
Many people want to know if doing push ups everyday is good or bad. Well, it all depends on your intensity level and the exercises that you do along with it. This article provides information regarding the same.
Push ups are a good way to work out your upper body, and they are especially good for your chest and wing region. While doing push ups, the muscles in your arms, shoulders, chest, and your upper abs get a good workout. If you do less repetitions and variations, you can do push ups everyday as an exercise to warm up your body. There are some people who perform only free exercises, that means, without lifting weights. For such people, doing push ups everyday is OK, but the intensity should be moderate. If you do strenuous workouts, the worked body part needs at least 48 hours to recover. If you overuse the muscles, then you will not get the desired results. There are many variations for doing push ups, and here we take a look at three of these variations.
Regular Arm Push Ups
The correct form of doing these push ups is to keep your palms on the ground in line with your shoulders. Keep your elbows close to the body, and keep your legs together or a little apart, but never wider than your shoulders. Exhale when you push up and inhale when you go down. Remember, do not touch the floor when you go down, and keep your body straight when you come up. This is the best way to give your shoulder and chest muscles a good workout.
Wide Arm Push Ups
In this variation, you keep your arms wider than the shoulder length and push your body up and down concentrating on your outer chest muscles. The most important thing to remember here is that, you should not keep your hands too much apart since doing so, you will not be able to push your body up. This is a good workout routine for your triceps and wings.
Close Grip Push Ups
Keep both your palms close to each other, below the mid-chest region. The elbows should touch your body when you push up, giving your triceps and deltoids a wholesome workout. Like all other push up routines, this is a good strength training exercise. The only difference in these push up variations is the placement of the hands. Doing any kind of push up routine will give you a toned upper body.
The general rule of thumb is that, if you are performing strenuous workouts for a muscle, it needs about 48 hours of rest to recover. This is the best way to gain muscle strength and mass. The intensity of the workout is very important here, for example, if you do cycling and cardiovascular exercises at minimal resistance, you can do them daily. In the same way, if you are just doing push ups daily as a warm up routine, it is perfectly alright as it is a good warm up exercise. If you are not sure of the intensity, you can try doing it everyday for a month and see how your body reacts. Some people have experienced noticeable strength gain by following this routine while some have experienced fatigue and loss of stamina when they tried it. If you are doing heavy weight training everyday, the muscles you work need a rest period to recover and grow. If you fall under this category, then doing push ups everyday is a bad idea as your muscles will not get their rest period and will not grow or strengthen.
The best way to decide though, is to try it out yourself, monitor the results, and then make a decision. Most bodybuilders follow the simple rule of ‘best way is your way’, and you too should do the same.
Disclaimer: This FitnessVigil article is for informative purposes only, and should not be used as a replacement for expert medical advice.