Lockdown Training Tips - Push Ups

No equipment whatsoever required this time as we focus on the classic Push Up. Perhaps many people's go to exercise during lockdown, so definitely worth doing right.

Here's some simple but very effective tips to keep you on the right track!

Keep a straight line through your body

Keeping your core tight throughout the movement and maintaining a straight line through your body is fundamental to good technique on Push Ups.

This helps avoid your hips sagging which can put unnecessary strain on your back and reduce the effectiveness of the exercise by impacting how your pressing muscles (chest, shoulders and triceps) are working.

Think a straight line from your heels through your knees, hips, shoulders and head.

Get a full range of motion

A full range of motion on push ups will yield the best results. In the context of this movement we can define a full range of motion as:

🔹Descending to a position where your chest is just short of touching the ground at the bottom of each rep.

🔹Pushing up to a position whereby you fully extended your arms at the top of the movement.

🔹 Achieving the above whilst maintaining the aforementioned straight line through your body.

Don't worry if you can't achieve a full range of motion on full Push Ups quite yet, there are options to scale the movement as discussed below.

Adapt them to your ability level

It can be important to adapt the exercise to your particular ability level to get the most out of it.

If you find full Push Ups particularly difficult and struggle to complete many, if any reps, you should consider utilising the following variants:

🔹Push Ups From Knees - pivot from your knees to effectively reduce the weight you need to push back up during the exercise. Still be mindful of keeping a straight line through your body.

🔹Incline Push Ups - elevate your body by performing push ups off of a sofa, chair, table or something similar. As you get stronger and more confident reduce the height of the incline until eventually you are able to perform the movement from the floor.

Conversely, if you find regular Push Ups too easy you might consider the following variations to make them more challenging:

🔹Hand Release Push Ups - going all the way to the ground at the bottom of the movement and removing your hands from the ground before driving back up.

🔹Decline Push Ups - elevating your feet to change the angle of the movement.

🔹Weighted Push Ups - putting a weight on your back or wearing a backpack filled with heavy objects.

Get more help working towards your goals

If you have found these tips helpful and would like further guidance on how to go about training towards your goals, take a look at our Online Personal Training page and drop us a message!