By: Coach Jericho Littauer
Pushups? Seemingly simple and too easy, it can be one of the most foundational movements you do. Whether you have a diverse fitness background, a love hate relationship with fitness, limited to a certain community in fitness, or no fitness background at all the push up can be a very effective tool for your tool box.
As a person gains experience in fitness, whether that be CrossFit, bodybuilding, barbell training, gymnastics, Olympic lifting, performance training, or any other type of fitness, it is too easy to neglect the simple foundational movements. One of my personal favorites is the pushup. As a young kid growing up my only understanding of getting strong was doing body weight movements on the floor. I remember my dad telling me if I wanted to get strong I needed to start with doing push ups, so that’s what I did. Starting out with a few sets of 5-10 I grew my capacity til I could do bigger and bigger sets. It was an easy way to start and helped build foundational strength that proved beneficial later in my fitness journey.
Having been working out in some form or fashion for about 12 years now, push ups have always been a staple of my exercise. The benefits include increased chest and shoulder strength, core stability and strength, increased upper back strength, and improved muscle size and definition. All of these benefits directly translate to other areas of strength and fitness. Want to be able to squat more? Increase your core and upper body strength. Want to be able to do more pull ups? Increase your upper back and shoulder strength. Want to be able to press more weight either overhead or on the bench? More pushups.
One of the best things about pushups is the versatility. There are countless variations of pushups you can add to your repertoire to improve in all the listed areas above. Standard plank pushups, weighted pushups, ring pushups, deficit pushups, handstand pushups, tempo pushups, elevated pushups, one arm pushups, the list goes on. There are so many different ways you can use a pushup to improve your strength and fitness.
An added benefit of the pushup is how scalable it is. For example, say you have never been able to do push ups before and don’t even know where to start; simply get into a good plank position and lower your chest to the floor as slowly as possible, this is a pushup negative. You can also supplement a pushup by using a band to assist you getting back up off the floor. Simply place a band around knee height, get in a plank position over the band with the band postioned somewhere between your chest and hips. The pushup is incredibly simple and still provides a very effective tool for your fitness.
It is way too easy to overlook the basics and get wrapped up in the complexity of movements and program. Never neglect the fundamentals and stick to things that are simple and effective.