Benefits of Pushups
What is a pushup?
Pushups are one of the most common strength building exercises performed all over the world. A push-up is done by simply placing yourself in a prone position and raising and lowering your body again and again using your arms.
Pushups are so simple to do that they can be done by almost anybody and anywhere (whether indoors or outdoors).
Since this article is all about the amazing benefits of push-ups, let’s not waste any more time beating about the bush and delve straight into the reasons why performing regular push-ups is good for you and your health.
Major benefits of pushups
There are so many health benefits that the average person can derive by regularly doing pushups.
You train the major muscles in your body through pushups
Pushups might seem like an exercise that trains only the muscles of the arms, chest, and shoulders, but believe me when I say this exercise trains other muscles in the other parts of the body such as your abdominal and lower back muscles. As a matter of fact, pushups train all the major muscles in the body. According to experts, as you lower your body to the floor and raise it up again and again, you are basically using every major and important muscle in your body to perform this action. This therefore strengthens your core muscles. Strengthening your core muscles is very important since it helps give you better balance and stability. Having a good balance and stability is very important in helping you perform your everyday activities and other physical activities. On top of this, regularly performing pushups also boosts your endurance in no small way. According to experts, your ability to do very well in certain sports and workouts depends on the strength of your core muscles. This is the reason why many sportsmen and sportswomen add pushups to their workout routines.
You will be stronger and fitter when you perform pushups regularly
A strength training exercise like pushup will strengthen and tone your muscles. As a result of this, you become stronger and fitter. I personally started performing at least 40 pushups every day over a year ago. It might interest readers to know that before I started taking my pushups seriously, I didn’t have the greatest body. I was chubby and had some serious belly fat which I really hated. I noticed that about six months after I started regularly performing this strength building exercise, I began to get into better shape. The best part of this was the fact that I wasn’t the only one who noticed it. My friends and colleagues at work also noticed this and from time to time showered me with compliments on my new look. This is just an example of how regular pushups can keep you in a good shape. Since it worked for me, I believe there is a high likelihood it can also work for you. Give it a try and see.
Pushups boost your energy
You have just been told that regularly performing pushups is very good in improving your muscle strength and boosting your endurance. And any workout that is capable of improving the strength of your muscles and boosting your endurance level, is great in boosting your energy levels since as you perform these exercises, your heart and lungs tend to work more efficiently. When your cardiovascular system begins to work more efficiently, you end up having more energy to carry out your everyday activities with relative ease. Give it a try and see the results for yourself!
Pushups help you in developing strong bones
As you age, your bone mass starts to decline. Losing your bone density isn’t a good thing at all since it can eventually cause you to suffer from a condition known as osteoporosis. When you have osteoporosis, your bones become very weak and frail to the point where they break easily. But this can be prevented when you perform a strength building exercise like pushups regularly. The more pushups you perform on a regular basis, the more your bone density is increased and the less likely you are to suffer from osteoporosis in future. Simply put, pushups are good in promoting stronger bones and preventing bone damage.
Pushups help you to control your weight
When people think of pushups, rarely do they think of it as an exercise that is capable of controlling their weight. But believe me when I tell you that pushups can help you to burn calories and prevent you from gaining too much weight. According to health experts, any exercise that makes you gain muscles, helps you in burning calories easier. I will therefore advice anybody out there looking for ways to keep their weight under control to think of adding pushups to their workout routine.
Pushups help you to improve your posture
Another great health benefit of performing pushups regularly is the fact that it can make you to enjoy all the benefits associated with having a good posture. Having a bad posture is extremely bad for your health since it can increase the physical stress on the body and cause you to suffer from neck and back pain. Poor posture even affects your breathing in a negative way. So how does regularly performing pushups help in improving your posture? You were told somewhere at the beginning of this article how pushups are important in strengthening the core muscles of the body – which includes the muscles that help you to maintain a good posture. When these muscles are strengthened, it is easier for a person to improve his or her posture. Some of the muscles responsible for helping us maintain an upright posture or a good posture include the following: the muscles along the spine, shoulder and neck muscles, pelvic muscles, etc. When these muscles are weak, a person’s tendency to have an improper posture increases.
I have personally noticed that since I started taking my pushup exercises seriously, my posture has also improved significantly. This is why I am so confident that pushups play an important role in improving the average person’s posture.
Pushups help in reducing your likelihood of suffering from lower back injury
One of the numerous important muscles that get strengthened when you regularly perform pushups are the lower back muscles. These muscles, when strengthened, reduce the pressure that accumulates in your lower back, thereby reducing your risks of suffering any injuries in that area.
I strongly recommend pushups to you
In addition to all the benefits mentioned above, pushups can also help in strengthening your heart and making it work better. Other studies even suggest that pushups can help in reducing the symptoms associated with certain chronic conditions such as back pains, heart disease, and arthritis.
Adding pushups to your workout routine is extremely good for your health, which is why I totally recommend it to you. The best thing about this type of exercise is the fact that it is totally free to do in the sense that you don’t need any equipment or device to start doing it. So far as you have arms and legs, you can do pushups.
In addition to all this, you can also do pushups anywhere you like. You can do your pushups indoors or outdoors. The choice is yours.
Some interesting facts about pushups
Here are some very interesting facts about pushups:
- In the United States it is called a pushup. But in the United Kingdom it is known as a press-up.
- Pushups are not only meant as a form of exercise. Sometimes they can be used as a form of punishment – especially in the military.
- There is a more difficult version of push up called the one-arm pushup which is done using one arm instead of two arms. Can you imagine doing pushups with a single arm!
- In April, 1993, an American named Charles Servizio made history when he performed approximately 46,001 pushups within 21 hours and 6 minutes. Servizio is the current holder of the most push-ups done in 24 hours.
- On July 25, 2015, a man named Carlton Williams used just one hour to do 2,220 pushups.