There is a very inappropriate misconception that push ups are an exercise only for men, and although they are a great exercise for men to sculpt their "beach muscles," women can benefit from that same muscle targeting.

One of the areas very commonly complained about by women is the saggy, back of the arm area that tends to turn into a body fat storage site that a lot of women would like to live without.

That area of the arm is home to the Triceps muscle, which is one of the primary muscles used in any type of push up. In addition, as you are about to learn, you can do push ups in a certain way that will specifically target that area of your arm. 

Proper Horizontal Positioning

There are multiple ways that you can position your body when doing push ups, but for the purpose of this basic primer on push ups, we are only going to focus on the 2 most common horizontal positions; knees up, or knees down.

The "knees up" position is the standard position for doing a common push up. When in the "up" part of the exercise, there should be a straight line from your shoulders all the way down to your heels. If your back is sagging or bowed up, you are cheating and you will not get the most out of the exercise.

The "knees down" position is helpful to use in the beginning until you build up the strength and the conditioning to perform the exercise with your knees up. When your knees are on the floor, the exercise is still challenging and effective, although not as difficult as whenever the knees are elevated.

However, even with the knees on the floor, there should still be that same straight line from the shoulders, and in this case, that line should extend to the back of the knees. 

Proper Hand Positioning

For now we are just going to focus on 3 basic hand positions when doing push ups. There will be a 2nd part to this series that gets into some more advanced movements, but for now there are only 3 hand positions that will be discussed; shoulder-width, wide-grip, and close-grip.

The shoulder-width grip is the standard push up position and will feel the most natural for you to do. The hands should be lined up horizontally with the middle part of the chest, not up by the shoulders! The hands should be fairly close to the body, but not underneath the body. To test your position, simply lay face down on the floor. Your hands should be directly next to your body with the thumbs almost touching the outside of the mid-chest area.

The wide-grip push up position keeps the hands in the same position next to the chest, but you will now slide your hands between two and three hand-widths out away from your body. Again, to test the position, just lay face down, keep your thumbs in the middle chest area, and just slide your hands out about 12 to 18 inches.

The close-grip push up position is the version of the exercise that most effectively targets the Triceps area at the back of the arm. To get into this position it is easiest to start with your knees on the ground so that you can easily get your hands in position.

Your hands will be directly underneath your chest, flat on the floor, forming a "diamond" shape by bringing the tips of the thumb and forefinger of each hand together. When you lower yourself into position, your hands should be directly underneath your chest. Again, do not let your hands migrate up towards your shoulders.

The Angles

In order to add the variety that is really going to help you get the most out of this workout, you are going to do all 3 types of push ups from 3 different angles; upper body higher than the legs, upper body in alignment with the legs, and upper body lower than the legs.

When your upper body is higher than your legs, this is the easiest version of the push up exercise. Find something that is about 2 feet off of the floor that has an edge that you can put your hands on, and you will now have a surface upon which you can do this push up version using all 3 hand positions.

When your upper body is in alignment with your legs, this is the "normal" push up position and is plenty difficult, even with your knees on the ground. This version can be done on any flat surface using all 3 hand positions.

The most difficult version of the push up exercise is whenever your legs are higher than your body, such as when you put your feet up on a chair, a stool, or a similar object that is 2 feet or so off of the ground. By forcing your chest, shoulders, and triceps to deal with the additional force of gravity on top of your normal body weight, each of the 3 hand position movements becomes more difficult than in the other versions of the exercise, and your shoulders are also targeted more.

The Workout 

In order to maximize the effectiveness of this workout, you are going to cycle through all 3 hand positions, as well as all 3 leg positions. As a reminder, they are:

• Shoulder-width, wide-grip, and close-grip
• Legs in alignment with the body, legs lower than the body, and legs higher than the body.

The workout itself is not difficult to remember, as it is simply cycling through all 9 possible positions without stopping to rest. Start with the hardest positions, and work your way all the way through by ending with the easiest positions.

Remember, do not stop to rest until you have done all 9 positions, and I would recommend starting with only 3-5 repetitions in each position. Even if you only do 3 repetitions in each position, you will still be doing 27 push ups without resting. As you get more conditioned, you can take the number of repetitions up. Here is the order of exercises, from hardest to most difficult:

• Legs Elevated, Hands Close Together, 3 reps
• Legs Elevated, Hands Wider than Shoulder-width apart, 3 reps
• Legs Elevated, Hands Shoulder-width apart, 3 reps
• Legs in Alignment with the Body, Hands Close Together, 3 reps
• Legs in Alignment with the Body, Hands Wider than Shoulder-width apart, 3 reps
• Legs in Alignment with the Body, Hands Shoulder-width apart, 3 reps
• Legs lower than the Body, Hands Close Together, 3 reps
• Legs Lower than the Body, Hands Wider than Shoulder-width apart, 3 reps
• Legs Lower than the Body, Hands Shoulder-width apart, 3 reps

There is no need to get fancy with what you are putting your feet on when you are doing the movements with your legs elevated, or with what you put your hands on when you are doing the movements with your legs lower than your body. A chair or a foot stool will be sufficient. The taller the surface is, the harder the leg elevated exercises will be.

So there you have it! It takes much longer to put this workout into words that it will take to actually do it, but the results you will see will be phenomenal!

In fact, if you are presently doing dumbbell workouts for your chest, or working out on the machines at your gym, just stop for awhile and switch to body weight exercises, including this push up workout.

When you can easily do this entire workout 3 times through with strict form, and good, controlled repetitions, then you can starting adding some dumbbells and weight machines in order to change up your routine.

Be sure to check out Part II of the Good Push Up Workout series! 

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