ways to lose weight, incorporating push-ups into your fitness routine can be helpful.
Engages muscles: They engage multiple muscle groups, including your chest, shoulders, triceps, core, and legs, promoting muscle growth. Increased muscle mass leads to a higher resting metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories even at rest.
Improves strength and endurance: Regular pushups improve overall strength and endurance, allowing for more intense workouts and greater calorie expenditure over time. Thus, if you want to improve your strength and endurance, practicing push-ups can be beneficial.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT): Push-ups can be incorporated into HIIT routines, where short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by rest periods lead to increased calorie burning. So, if you are looking for easy exercises for HIIT, start practicing push-ups to shed extra kilos.

The Calorie Burn: Factors at Play

According to research, the number of calories burned by doing push-ups varies from person to person. On average, performing push-ups for one minute can burn a minimum of around 7 calories.

The amount of calories burned depends on the following factors:

Height and weight: The taller and heavier a person is, the more calories they burn.
Gender: At the same intensity, men tend to burn more calories than women during push-ups because men generally have less fat and more muscle than women. Men and women vary in body built, thus their push up performances are also not the same. Based on a study conducted using AMTI force plates and software used to analyze collected data, it was determined pushups are harder in almost everyway for men.
Age: As age increases, the process of burning calories during exercise slows down due to an increase in body fat and a decrease in muscle mass.
Intensity: The number of calories burned during push-ups also depends on the intensity of the workout and the number of repetitions performed within a certain period. To burn more calories when doing push-ups, you need to perform the exercise as quickly and accurately as possible.

Push-ups for Belly Fat Reduction: A Holistic Approach

Many people exercise with the primary goal of achieving a slim and flat waist, hoping that belly fat will disappear while the chest remains full and toned. In reality, there is still no scientific evidence to prove that any specific exercise can target fat loss in certain areas of your body. According to the Rush University Medical Center, the best way to reduce belly fat is by maintaining a balanced diet and incorporating supplementary exercises to reduce fat throughout the entire body.

For many people, the belly is where excess fat is concentrated, it often accumulates in 2 areas: under the skin (subcutaneous belly fat) and the abdominal muscles (visceral fat). Subcutaneous fat may only affect the appearance, but visceral fat surrounding the abdominal organs poses many potential health risks.

If you want to reduce belly fat systematically and effectively, you will first need to measure your belly fat ratio and then plan a suitable exercise plan. Reducing belly fat through exercise is not easy, requiring a lot of perseverance. One of the obstacles is that it is very difficult for you to focus on reducing fat in a certain part.

When performed correctly, push-ups target muscles in the shoulders, chest, and arms (specifically the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps). To a lesser extent, other muscles in the chest and abdomen are also engaged during push-ups, including the erector spinae (spinal muscles), rotator cuff, serratus anterior, and rectus abdominis.

Because push-ups mainly focus on upper body muscles, they have relatively little direct effect on the abdominal area. Push-ups can help reduce belly fat only when the number of calories burned during the workout is sufficient to promote fat loss and muscle gain in the abdominal region.

To achieve this, push-ups need to be performed with high intensity and speed, which makes them similar to aerobic exercises that help burn calories and expend energy. This way, push-ups can increase abdominal muscle growth and aid in belly fat reduction.

While push-ups help build upper body muscle, adding additional strengthening exercises like bicep curls and lower body exercises (lunges and squats) will help develop the major muscle groups and boost metabolism, increasing energy expenditure. Additionally, engaging in aerobic exercises daily for 60-90 minutes, such as brisk walking, running, swimming, or cycling, combined with a healthy diet, will burn calories and significantly reduce overall body fat, including belly fat.

Sit-ups are a very effective supplementary exercise in reducing belly fat. You can combine them with push-ups to perform a series of exercises to reduce fat all over the body.

Instructions for basic sit-ups

Lie on the floor. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent and feet firmly on the floor. Clasp your hands loosely behind your head.
Tighten your abdominal muscles, secure your buttocks and feet, and bend your body to lift your body off the floor.
Continue to lift your body until your stomach almost touches your knees.
Pause for a moment and then return your body to the starting position on the floor.

Note: When doing this exercise, you need to avoid pulling your head hard to pull your body up to sit up. During the movement, you should maintain a distance between your chin and chest. In addition, avoid using momentum to push your chest off the floor. The sign to recognize that you are using momentum is when you see your feet being lifted off the floor.

While crunches are a specific exercise that strengthens the abdominal muscles, other complementary exercises target the abdominal muscles as well as other muscles in the body.

This is a basic and easier abdominal exercise compared to traditional sit-ups. To perform the Abdominal Crunch, you should:

Lie on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent. Relax your hands behind your head.
Slowly curl your shoulders and lift your head off the floor by about 30 degrees. Hold for one second, then lower back down.
Start with 2 sets (8 reps per set) and gradually increase to 12 reps per set.

Abdominal Plank is a static exercise that requires you to use force to tighten your abdominal muscles. To perform this exercise, you should:

Lie on the floor in a prone position (with your stomach pulled in).
Raise your body into a Plank position by placing your weight on your elbows and toes.Your body should be completely straight in a straight line from your heels to the top of your head.

