push up, press up
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How to do push ups?
Starting position
Position yourself with both hands with palms open on the floor. Your hands should be shoulder width apart. Your body should be straight and supporting your body with your toes. You should be lying on the floor.
The push up
The push up is done by raising your body using your arms. If you can’t raise your body, you could start by your body already raised and go down instead. After that, lower your body until your elbow is 90 degree and then go up again. It goes like that until you stop.
If you are experiencing problems to position yourself, you can refer to the image below for more information.
Variation: Hindu Push Up
Of the push up variations , one which can be more difficult is the Hindu push up. In this one, you adopt the same position but your legs are wide open instead of glued together like in the classic push up. And then, your body is not straight but it makes an inverted V with your midsection raised.
You then lower and raise your body in the same way like the classic push up keeping the inverted V position.
Important notes:
Don’t forget to warm up before doing this push up training. If you don’t warm up, you could damage a muscle, so take care of doing some cardio or even walking 30 minutes prior to your push ups.
For woman who wants to do push ups, you can do the same starting position but instead of supporting your body with your toes, you should put your knee on the floor. This variation is because the pelvis of woman is lower than man.
If you want to make it harder and make your triceps works more, reduce the distance between your hands; the closer they are, the more you engage your triceps.
Use an exercise mat when doing push ups to prevent from hurting yourself, moreover if you are doing the push ups in the woman position. You can easily find one on Amazon.com.