Tone Up With Pushups

If you are looking for a convenient workout that can give you great results in a short amount of time, then pushups are an excellent choice! Pushups are great for toning up the entire body, and they are convenient because you do not need any equipment to do them. They are also a safe option, because the risk of injury is lower than with weightlifting.

Pushups primarily work out the pectoral (chest) muscles, and triceps (back of the upper arm). Holding the proper pushup-form provides a secondary workout for the abdominal muscles, lower back, shoulders, and legs. Pushups also stretch out the back muscles. There are many variations on the standard pushup as well that shift the emphasis to different muscle-areas, such as; incline pushups (shoulders) and decline pushups (triceps).

Because pushups are an explosive exercise, i.e. performed very fast and in high repetitions, they are great for building muscle mass very quickly. The muscle that you build doing pushups will also be more firm than muscle built from traditional weight-lifting, because higher-rep workouts tighten muscles better.

I recommend starting out with a reasonably easy workout- fifty to one-hundred pushups, every other day. Two things to keep in mind are; do not overdo it at first, and pushups will take some getting used to. If you are used to weight-lifting, the workout may seem easy, but you may be surprised to find yourself sore the day after the workout- this is because of all of the secondary/stabilizer muscles that pushups require.
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