Wellness Positive

Fitness in just 15 minutes a Day..

Pushups:

Also known as press-ups.

  Push ups are a superb exercise for increasing upper-body strength, and an essential part of any physical fitness or workout program...

  Push ups especially strengthen the arms and pectorals (chest muscles). To a lesser extent, push ups also exercise and tone the abdominal muscles and hip and back muscles. A correctly-executed push up can even improve your balance! - As you can see, this is a great all-round exercise, a superb physical fitness workout, and it needs little or no equipment.

  Push ups are also a very adaptable exercise - if a push up is too hard for you, you can make it easier by doing them with your weight on your knees instead of on your feet - these are called bent knee push ups. If the push ups are too easy, you can make them harder by propping your feet up somewhere so that more weight comes on your arms.

  Or you can just do the basic push up described below. However you choose to do this exercise, it remains one of the best equipment-free ways of working out your upper body.

How to do a push up..

Step 1:

Lie chest-down on the floor with your hands slightly more than shoulder-width apart. The hands should be placed on each side of the chest, with the hands facing outwards. The feet can be either together, or about shoulder width apart - your toes and the ball of your foot touch the ground.

Look forward, not down at the floor - if any part of your face touches the floor, it should be the chin, rather than the nose. Look at the image..

Now breathe IN deeply, filling your lungs.

Step 2:

Now, push up off the floor by straightening your arms. Exhale as you do this. Keep the hands and feet fixed in position on the floor, and keep your back straight as you push up. Stop for a moment in this position. Look at the image..

Step 3:

Now lower your body down to the floor again by bending your arms. Breathe IN deeply as you do this. Keep your back straight as you do this.

Lower your body until your chest touches the floor. Keep your knees off the floor - your legs should make contact with the floor through the toes and the ball of the foot. Look at the image..



You have now returned to your position in Step 1 and have completed one push up.

Number of times to do this Exercise:

For already fit people who just want to maintain their fitness ('Level 1'): 25 repetitions continuously. Try to improve to 50.

For people trying to get in condition ('Level 2'): 10 repetitions continuously. Try to improve to 25 repetitions continuously - that is, try to improve to 'Level 1' fitness..

For people who are out of training ('Level 3'): 1 to 3 repetitions. Try to improve to 10 continuously - that is, try to improve to 'Level 2' fitness...