Push-ups are very common exercises anyone can do and that involve only your body weight. As simple as it may seem, doing push-ups offers you good benefits for your physical health, as well as helping you to strengthen the muscles of your arms and chest.
However, to get all these benefits, you have to do the push-ups with the correct technique. Here we will give you some basic tips to master this exercise and even increase its intensity. Let's get started!
Arms distance
Many people place their arms wide apart when doing push-ups, but this doesn't fully activate the pecs and increases the risk of injury. The neutral position consists of placing your arms at a distance equal to the width of your shoulders.
If you want to increase the intensity and activate your muscles more, you can place your arms in a narrow position, about half the width of your shoulders.
Elbow position
This is usually one of the most common mistakes when doing push-ups. People position their shoulders at a 90° angle to the body, and this can only cause you an injury, especially to the shoulders.
The angle between the side of the body and the elbows should be between 45 and 75°. To better visualize it, imagine that from above your body and arms should look like an arrow and not like a cross.
How to increase the intensity?
There are several ways to increase the intensity of push-ups. Since only body weight is involved in this exercise, the only way to activate the muscles more is to vary the incline of the feet and body. Depending on the incline, you must support a higher percentage of your body weight.
Mind-muscle connection
Some scientific studies show that when we exercise if we focus on a specific muscle, the benefits we obtain are greater. In this sense, with push-ups, we can concentrate on both the pectorals and the arm muscles.