V-sit is an abdominal exercise that works many abdominal muscles while challenging your body's ability to maintain balance. To perform the V-sit, you should:

Sit with your back straight on the floor with your legs extended in front of you.
Tighten your abs, lift your legs off the floor so that your body gradually forms a V shape.
When you feel balanced, raise your arms and extend them out in front of you so that they are past your knees.
Hold the position for a few seconds, then release and repeat.

Pelvic Tilts are a great exercise for those who have difficulty with Plank or sit-ups. It also helps to slim the waistline and effectively corrects lower back issues. To perform the Pelvic tilts:

Lie on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent. Place your hands on the floor beside your body or on your stomach.
Next, lift your hips so that your upper back presses against the floor and your glutes lift off the floor.
Hold the position for a few seconds, then release and repeat the movement.

So, to answer the question of whether push-ups reduce belly fat, the answer is yes, provided you combine them with a healthy diet, control your calorie intake, and incorporate supplementary exercises (like the ones above) to strengthen the abdominal muscles, reduce fat, and burn belly fat in a systematic and effective way.

If your abdominal fat is thick, it will take more patience before seeing clear results from your workout. But in general, push-ups and other fitness exercises are beneficial for your body and well worth the effort. Sooner or later, you will achieve the body you desire with consistent effort.

Performing Push-ups Accurately and Properly to Support Weight Loss

Performing push-ups with the correct posture and technique is crucial during workouts for preventing injuries and maximizing the benefits of the exercise, including supporting weight loss. While the number of calories burned during push-ups is not as important as focusing on performing the exercise correctly according to the following instructions:

Start in a high plank position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep your body straight from head to heels.
Lower your body towards the floor using your elbows until your chest is about 2-3 cm from the ground.
Pause briefly for about 1 second, exhale, and then push yourself back up to the starting position.

As mentioned above, while push-ups can contribute to weight loss or reduce fat, they should not be the only exercise you rely on to achieve this goal. Finally, experts recommend that to lose weight and reduce fat, push-ups should be combined with a proper diet and other exercises to ensure that the calories consumed are less than the calories burned, while also focusing on muscle-building and fat-reducing exercises.

Push-ups Alone are Not Sufficient for Weight Loss and Fat Reduction

Push-ups alone are not sufficient for weight loss and fat reduction, as the calories burned from this exercise are not enough and depend on various factors such as weight, height, and gender. Exercise is certainly a great way to lose weight by burning calories and building muscle. However, just doing push-ups, even daily, is not enough to burn the necessary calories for weight loss. Push-ups alone do not stimulate muscle growth by reducing fat. So how many calories do push-ups need to burn to result in weight loss?

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, to lose weight, the body needs to engage in cardiovascular exercise at a moderate intensity for an average of 250 minutes per week. However, this intensity is unlikely to be achieved by doing push-ups weekly, and if it is, overexercising can cause pain. Push-ups are a strength training exercise that enhances the endurance and power of several major muscle groups in the body. Push-ups should be included in a workout routine aimed at weight loss, but they are not the unique exercise to achieve this goal.

According to research about how many calories are burned during push-ups, as mentioned, they burn a minimum of 7 calories per minute. If performed at a moderate pace for 5 minutes, they can burn approximately 28 calories. If the intensity is increased to the point where the heart rate is elevated, they can burn up to 48 calories.

However, it is challenging to maintain push-ups continuously for 5 minutes without taking breaks, even for the healthiest individuals. Therefore, push-ups are not the only or most effective exercise for weight loss. Knowing how many calories push-ups can burn helps motivate you to strive to exercise for weight loss.

How Many Push-Ups Should You Do in a Day?

Doing push ups every day is good for building upper body muscles and even strengthening your core, back, and lower extremities. You can start with 10 push ups a day and then work up to doing 50 or 100 push ups everyday. As with any type of exercise, doing 100 push ups a day also has its negative side. A standard push up activates 7 muscle groups which. Since now you know the amount of reps you should generally do, it is also important to know the number of push ups you should do in a single day. Push ups can be very difficult in the beginning. The best way to master the perfect form for push ups is to keep doing them regularly. With push ups, it is better to start with the number of push ups you can do and increase the number with time. There is no limit as to how many push ups you can do in a day. There are people who do up to 300 push ups in a day. Of course those are pros. If your goal is to get to 100 push ups in a day, you can start with a number like 30 or 20 push ups in a day. If it becomes easy to do the 30 push ups, it means your muscles have grown and are now used to 30 push ups. Any number of push ups that is below 30 will now not challenge you and your muscles will stop growing (7). This is where you add the number of push ups.

Potential Risks and Considerations

Remember that all exercises come with some risk of injury. If you’re injured and push-ups hurt, limit your range of motion, reduce intensity, or take a break until you feel better. As with any type of exercise, doing 100 push ups a day also has its negative side. Variations of push-ups are generally considered safe when performed correctly. However, there are a few potential adverse effects if not done properly: Stretching too far or too quickly can result in muscle strains and tears. If you have an underlying shoulder injury, stretching may worsen the pain.

Always listen to your body and alter the pose as needed.

Pregnant people for example should not be doing push ups especially during the last trimester. People who suffer from a shoulder impingement should also not do the push ups (10). If you are about to try an exercise you have never done before, it is advisable for you to first consult an expert about it and you should do the first try of the exercise under the supervision of an expert. This helps prevent you from doing the exercise wrongly and also prevents you from injuring yourself.

tags: #push #ups #and #weight #loss #benefits