Push-ups, doing them well and the variations!

Push-ups are not such an easy exercise and you can quickly feel a little useless when you can’t do it. So it doesn’t matter at all! You can learn to do them with specific moves and variations!

So don’t worry and discover my advice to learn how to do it with a good placement and variations. From beginner to push-up expert, whether you are a man or a woman, this article is for you.

In this part, we will see the movement of a classic pump, the best known, which is often found in muscle strengthening workouts, especially for the pectorals and arms. We will pay attention to the posture to target the right muscles and a solution when we cannot perform the exercise.

So don’t worry or worry, I’ll guide you!

So, let’s see together the placement of a pump:

1. get on the ground on all fours;
2. spread your hands a little so that they are a little wider than the width of your shoulders;
3. the fingers of the hand are forward and the weight of the body is well distributed on them (not all in the wrists, suck your fingers on the ground);
4. we clear the shoulders, away from the ears;
5. the pubic bone is engaged in the direction of the ground;
6. then, stretch the legs to be on tiptoe;
7. we finish with a descent and a controlled ascent.

For breathing during push-ups:

There you go, you have a good placement of the body to perform a classic push-up!

We will then see the possible variants that will allow you to simplify this exercise (like the push-up on the knees for example).

Which muscles are used?

The push-ups will work several muscles:

Already, let us remember, it is a full polyarticular exercise but difficult and especially in women, because we have less muscle power in the shoulders, pecs, shoulders and triceps. However, it can be interesting to work your arms and make them thinner.

But then how to progress when you really can’t? I talked about it in my article “Learning to do push-ups” but concretely we will bet on:

The different possible pump variants

Now let’s find out some variants of pumps with different levels of difficulty

For those who are already very advanced, I do not forget you! You can try slamming or tight grip push-ups which are much harder to perform (even for me).

These movements can also solicit complementary muscles or target a specific part of your pecs. In the exercises that follow, I will tell you the level of difficulty compared to the classic push-up so that you can gauge the complexity of an exercise for its realization.

Push-ups on the knees

This push-up exercise is often used to fully understand the classic push-up and progress at your own pace to master the push-up afterwards.

Its execution is the same as for the classic push-up, the only big difference is the placement of the knees on the ground to reduce the weight of the exercise. Be careful, do not cross your knees.

Push-ups with elevated hands

Again, this exercise can help to perform classic push-ups well, simply because the tilt of the body will reduce the workload on the muscles. There is therefore less stress on your joints and muscles which can be beneficial for training when you are just starting out.

If the muscles worked are the same as for a simple push-upthis variant will target the lower pectoral a little more because of the inclination.

Spider pumps

The spider pump does not require much more difficulty than a classic pump. The difference comes mainly from the solicitation of the oblique muscles during the descent. There is however a work of coordination of the body.

Indeed, your support will only be one foot on the ground, which forces you to work on your balance a little. This movement requires a little more technique to perform, but not a lot of additional stress.

Push-ups with elevated feet

Here, we will increase the difficulty by a notch. For those who want a challenge, push-ups with elevated feet require more muscle strength. Unlike push-ups with your hands elevated, when you elevate your feet, the upward tilt of the body is much stronger, so it’s much harder.

By this inclination, it is the top of the pectoral which will be a little more stressed without forgetting the front of the shoulders too. During your execution, be careful not to arch your back, contract your abdominal belt well so as not to let the lower spine support your weight.

Diamond push-ups (tight grip)

This pump variant is very hard. the placement is the same as an original pump, but the goal is to place your hands under your pecs in a triangle/diamond sign. For this, the tips of your thumbs must touch each other as well as the index fingers of both hands. Otherwise, simply doing a tight grip is enough, you have to bring your hands as close as possible.

Then, you have to go down with the objective of making your hands and pecs touch. This exercise puts a lot of strain on your muscle fibers with its complex execution. Triceps, pectorals and anterior deltoids are very engaged by this movement.

The broken pumps

The slamming push-ups have a very wow effect but can cause injury if they are poorly controlled. If you are at a very advanced level, remember to warm up the muscles and joints well.

For the execution, we are on the principle of the pump, but we will add explosiveness to it. We push all of a sudden, hard enough to have time to clap our hands and land.

If this exercise can be risky, it still strengthens the pectorals, triceps and the front of the shoulders. In this case, the fall will also come to solicit the muscles of the back by the antagonistic action.

Concretely, no need to come to this exercise. There are many other variants which are very interesting, less risky even if the effect is a little less impressive.