Time to Man Up! Activate Your Body’s Full Potential by Integrating the Classic Push-Up Workout in Your Daily Regimen
If you’re wondering how strong your upper body should be to maintain a functional, healthy lifestyle, it’s best to simply start incorporating more arm, shoulder and upper torso movements into your workout.
Because, quite frankly, if you can’t push yourself through gravity, you’ll die.
While this may sound a bit dramatic, the implication rings true: if you can’t get out of bed or off of the floor without assistance, life is going to be extremely difficult for you.
So why limit yourself to this lifestyle when you can make changes to improve your mobility? Wouldn’t you rather activate the potential your body has for achieving your goals?
Don’t Fall Back on Easy Steps
Everyone starts to condition their body at different stages, and rightfully so! After all, you don’t want to start a new fitness regimen only to strain yourself right back into immobility while you recover.
Easing your way into a consistent routine, from simple to more gradual upgrades over time, is the best method for building sustainable muscle and preventing injury from overexertion.
That being said, however, you also shouldn’t allow yourself to get stuck in a simplified exercise routine that won’t help you attain your goals.
One of the easiest exercises we see our clients fall back on time and again is the “girly push-up,” an exercise that applies to both men and women who simply aren’t putting in their best efforts to succeed.
Therefore, it’s time to man up and power your body into shape, using a full-body push-up workouts that will accelerate your upper body strength in no time.
Condition Your Way Towards the Classic Push-Up Exercise
Completing an everyday push-up workouts is a fundamental skill anyone should be able to achieve, regardless of age or gender.
Your ultimate goal should be to condition yourself to reach a full-body push-up exercise stance, balancing your body weight on your hands and toes, facing the floor.
Even if you need to start in “girly push-up” position (which is perfectly fine for beginners), with your knees on the ground stabilising more of your weight, strive to advance towards lifting all of your body weight into the regular push-up stance for optimal upper body training.
Proper push-up exercise formation consists of activating three key areas of your body, which relies on:
1. Shoulder stability
2. Pelvic and back positioning
3. Knee positioning
When combining these three elements, you’ll force your body to use its own musculature to hold your body weight. This intensity engages a variety of muscle groups, helping you to tone and build muscle not only in your upper torso but all over, leaving you with a fitter, healthier body.
Push-up exercises are great for stimulating the pectoral muscles, triceps, and deltoids, with the added benefits of the pose leading to effective toning of the core midsection as a whole.
So start challenging yourself by upgrading your push-up routine, and find yourself with a stronger upper body in no time.
Keep Your Push-Up Game Interesting by Trying New Variations
A push-up program is one of the most efficient exercises in the industry, remaining a favorite bodyweight movement of major athletes, trainers and military conditioning regimens.
And because they’re so easy to practice, able to be performed anywhere at anytime, they’re also easily reconfigured to increase the intensity and keep your body constantly guessing.
Upgrade your fitness routine by changing the elevation, adding equipment if you have some handy, or switching up your hand and feet positioning.
Variety is always key to achieving your best results, as this activates new muscles and helps you stay motivated over time.
Try a few of these variations on the classic push-up program to keep your training fresh and your body from getting too comfortable in its routine:
1. The Wide-Grip Push-Up: Target your chest area by starting from a normal push-up stance and simply spreading your hands farther out, away from your body. Moving outward from normal shoulder length will engage your chest more heavily, relying more on your entire upper body than just your triceps and shoulders.
2. The T Push-Up: A fairly challenging maneuver, this formation engages your entire body. Start from normal push-up stance. As you raise your body up, take one hand off the ground, and point it up above you towards the sky, rotating your upper torso and making a “T” shape with your entire body. While intense, this exercise uses your entire core, building more strength in your arms, chest and torso while also opening up your spine.
3. The Narrow-Grip Push-Up: Similar to the wide-grip push-up, just in the other direction. While in normal push-up stance, move your hands inward, closer to each other. Having less stability here will incorporate more use of your triceps – a problem area for many – and still give you more upper body conditioning in the process.
4. The Single-Leg Push-Up: Losing more of your balance makes this variation more intense for the core and upper chest areas. While doing your normal push-up, with hands and toes on the ground, lift one leg and do a set of them. Then repeat this style on the opposite leg. The greater challenge of holding your body weight with less stability increases the total conditioning of your upper body and full torso.
5. The Elevated Push-Up: Force your body to work harder by elevating your feet on a higher platform, like a wooden crate or a low workout bench, while going through your normal push-up routine. The higher off the ground your lower body is, the more intensity your upper body is forced to endure, working your shoulders, chest, core and connective muscles.
Try any of these variations of the classic push-up program to create a new fitness plan, just in time for the start of a new year.
It’s always best to continuously challenge yourself, learning to understand just how much your body and mind can withstand and the potential you have to improve your life.
After all, building a healthier physique is more than just toning your body; it builds character and enforces accountability in your life, recreating a more wholesome lifestyle you’ll be all too happy to receive.
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