coach
“Weighted push-ups are an effective way to stimulate the chest muscles, anterior deltoids, and triceps in a home workout where you don’t have access to machines, barbells, and dumbbells. Using additional weight in push-ups puts more pressure on the muscles, which promotes more efficient muscle growth and strength development. They can be especially helpful for those who have already reached a certain level of strength and who need a new incentive to progress.”
According to research, people who can do more than 40 push-ups have a lower risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular problems compared to those who can do less than 10 push-ups.
What we will tell you about:
What muscles work?
Push-ups are a basic multi-joint exercise that involves several muscle groups.
The pectoral muscles receive the main load during the exercise, pulling the shoulder towards the torso. The triceps brachii muscle helps to extend the arms at the elbow joint when lifting the torso upward. The anterior deltoid muscle flexes the shoulder during the exercise. The abdominal muscles, including the rectus and oblique muscles, stabilize the torso during the exercise. The forearm muscles allow you to support and stabilize the arms in a static position during the exercise.
Read about a more complicated form of push-ups here:
Clapping push-ups are an exercise to develop explosive strength, useful in martial arts.
Ways to add extra weight
Each weight option has its own advantages and will be effective in solving your problems at a certain stage of training.
Backpack with load. You can load your backpack with books, water bottles, sandbags, or weight plates. As a rule, when doing push-ups, the backpack is placed on the upper back in the area of the shoulder blades, and when doing pull-ups, the backpack is placed in front of you or on your back.
Weighted vest. The vest has built-in weight pockets, allowing you to use weights from 5 to 25 kg or more, and the vest design distributes the load evenly over the body.
Weighted belt. When doing push-ups on parallel bars, a belt is placed on the hips and a chain with a weight is attached to it. This belt allows you to use additional weights of up to 150-200 kg.
Position of the body in space. If you don’t have any equipment, elevate your feet on a chair or other high surface so that they are higher than your torso. This will shift your center of gravity and increase the load on your muscles.
Photo: istockphoto.com/Nikolas_jkd
Weighted Push-Up Technique
Wear a weighted backpack or weighted vest so that it rests on your upper back, near your shoulder blades. Stand with your arms straight and your body aligned, with your palms shoulder-width apart. Keep your neck straight, draw your shoulder blades down and together. Make a slight arch in your lower back and contract your abdominal muscles. Inhale and lower your body to the floor, bending your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Take a short break at the bottom. Lower your body gently and without sudden movements. As you exhale, raise your body to the top point, extending your arms at the elbow joints to a straight position.
Benefits of weighted push-ups
Pumping up your upper body muscles. The exercise engages the chest and arm muscles, making them more massive and powerful. Using additional weights allows you to steadily progress in results and gain muscle mass. Regular strength training also helps slow down age-related muscle mass loss.
Health benefit. Regular exercise has a positive effect on physical and mental health. Push-ups have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of the body.
Joint health. Regular exercise helps to improve the health of the shoulder and elbow joints. If your upper body is weak, the stress on the joints and bones increases, and the risk of fracture or other injuries increases. In addition, during physical exercise you improve the mobility of the joints and metabolic processes in them.
Improving sports performance. Weighted push-ups can be a useful addition to training for wrestling, boxing, grappling, MMA, powerlifting, and other sports that require upper body strength.
Photo: istockphoto.com/Ivanko_Brnjakovic
Recommendations for training with weighted push-ups
Heating. Before training with additional weight, we recommend preparing your ligaments, joints, and tendons. Spend five minutes doing rotator cuff exercises, followed by one or two warm-up sets of bodyweight push-ups. This will help you train harder and reduce the likelihood of injury.
Weight of the load. To strengthen muscles, use weights of 70-75% of one repetition maximum (1RM), to increase strength – 80-95% of 1RM, for strength endurance, train with weights – 55-65% of 1RM.
Number of repetitions and approximations. For strength building, it is optimal to do up to eight repetitions, for strength and endurance, from 15, and for muscle gain, it is optimal to do 8 to 12. According to research, it is recommended to structure training so that there are 12 to 20 approaches per muscle group per week.
Relax time. If you’re strength training, rest between sets for three to five minutes. When training for strength and endurance, rest for 20 to 60 seconds. When training for muscle mass, the optimal rest time is 60-90 seconds; for heavy basic exercises, you can extend the rest to two to three minutes;
Greater load. Increase the weight, number of reps, and sets gradually. Start with 8-10 reps in two or three sets at the optimal weight. Then, add one rep each workout until you reach 15 reps in two or three sets. After this, increase the weight and repeat the cycle.
Breath. If you want to do a lot of reps with a quality weight, then you need to breathe evenly and without holding your breath. Lack of oxygen negatively affects muscle function and concentration. We inhale at the moment of lowering the body and exhale with maximum effort when lifting the body.
