Push-Ups: The Basics

In a previous article, I mentioned push-ups as a great way to train your chest and gave instructions on how to execute a standard push-up, but the push-up itself has so many variations that I deemed it fit to write an entire article dedicated to just push-ups. So let’s start from the top for a beginner who can not do a standard push-up yet

The wall push-up is a great place to start and requires the person to simply place their hands on a wall in front of them, take a step back lean towards the wall, and push themselves back repeatedly. As you get more confident with this try moving your feet further and further away from the wall until you're ready for the next step inclined push-ups

This is another beginner one, in which you rest your knees on the ground and then continue like a standard push-up, lowering your body till your chest almost reaches the ground and then pushing your body back up.

Inclined push-ups require a horizontal table or rod to hold as you perform the push-up. Similar to a normal push-up, they require you to keep your body completely straight with your feet on the ground but your hands on the raised rod or surface.These push-ups can be performed at lower and lower surfaces as you get stronger and more comfortable doing them.

Declined push-ups are a more advanced variant of the standard push-up and can be thought of as the opposite of an inclined push-up where you keep your legs on a raised surface and hands on the ground, requiring you to push more of your body weight.

Diamond push-ups mainly target the triceps. In this type, your hands are placed on the floor in the shape of a diamond, and the rest of the movement is the same as the standard push up

Pike push-ups are a bit of a change in pace, as they target your shoulders and triceps rather than your chest. For this exercise, get in the standard push-up position, but rather than having your body straight raise your hip. Then, lower your body, while maintaining that position, till your head almost reaches the ground. Then push back up

So these are 6 variants in order of difficulty from beginner to a slightly advanced diamond push-up. I recommend that once you can perform 10-15 reps of one variant, you should try to perform the next for a few. Once you’ve exhausted the 6 written here come back for more advanced variants, which slightly modify the same movement to make the exercise significantly tougher.