Ready to take your pushups to the next level?
Pushups are the classic upper body test of strength. They have been around for what seems like forever. The Armed Forces all use them as a means of testing your conditioning and upper body strength. But to be honest, sometimes pushups are boring.
Here are three ways to take this classic exercise and make it fun again, challenging to your coordination and also build up your core!
Variation #1: Medicine Ball Pushup
A pushup with one hand on a medicine ball: by placing one hand on the ball, you give your core a workout by being assymetrical. Both hands have equal pressure on them.
Variation #2: Alternating Medicine Ball Pushup
Now we are moving the ball back and forth from hand to hand. You not only get assymetrical core work but also transitional. What this means is your core is challenged by uneven weight but also by moving. One other thing that this helps is shoulder/rotator cuff stability. Build up on these and you will have some strong shoulders, endurance in your core and some extra strength to boot.
Variation #3: Plyometric Medicine Ball Pushup
The ball now stays stationary and you explosively push and switch hands over the medicine ball. These require some concentration so you don’t miss the ball, so be careful at first.
Have fun with these. Work up your skill and by the time you get to the plyometric pushups, you’ll be surprised how the rest of your workout has improved.
Let me know what you think of these. Too easy? Let me know…I’ll give you something much worse better.
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Chest is Wednesday, so I’ll give these a shot. Is this intended to be a workout on it’s own with multiple sets or something you could switch into your normal workout as another exercise?
Hi Mat! Thanks for your question. Here are two options for you. Do these as part of an interval type training, ie. 20 secs up, 20 sec. rest x8. Tabata intervals.
or…
What I like to do is do my heavy work first, then finish with these trying to be as explosive as possible. You’ll sweat just as much as a heavy lift as its more like a speed press. Same force, lighter weight…depending on if you are good at pushups or not.