Even as COVID-19 restrictions loosen, many patrons are hesitant to return to the gym. Even the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to return to his old gym, citing concern over lax safety procedures.
Instead, many of us are looking at alternatives and those often include a heavy reliance on bodyweight exercises. While some would view this as an insurmountable setback, that doesn’t have to be the case! Simple exercises like pushups can yield huge benefits, especially if you have concerns about gym safety.
In fact, there are benefits of doing push-ups that you may have been missing out on. Some of these perks include:
They Can Work a Wide Range of Muscles
When most people think of push-ups, all they see is a chest workout. And to an extent they’re correct. Push-ups are one of the key means of how to build the perfect chest.
But they can be much more than that. For starters, even the basic technique works not only the chest but the biceps, triceps, lats, and shoulders as well. And since the starting position for a push up is essentially a plank, you can ad the core to that list as well so long as you maintain perfect form.
But the exercise can be modified to target specific muscle groups as well. For example, doing diamond push-ups will work your triceps, and doing pike push up will really blast your shoulders. There are almost endless variations that can work different areas of the body and increase or decrease the difficulty as you may need.
They’re Heart-Healthy
Push-ups are great for building strength, but they’re also a great little cardio workout, too.
Because the exercise works so many large muscle groups at the same time, your heart has to work harder to supply blood and oxygen to all of them. That’ll get your heart rate up, and build better cardiovascular strength over time.
Small wonder then that a 2019 study found a correlation between being able to do more pushups and a decreased risk for heart disease.
They Promote HGH Production
Human growth hormone (HGH) is the cornerstone of muscle growth. But as we age we produce exponentially less of it, making maintaining and building new muscle a challenge.
Push-ups can help stem this loss, again, due to the number of large muscle groups that it exercises. Muscle hypertrophy, the breakdown of muscle fibers from exercise, triggers the release of HGH. And since push-ups are so effective at causing hypertrophy, they’re an excellent way to induce your body into producing more of the stuff.
They Can Improve Your Posture
Most of us lead a sedentary lifestyle, spending long hours sitting while at work, and then usually doing more sitting when we get home. This tends to have a negative effect on our posture, which can erode our comfort and health later in life.
A common cause of poor posture is weak core muscles. Basically, they just get tired holding the weight of our back and shoulders and start to sag. Since push-ups promote greater core strength, they can help us improve our posture and stand just a little bit taller.
The Benefits of Doing Push-Ups Makes Them a Keystone Exercise
Push-ups are one of the best bread-and-butter exercises there are and should be a staple of any routine. From the wide range of muscles that they can work, their efficacy as a quick cardio workout, to fringe perks like improved posture, the benefits of doing push ups makes them indispensable.
And that’s particularly so if you’re trying to build a gym-free workout program. But push-ups are just the beginning. For more tips on how to keep fir while keeping safe, be sure to keep up with all of the latest from Strongerrr.
