Seems Basic, But It’s Not—How to Bust Out Perfect Push-Ups Like a Boss
Yes, your legs are the main muscles you use when you ride, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore your upper body. Despite what you may think, the upper body plays an important role in your overall cycling performance.
“Your upper body, especially your core, works in tandem with your legs to drive you forward,” explains Gerren Liles, certified personal trainer, master instructor at Equinox and founding trainer of The Mirror. “And because your upper body is in constant motion, it must be strong enough to not fatigue to the point where it compromises your overall form.”
To strengthen your upper body, core and increase your muscular endurance (without bulking up), look no further than the push-up. This basic bodyweight exercise, when executed properly, can challenge your entire body, says Liles, “but its primary focus is the chest, arms, and shoulders.” In order to get the most from this move, the key is proper form.
How To Do a Proper Push-Up
Start in a high plank position, hands flat on the floor slightly wider than shoulder-width, wrists in line with shoulders, legs extended so body forms a straight line from head to toe. Gaze slightly in front of hands so neck is neutral, not strained. Engage your core and glutes, then bend elbows, allowing them to flare out at a 45-degree angle from shoulders, as you lower chest to the floor. Press through hands to push back up to high plank position. Repeat.
Push-Up Modifications
If you’re not quite ready for the move above, there are some easy ways you can adjust the exercise to master the form and build strength. A few different options include:
Dropping to your knees
Placing hands on an elevated surface (like a box, bench, or bar)
“The important thing to keep in mind when it comes to modifications is that you make sure you are able to get your elbows to bend 90-degrees,” Liles says. You also want to make sure your core is engaged throughout, not bending at the hips to lower chest to floor or box.
Start with a modified push-up, adding more reps as you get stronger and focusing on form until you can crank out 10 to 15 reps of a regular push-up. From there, continue to add reps and sets or add in variations (below).
To progress a push-up and make it harder, elevate your feet by placing them on a box, bench, or in suspension trainer. “This forces you to support more of your weight, and the position can emphasize different parts of your chest,” says Liles.
Push-Up Variations
One of the best things about the push-up exercise is that there are many variations of it, and each variation slightly shifts the muscles being targeted. Here are just some of the different push-up types, and how they work different muscles.
1. Diamond Push-Up
These push-ups are done with your hands directly under your chest, with the pointer fingers and thumbs touching respectively, so that hands create a diamond shape. “These are good for focusing on the triceps and challenging your core stability, since the narrow hand position gives you less of a base for support,” Liles explains.
2. Staggered Push-Up
Here we have a unilateral push-up variation, where one side of the body is doing most of the work. “One hand is placed close to the body, and is the arm doing most of the work executing the push-up, while the other is forward at about a 45-degree angle-think one or two o’clock-and is there for balance rather than exertion,” explains Liles. “You can alternate hands after each rep, or do a set amount of reps on one side, and then switch.”
3. Narrow or Triceps Push-Up
Similar to the diamond push-up above, hand placement and arm movement force you to focus on the triceps muscles, explains Liles. Your hands will be narrower than a standard push-up, placed on the floor directly under your shoulders. When you lower down, focus on keeping your arms tight to the sides of your body, as opposed to letting them flare out like a standard push-up.
4. Plyo Push-Up
A plyo, short for plyometric, push-up is one in which your body, whether it be your hands or both your hands and feet, will come off the floor. Think: a clap between push-ups, or exploding during the up motion of a push-up and using the momentum to lift feet and hands and extend arms forward, before landing back in start position. “Plyo push-ups are a way to work the chest in a more dynamic and explosive way,” explains Liles. But these are very advanced so you won’t progress to them until you build explosive strength.
5. Push-Up to Downward Facing Dog
This combination exercise warms up the shoulder joints and increases mobility and range of motion with dynamic movement. From a high plank position, perform a push-up. At the top of the movement, press through hands and shift hips up and back into downward facing dog pose. Focus on lifting your hips up and pointing chest toward toes. Shift back to high plank position and repeat.
6. Chaturanga Dandasana
“Though this isn’t necessarily a push-up, it is a static hold where you’re hovering over the floor, as if you’re in the bottom of a push-up,” explains Liles. Your arms will be tucked close to the body, elbows with a 90-degree bend, while your chest and hips remain over but close to the floor, and you’ll hold this position for 30 seconds to start, then progress.
Improving Your Push-Up
Like most things in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to push-ups. “If the push-up is something you struggle with, start with the modified versions and do them consistently until you noticed improved strength with good form,” suggests Liles. “If you can incorporate strength training as well, lifting weights that target your chest, arms, and shoulders, that will also help you with bodyweight exercises like push-ups.”
Trainer: Roman Siromakha, certified personal trainer and cyclist in New York City
Images: Julia Hembree Smith
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