People have been doing push ups around the cave for many centuries as far as I know. This exercise may not actually go back to mans cave-dwelling days, but it does have a very long history. Anybody who’s been middle school physical fitness classes has done their fair share of push ups. It seems a good chunk of the class is taken up with a coach standing over you, insisting you can squeeze just one more out. The military has also used the idea of push ups extensively as both training and punishment. There’s a reason this is a such a popular way to get into shape so many workout and weight loss tips recommend it… it works!
The standard, on the ground version of push up, or in England press ups, will give a very good workout to your deltoids as well as your pectorals (chest) and triceps (back of your arm). There are methods of working your push ups which will concentrate on different parts of your chest muscles. If you work on an incline bench, you’ll work the top half of your pectorals while a decline bench will work the lower half of your pectorals.
If you want to work your muscles a little hard, you can set two sturdy chairs in front of you, with a little more than your shoulders width apart from each other. You need to make sure there is enough room for your body to move between the chairs. Place a hand on each share and do your standard push up. When you get down to the level of the chair, drop down a little bit further until your hands are almost in line with your shoulders. This will give you an incredibly intense workout while stretching your muscles.
There is a somewhat new piece of equipment on the market which is designed to help you get that same deep workout that you would with the chairs, but with some added variety. Push up bars look like sturdy round discs with upside down u-shaped handles on them. These will allow you to raise your hand position up a bit, giving you the opportunity to drive your push ups a little deeper. Another benefit is the ability to twist the hand position, even in the middle of your push ups. This will allow you to hit different areas of your muscles and give you a more complete upper body workout.
If you’d like some of the benefit of a push up bar without having to buy the, you can accomplish almost the same thing with a sturdy set of dumbbells. Placing these on the ground, you can twist their position before each rep, but I wouldn’t try to turn them in the middle of your movement. This is a great way to try out this exercise and see if you notice a benefit. If you like them, you should invest in a real set of push up bars.
The most heavily marketed brand is called the Perfect Push Up. These were originally sold exclusively through a late night infomercial and unlike 99% of everything you see at that time of night on TV, these actually work. Today, you can find Perfect Push Up Bars in all the major sporting goods stores and even in Wal-Mart, Target or any other large retailer. Make sure you shop around for sales. Because they’re from the same manufacturer, you can occasionally find the push up bars being sold in a bundle with a doorway pull up bar. This is a great combination for a good upper body workout.