Vary the Push up Routine

So you're bored with the classic push-up. Or you're a monster and think the classic is just too easy. Either way, here are some suggestions to do something challenging instead of the bland push-up.

Steps

  1. First of all, read the article "How to Do a Push Up". This will help you to learn the classic push-up, and all the warnings and tips given there apply to this article as well. Read it? OK, here are some other things you can do:
  2. Bend knees. Instead of resting on the balls of your feet, bend and rest on your knees (the feet will be pointing up in this position). This will make the push-up easier since you're lifting slightly less weight. This position is also the option given to women in some physical fitness tests where they have to do push-ups.
  3. Raise yourself with your knuckles or fingertips. Instead of putting your palms on the floor make a fist and put knuckles on the floor, or spread your fingers and raise yourself using only the fingertips. This will decrease the surface area of your support and make the stabilizer muscles work harder to keep you from toppling.
  4. Use a ball. Put your hands on a ball that is large enough to accommodate both your hands (basketball, bowling ball, soccer ball). This will also introduce instability to the exercise and give your upper body stabilizer muscles a sweat. Most people find this much harder to pull off than doing push-ups on the knuckles or finger tips.
  5. Do a Plyometric, or "Clapping" Push-Up. This is the same as the classic push up but instead of pushing yourself up steadily, push with enough force so that you can actually "lift" yourself in the air and have enough hang-time to clap once in mid-air before coming down.
  6. Use only one hand/arm. You will have to spread your legs and lean more towards the top of the single arm to maintain your balance. This can actually turn out to be a balancing challenge; there are people who have the upper body strength to pull it off but can't do it simply because they can't balance the body on top of the arm.
  7. Work your triceps. It has been previously mentioned that keeping your elbows tucked to the sides during the push-up will work more of your triceps. Another way to do this is by placing your hands further down the body. Place your hands to the sides of the ribcage instead of under our shoulders, the further down the line, the more triceps you'll utilize during the push-up. However, there is a physical limitation to how far you can go since an average wrist will not bend more than 90 degrees in any direction.



Warnings

  • The clapping push-up, by its very nature, has a tough landing. The sudden jolt to the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints during the landing may cause a lingering ache after the exercise. Needless to mention is the danger of landing on your face if you don't push yourself off the ground hard enough.
  • The one hand push-up puts extreme stress on the single arm and unlike the clapping push-up, that stress is present during the entirety of the exercise. The burden of supporting the whole body weight with one arm may (and almost always will, unless you are extremely fit) lead to wrist/elbow/shoulder joint problems. Sure it really buffs that single arm, but for many people the risks outweigh the benefits. Worthy of mention is the fact that the one-arm push up is considered a show-off move by some fitness communities and not included in practice.

Things You'll Need

  • A mat for the bent knee push-up and the knuckle push-up to prevent damage to your knees and knuckles.

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