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Home | Health & Fitness | Muscle Building

Article:
'Health Benefits of Doing a Push Up'

By: Warren Wong

".....

For a beginner, doing push ups may be quite difficult because of the many differe..........Push, ups....."
The push up is one of the most beneficial exercises you can do and you don't need to buy any expensive exercise equipment. It is the single most effective exercise you can do it you want to improve your level of body fitness. This is because it combines weight lifting, cardiovascular exercise and stretching in one exercise. You don't need to go a gym to do this exercise because you don't need a lot of space for it.

For a beginner, doing push ups may be quite difficult because of the many different muscles involved. This type of exercise targets the pectoral muscles, which are in the chest wall and the triceps, which are the muscles in the upper part of your arms. In addition, this exercise also targets the deltoids, the muscles in the round part of your shoulders, the three groups of muscles that run the length of your arm and the muscles that enclose the first eight ribs on both sides of your body. Unless you have been doing a lot of stretching exercises, it is unlikely that your chest and rib muscles have been getting a lot of exercising, which is why you will definitely find some soreness in these areas.

Learning to maintain the proper from in pushups is exercise training in itself. The proper technique involves pushing your body from a prone position on the floor to one where your body is straight and resting only on your fingertips and your toes. When your back muscles contract to keep your back and legs straight, this also affects your abdominal muscles so you give your midsection a workout too.

When you perform repetitions of pushups as part of your normal workout routine every day or every second day, some of the advantages your body will realize include increased growth hormone and overall muscle growth. This helps to tone and firm the muscles, which is why it is a great exercise to engage in when you are trying to lose weight.

Pushups are not a quick fix when you find that you are getting out of shape. You do need to do them on a regular basis to get the best benefit. Like any exercise, when you first start it is important to take things slowly. You should set a goal for yourself that you can work towards and them increase your repetitions each time by one or two until you reach that goal. Then, work at maintaining that number of repetitions to increase your speed before you set a higher number as your goal.

The proper way to do this exercise is:
1. Start with your arms and legs in a plank position, which means your back and legs should form a straight line with your arms and toes resting on the floor.
2. Lower your chest to the floor so that your arms are bent at 90? Keep your legs straight and do not bend them as you lower your body. Your knees should not touch the floor.
3. Now push your body upwards extending your arms until you return to your starting position.

A normal number of repetitions to start with is 8 - 10.

"..... Lower your chest to the floor so that your arms are bent at 90? Keep your legs straight and do not ....."

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For more information on how to do push ups, common push up mistakes and other topics related to pushups visit www.1000PushUps.Com