1. What are push-ups, and what benefits do they bring if practiced correctly?
2. Instructions for the standard push-up method
Push-ups are a very familiar exercise to us, but not everyone knows how to do push-ups correctly and with the right technique. In the article below, we will guide you on how to do push-ups in the most standard way, ensuring great results.
What are push-ups, and what benefits do they bring if practiced correctly?
Push-ups are an exercise that combines many muscle groups together, including the chest muscles, shoulder muscles, front arms, and back arms. Doing push-ups correctly will bring you many benefits related to physical and mental health:
• Strengthening muscle strength
• Supporting the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of heart disease
• Improving balance
• Shaping the upper body muscles
• Improving bust measurements
• Strengthening the shoulders and arms, making the muscles more flexible
• Supporting weight loss, burning fat effectively without having to spend too much time exercising, as well as not needing many support tools, can be done anywhere at any time
• Relaxing the mind, reducing pain in the neck, shoulder, and back
• Stimulating the production of growth hormone
• For men, push-ups also have another great use, which is stimulating increased testosterone production.
Instructions on how to do push-ups correctly
To do push-ups correctly, you need to follow the steps below, especially paying attention to the mistakes that may occur during the exercise:
Steps to do push-ups correctly:
• Step 1: Lie face down on the floor/exercise mat, legs straight, close together. Gravity is concentrated on the chest. Palms facing down, arms shoulder-width apart, hands close to the shoulders. Or if you practice on an exercise mat, you can make fists and use your knuckles to lift your body up. Note, put the toes on the floor, toes bent towards the upper body and head.
• Step 2: Lift your body into a plank position, using both hands and legs to support your body, your body forming a unified straight line from head to heels. At the same time, tighten your abdominal muscles so that the core muscles are directly involved in the exercise. This is also the starting and ending position of a push-up.
• Step 3: Slowly extend your elbows and lower your body until your chest almost touches the floor/mat (about 1 to 2cm).
• Step 4: Push yourself back to the original plank position. Remember to keep your abs tight, exhale, and press your hands firmly into the floor/mat to push your body back.
Some common mistakes when doing push-ups for beginners
When doing push-ups, most of us will make some basic mistakes such as:
• Lifting your hips too high or too low: This will help you do push-ups more easily and simply, but at the same time, it will also make you tired faster, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the exercise. Remember to keep your hips level with your legs and back by tightening your glutes and abs, and keeping your body straight when doing push-ups
• Breathing incorrectly or holding your breath while doing push-ups: Breathing incorrectly or holding your breath while doing push-ups can make you more tired and exhausted due to a lack of air. Therefore, apply the rule of breathing regularly when exercising to avoid unwanted problems. The principle is: breathe down and breathe up
• Spreading fingers and extending elbows too much: Spreading fingers or extending elbows too much seems to help you maintain better balance, but in reality, it does not. This will only make you more tired and weaker when exercising. Therefore, pay attention to closing your fingers a little closer together and extending your elbows moderately to get the highest training effect.
• Placing your neck in the wrong position: Tilting your neck too high to follow the training steps can be the reason why you do push-ups incorrectly, leading to a sore neck after exercising
• Cheating on the training steps: Many people make this mistake when they only lower their body halfway and then quickly push their body back up. This means that the results of the exercise are not as high as expected. To achieve the full effect of push-ups, you must perform the full ROM (range of motion) of the exercise as specified.