How To Do Push Ups To Build Muscle
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Push-ups have and always will be a great upper body exercise to get you strong. When doing push-ups, just like any other exercise, it is very important that you do the movement correctly and this means keeping your knees locked out and lowering your chest to the ground.
You do not have to lock your knees out completely and they can be “soft-locked” and the same for getting your chest to touch the ground. It can be easily just be an inch from the ground in order to get the maximum benefit from doing the movement.
A good way to start is by doing ten sets of ten reps each and once you have reached this point there is no doubt that you will have gained the extra strength that is needed before you start adding weight. There are many creative ways that you can add weight to your push-ups.
The firs and probably the most practical way to add stress/weight to your push-ups is by putting your feet up against a wall and increasing the angle of the stress on your upper body. The higher your feet go the more the accent will be on your shoulders and your upper pecs.
There are other ways of increasing the weight but you will need a spotter to help load some weight onto your back. For example you could do a set with a 20 pound disc on your back with your spotter making sure that the weight does not slip off your back as you move.
Technique is vitally important because just like when doing any exercise it is easy to cheat by lifting your bum in the air or not going all the way down. It is important to lock your arms out when you get to the top of the movement but this can also be done by keeping the tension and keeping your arms bent.
The bottom line with any movement when you are trying to build muscle is progressive resistance. This combined with the correct technique of doing the movement has proven itself conclusively to be the only way to increase strength.
It should be added here that progressive resistance is exactly what it implies and that it needs to be “progressive” this simply means that you should start off slowly and see how strong you are. It certainly does not mean that you should start off putting a weight on your back and doing push-ups when you have never done them before.
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