Push ups

What’s the oldest trick in the big book of fitness exercises? You guessed it, it’s the push ups. This exercise is so well known and has been around for so long that I think it must have been performed by Roman soldiers, too. It looks ancient and it feels ancient. But it’s also extremely simple and extremely effective.

The best thing about the push ups is that this exercise not only works your triceps and pectorals, but also your back and abs, since those muscles are used to keep your body on a stable position.

Push ups are great because they can be performed anywhere. The basic push up is performed lying face down on the floor and then raising and lowering the body using just the arms (and keeping the body straight).

If you really want to put pressure on your shoulder and chest muscles you can try the press ups, which are the military or athletic version of the push ups. Press ups are performed with the back and legs straight and off the floor. If you are at home, you can put your feet on a low chair or armchair. If you’re in the park, you can use a bench to prop up your feet. Try not to raise your legs too high above the shoulder line, since that might make it easier to cause an injury to your shoulder.

Other variations include push ups performed using just the fingers at each hand, using the fist, using only one hand, clapping the hands (requires strong pushes that raise the body higher than usual), or pressing against a wall instead of using the floor (the closer your feet are from the wall, the easier the exercise). Take care not to injure yourself while performing some of the more exotic variations.

You can also vary the position of the hand on the floor as you can have them aligned with your shoulder, with the fingers pointing forward or to the outside or to the inside. There are too many variations that it will be easier to show on a video, which I plan doing in January, so don’t forget to come back.

If you’re an overweight person looking to get back into shape, you should not avoid push ups. This exercise can teach you something about carrying your own weight, and if it is too hard for you, you can start pressing against the wall…