Rhythm of execution. Perform the exercise at a measured pace, going down smoothly and coming up hard. Muscles don’t know how to count reps; time under load is important to them, so it’s better to do 10 to 15 high-quality reps than 15 to 20 with poor technique.
Photo: istockphoto.com / Vladimir Gappov
Contraindications
Before strength training, we recommend consulting a doctor to exclude possible contraindications, especially in people with diseases of the cardiovascular, endocrine and nervous systems, pregnancy, obesity, diabetes and joint diseases.
Temporarily limit weighted push-up training if you have the following conditions:
Acute pain in the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints; acute pain in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine; elevated body temperature, infectious diseases and exacerbation of chronic diseases in the upper body during training.
Let’s find out together which push-ups are better:
Video
Finger, fist, and palm push-ups: which are more useful for lifting your upper body?
Types of push-ups
Push-ups with raised legs
The technique is similar to classic push-ups, but the legs are raised. This option is suitable for those who do not have the opportunity to use additional weights.
Stand up straight with your arms straight, palms shoulder-width apart, and legs raised to shift the weight of your body onto your upper body muscles. Your gaze is directed toward the floor. Keep your neck straight, draw your shoulder blades down and together. Avoid arching your lower back sharply and engage your abdominal muscles. Inhale and lower your body to the floor, bending your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Take a short break at the bottom. Lower your body gently and without sudden movements. Exhale and raise your body to the top point, extending your arms at the elbow joints to a straight position.
Photo: istockphoto.com/sestovic
Narrow push-ups
With this technique, the arms are narrower than shoulder width apart, directly under the chest. The narrow arm position is intended to work the chest muscles and triceps.
Wear a weighted backpack or weighted vest so that it rests on your upper back, near your shoulder blades. Stand with your arms straight and your body level, with your palms narrower than your shoulders and your fingers pointing toward each other. toward the floor. Keep your neck straight, draw your shoulder blades down and together. Make a slight arch in your lower back and contract your abdominal muscles. Inhale and lower your body to the floor, bending your arms at the elbow joints at a right angle. Take a short break at the bottom. Lower your body gently and without sudden movements. Exhale and raise your body to the top point, extending your arms at the elbow joints until they are straight.
Photo: istockphoto.com/PeopleImages
Wide Arm Push-Ups
With this technique, the hands are wider than the shoulders. The wide arm stance is intended to work the chest and deltoid muscles.
Wear a weighted backpack or weighted vest so that it rests on your upper back, near your shoulder blades. Stand in a straight-arm position with your body level, palms wider than shoulder-width apart, and fingers pointing diagonally out to the sides. on the floor. Keep your neck straight, draw your shoulder blades down and together. Make a slight arch in your lower back and contract your abdominal muscles. Inhale and lower your body to the floor, bending your arms at the elbow joints at a right angle. Take a short break at the bottom. Lower your body smoothly and without sudden movements. Exhale and raise your body to the top point, straightening your arms at the elbow joints.
Photo: istockphoto.com/South_agency
I’m calling for it
Push-ups on parallel bars are more difficult than push-ups on the floor, so they are suitable for more experienced athletes.
Wear a weight belt or weighted vest. Place the palms of your straight arms on the parallel bars with your body in an even position. Your gaze is directed forward. Keep your neck straight, stretch your chest, lower your shoulder blades and bring them together. Make a slight arch in your lower back and contract your abdominal muscles. Inhale and lower your torso, bending your elbows at a 90-degree angle. Take a short break at the bottom. Lower yourself smoothly and without sudden movements. Exhale and raise your body to the top point, extending your arms at the elbow joints to a straight position. Make sure that your arms do not extend too far at the elbow joint when straightening up. Also, do not lower yourself too far to avoid shoulder injuries.
Photo: istockphoto.com/antondotsenko
One arm push-ups
A complicated version of push-ups that will allow you to increase the load without using additional weights. Suitable for experienced athletes who perform more than 40 push-ups with their own body weight.
Stand on one arm outstretched with your body level, placing your palm under the centre of your chest. It is important to adopt a stable and comfortable position. Place your legs apart and place your other hand behind your back. Your gaze is directed towards the floor. Keep your neck straight, lower your shoulder blades and bring them together. Make a slight arch in your lower back and contract your abdominal muscles. Inhale and lower your body to the floor, bending your arm at the elbow joint. Lower your body gently and without sudden movements. Exhale and raise your body to the top point, extending your arm at the elbow joint until it is straight. Then, do the same movement on the other side.
Photo: istockphoto.com/milan2099
An interesting modification of the exercise was described here:
Video
Great for strengthening the triceps. What are diamond push-ups and how to do them correctly?
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