You don’t need weights to build strength and tone your upper body muscles, but you do need to do proper bodyweight training. Pull-ups and dips are great moves, but when we asked Fit Athletic Club Certified Master Trainer Nicholas Arcata for the best bodyweight moves, especially for beginners, push-ups came out on top.
“Push-ups are a great bodyweight workout for beginners looking to build upper body strength,” says Arcata, but there’s more to push-ups than that. Check out all the benefits of the move below, as well as Arcata’s guide on how to perfectly do push-ups.
Nicholas Arcata is a certified master trainer at Fit Athletic Club in San Diego. He is a NASM certified personal trainer specializing in hypertrophy, athletic performance, strength training and conditioning.
What are the benefits of push-ups?
For Arcata, the main benefit of push-ups is their versatility, both in terms of the muscle groups they target and their suitability for all fitness levels. This relates to the ease with which you can adjust your push-ups to make them easier or more difficult. or focus on specific muscles. It can be done anywhere and all you need is a yoga mat.
“Push-ups can be modified to suit any fitness level, making it accessible to everyone,” Arcata says. “Push-ups as a functional movement mimic many everyday activities and work several muscle groups in your upper body, including your chest, shoulders, and triceps, while also activating your core, hips, and legs.
“You can further adjust the exercise by changing hand position, tilt, and knee position to increase or decrease intensity or target specific muscles more effectively.”
how to do push ups
We all know to some extent what a push-up looks like, but to maximize its effectiveness, it’s important to get the details of the exercise right.
“Start in a plank position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart,” says Arcata. “Bend your arms and lower your body toward the ground, keeping your back straight and push back to the starting position.”
If you’re a beginner and find this move too difficult, Arcata suggests doing the move on your knees or leaning against a wall to modify the push-up. Once you’re comfortable with the classic push-up, you can try other variations, such as the diamond push-up, where you put your hands together to better work your triceps, or the dictionary push-up, where you push up with your feet higher than your hands. Move more challengingly.
To challenge push-ups in a bodyweight workout that focuses on your upper body, try this 5-move session. For a fun workout, try this push-up challenge and complete as many moves as you can in 10 minutes.
