What kind of push ups are there

The traditional pushup is the one that probably first comes to mind. It begins with your hands beneath your shoulders or slightly wider. Your core should be tight. Your back should be straight and depending on your level, you can be up on your toes or on your knees.

If you cannot do a pushup on your toes, then start with your knees on the ground until you progress. Slowly lower yourself to the ground. A common mistake that people make is either letting your lower body sag to the ground, so your hips touch the floor first, or arching too high so make sure that your back is flat the entire time.

Keep your elbows in close to your body and tucked in. Then exhale and push yourself back to the starting position. And there you have it, a traditional pushup. The traditional pushup works your entire body simultaneously — from your arms, abs and lower body.

It trains these muscles to work together, while also building better balance and stability. If you want to engage your chest and front shoulders more, then try the wide grip.

It is the same as a traditional pushup but your hands further apart. This means that your elbows will bend slightly more when you are lowering yourself to the ground. When it comes to pushup variations, the wider apart your hands are, the more you will work your chest.

This means that a wide grip pushup will place more emphasis on your pectoral strength than the traditional one. The diamond or close grip pushup is another version that you can try.

While your body is the same as in the conventional pushup, your hands are closer together, narrower than shoulder width. Diamond Pushup. Benefit: This variation puts more stress and emphasis on the triceps.

Pike Pushup. Archers Pushup. Superman Pushup. Benefits: This variation puts more stress and emphasis on the back. Heather Marr mbg Fitness Contributor. After getting her More On This Topic Motivation. Sarah Regan. Janeil Mason, M. With Sahara Rose. Personal Growth. Eliza Sullivan. Latest Articles Off-the-Grid. Emma Loewe. Jamie Schneider. Integrative Health. Functional Food.

Simon Hill. Lindsay Boyers. Previous Next. Folder Name. The all-time classic. Single-arm off a table No. Having your knees out wider than your hips will make it a little easier to balance, while keeping your elbow close to your body will make it more difficult. Feeling like a Man of Steel? Then put your palms on the floor and, keeping your arms relatively straight, raise and lower your body by bending at your shoulders.

Like the feet-elevated push-up No. Not for the faint of heart! This variation requires a huge amount of strength in your forearms and fingers. The fewer fingers on the floor, the more strength is involved. Jack Lalanne is one of the first fitness celebrities.

The Jack Lalanne fingertip push-up is as tough as its namesake. This exercise requires finely tuned functional strength, from fingers to toes.

A move worthy of an elite gymnast, this push-up is performed with your hands closer to your waist and your feet hovering above the floor. These variations make use of medicine balls , resistance bands , dumbbells , and more. Place one hand on a medicine ball and one on the floor to perform this push-up. This is a more explosive variation of the single hand on the medicine ball No.

Without rolling the ball, push up and over to the side so you can switch the elevated hand. These can also be performed with a box or another object of the same size.

Managing a push-up with both hands on medicine balls requires an enormous amount of stability, control, and body awareness. Plus, it really fires up your abs. We all saw this coming. If you can manage one rep of this exercise, you have the balance of a stone statue — congratulations! Ah, the old stability ball. A great way to challenge your balance and add ab work to an exercise. When you perform a simple feet-elevated push-up No. These are tough with your hands on top of the ball.

Whether your hands are on the flat side or the squishy ball side, push-ups on a BOSU a balance trainer that has a rubber dome on one side and a flat surface on the other require a lot of stabilization, coordination, and abdominal work — welcome guests in our workouts!

Put your feet on a stability ball and your hands on the flat side of a BOSU and do a push-up. Pushing off dumbbells will help strengthen your wrists. If the dumbbells have screwlocks you know, the screws that lock the plates in place , you can try loosening them slightly. These push-ups are just like No. This fires up your back muscles, creating a true full-body exercise. This is just like the rotational push-up No.

Keep the screwlocks loose enough that the dumbbells can roll but not so loose that the plates clank around. Allow the dumbbells to roll out to the sides as your body lowers, then reverse the move. Balancing both hands on a kettlebell or, for the fearless, on a kettlebell handle is a great way to mimic a diamond push-up No. Same as above but with two kettlebells.

Perform the previous exercise No. To add some tension to your legs, perch your toes on the handle of a kettlebell. Like No. This variation has one foot on a kettlebell and the other pushing into the air. You can also do this off of a stack of weights, between two benches, or in any manner that lowers your body past your hands, which recruits more muscle fibers in your outer chest.

Simply lay one or more bands across your back and tuck the ends under your palms. Now, push up. Chains work a lot like resistance bands in that the resistance increases as you move farther off the floor. Plus, you look like a total badass. Push-ups with chains make you work harder at your strongest point and have great carryover to the bench press, especially the top part of the movement the lockout.

Draping them across your neck may cause excess strain. While Hugh Jackman is a fan, they might be a little risky! Medically reviewed by Peggy Pletcher, M. Standard pushup. Share on Pinterest. Modified pushup. Wide pushup. Narrow pushup. Decline pushup. Next steps. Read this next. How to Get Toned Arms: 7 Exercises. Medically reviewed by William Morrison, M.