Push Ups And Handstands

Push ups are one of the most basic physical fitness exercises that one can do to improve upper body strength. The one exercise you hear about in military boot camps is the push-up, and how they always have recruits doing hundreds of them at a time.

The main muscles the push-up strengthens are the chest, triceps, shoulders, and back. This great exercise doesn't require any special equipment to do, just your own bodyweight, although you can opt for some advance training with some specialized home fitness equipment.

There are many people who have trouble doing just one push-up. If you are in this category, focus on isometric exercises, especially the isometric push up described below. You can also do the regular push-up with your knees on the floor, but then you are not working your back and it will be difficult to reach your goal of doing the regular push-up.

When you can do a hundred or more repetitions in one set, push-ups start becoming more like endurance training, but targeted muscles will still grow bigger and stronger.

Another type of exercise that relates to push-ups are handstands. A handstand is where you are standing on your hands with your feet pointing up towards the sky. This exercise really targets all the muscles above the waist, especially the shoulders and back.

When you are just starting out, just focus on the handstand isometric, or just holding for time.

Eventually, as your strength builds, you can start doing handstand push-ups for a higher level of fitness and functional strength.

How To Do A Push-Up

Regular Push-Up - The regular push-up is simple and straightforward.

1. Lay flat on the ground, facing down, with your hands next to your shoulders, palms flat on the ground.
2. Keep your feet together and your legs straight out.
3. With only your toes and hands touching the ground, press off the ground until your arms are straight. Breath out as you push up, and make sure your back is straight and rigid the whole time.
4. Bend your elbows and lower your chest back towards the ground. Breath in as you go down.
5. The last two steps count as 1 repetition. Repeat for desired repetitions.

Isometric Push Up

1. Lay flat on the ground, facing down, with your hands next to your shoulders, palms flat on the ground.
2. Keep your feet together and your legs straight out.
3. With only your toes and hands touching the ground, press off the ground until your arms are straight. Make sure your back is straight and rigid at all times.
4. Hold this position and push into the ground. Concentrate on contracting your muscles. Make sure to take deep breaths and release your breath in a controlled, resisted manner, such as when you are telling someone to “Shh!” but have your tongue resist the air more when coming out.
5. Do for as long as you can, which could be 6-60 seconds.

Hindu Pushups

Increase strength and flexibility with Hindu Pushups.

Get a more detailed list of push up exercises here.

When you want to increase your pushup max and get better and doing pushups, proper pushup training is needed. Try out some of my workouts and training tips.

Handstands

Read my article on how to do a handstand as a quick start guide to doing handstands.

When doing a handstand becomes child's play, you'll naturally want to start doing a handstand pushup. Learn more about handstand pushups and other handstand exercises to help you take your upper body strength to a new level.