One of the reasons the push-up has endured so long is it’s cheap, it’s easy, it doesn’t require any equipment, it can work multiple parts of the body at the same time — and pretty much everyone, from beginners to athletes, can derive benefits.

The prime movers [the major muscle groups that produce the motion of a push-up] are the chest and tricep. However, if you look at the form your body takes during the perfect push-up, you’re typically suspended from your toes all the way to your neck, so in reality, every muscle between your shoulders and your toes is engaged. This includes the all important core muscles of the trunk, as well as the abdominals, legs and hips. A push-up is considered a resistance exercise, so in addition to muscle strengthening, you also get bone-building effects. It can be as effective as working out with weights.

Although there are many variations on the push-up, the basic principal remains the same: Engage your upper back, shoulders, and arms to lift your body weight off the floor, then slowly lower it back down. While that sounds simple, experts say there’s plenty of room for mistakes.

• The biggest mistake people make when doing a push-up is to try and take some of the stress off their arms by using other muscle groups to help lift their body
• Body weight should be lifted by your arms, and don’t use your butt or the lower half of your body to pull you up.
• The correct movement for the perfect push-up is smooth, with no swaying of the hips as you go up and down.
• As you lower yourself toward the ground, the first thing that should come closest to the floor is your chest. If your hips or legs come down first, you’re doing it wrong.
• Keep a straight line from your head down to your ankles when you’re in the lifted position.
• Don’t let your chest actually touch the floor when you come down. Your chest should come within 2 to 3 inches of the floor. Put a textbook, a sneaker, a rolled-up sock underneath you, and when you touch it, it’s time to go back up.
• If you’re having trouble lifting the whole body in the proper alignment, you can do the same exercise, but do it on your knees, thereby reducing your lifting load by about half.
• To minimize tension on the wrist do the knuckle push-up – you close your hands and put your weight on your knuckles instead of your palms, avoiding the wrist extension motion. But be sure to do this type of push-up on a padded mat or carpet.

- Also, see your massage therapist & get your joints checked out – with correct treatment, wrist pain can be rectified!

• For beginners there are several ways to ease into doing push-ups.

- Use a low bench to prop up your arms, and then do either a regular push-up or the knees-on-the-floor version

- You can do your push-ups standing against the wall, which dramatically reduces the pressure on arms and upper back. To make it simpler still, stand closer to the wall; keep moving your feet further away until you feel confident enough to try push-ups on the floor.

• For the super strong: the one-handed push-up! It requires not only upper body strength, but also a very good sense of balance.
• Another advanced option – decline push-ups. With your hands on the floor, elevate your feet on a low bench behind you as you do push-ups. Not recommended until the regular floor push-up, has been mastered!

A word of caution: If you feel pain while doing any type of push-up, particularly if the discomfort is focused on one joint, stop working out and talk to your PT. And if you have shoulder or elbow issues, including any previous injuries to those areas, be sure to get a second opinion and get your technique checked out. It could be something as simple as poor alignment that is causing a problem.

Now that you know how to do a perfect push-up, you can all feel thoroughly confident about building whole body strength and toning up. No more excuses!

See me if you have any questions!