P90X One on One
If you’re looking for an incredible chest and upper body workout, P90X® is one of the most effective programs you’ll ever find.
If you want to sculpt your arms and shoulders, and firm & tighten your chest muscles, you need to look no further than knowing how to incorporate the good old-fashioned push up into your workout routine!
As is very often the case, you can get an excellent workout using nothing more than body weight exercises, and the push up is certainly a mainstay in the category of exercises that use your body weight for resistance.
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. When you get to that point, see if you’re up for the P90X challenge!
Be sure to check out Part II of the Good Push Up Workout series!
Related Content
 Push-Up Stands — set of 2 |
 Chest & Back Targeted strength and definition workout emphasizes two classic upper-body exercises. |
 Great Arms Guaranteed! |
Entries RSS
Buildingbodies.ca Says: May 29th, 2007 at 12:04 am
Randy Couture Workout for MMA Conditioning…
Check this crazy little workout out:
Do the Randy Couture workout if you’ve got a barbell and you want to get into fighting shape or even if you are a weekend MMA warrior. I’d start with the 45lb empty bar and work up. That way you won…
A Good Push Up Workout, Part II by Fitness Destinations Says: June 3rd, 2007 at 10:51 pm
[...] Part I of the good push up workout series, I covered 9 different ways to do push ups using nothing but your body weight. Here in Part [...]
R. Pittman Says: July 24th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
How often should I do this pushup routine? Every other day? twice a week? Every day?
Thanks, RP
Aaron Potts Says: July 24th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
RP,
I would only go with once a week. Too much of even a great exercise program will come back to bite you later!
Push ups primarily use the chest muscles, the triceps, and the shoulders, so this routine can be used anytime you want to target those muscle groups.
Have fun!
Pawan Says: July 25th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Hey Aaron, I absolutely loved your article on the Push Up series. You really broke down the routine to a “T”.
I enjoyed reading and implementing this into my own push-up workout. However, I was wondering if you would be able to write a good routine for crunches and/or situps.
That would be greatly appreciated if you get the time
Aaron Potts Says: July 25th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Hi, Pawan!
I’m glad you liked the push-up series. I feel very strongly about people taking advantage of the benefits of bodyweight only exercises as often as possible.
As far as an abdominal series, sure, I’d be happy to! Keep an eye out for it in the near future!
L Carter Says: September 3rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Hello Aaron, if this is the only form of exercise that i do for the week how can i turn it into an awesome workout program. Thank you…
Aaron Potts Says: September 4th, 2007 at 7:32 am
L,
I would not recommend only doing this workout. This is a great upper body workout that will challenge your shoulders, triceps, and your chest muscles, but that still leaves plenty of other muscles that need attention in order to maintain a balanced, injury-free level of fitness.
I would also check out the lower body exercises section of this site, as well as the cardiovascular training section. Here are the links to both:
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/category/lower-body-exercises/
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/category/cardiovascular-training/
John R. Says: September 21st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Hi Aaron, I’m doing around 500 push ups everyday, still i’ struggling for a good chest. I’ve been doing this for almost 5 years…some solution…thank you
Aaron Potts Says: September 22nd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Hi, John.
That is WAY too many push ups to be doing every day. Your body never has a chance to recover, so you’ll never see the results.
My advice would be to practice quality over quantity, and reign in the number of push ups that you are doing, as well as the number of days per week that you are doing them.
Use this post and Part II of this series to give you ideas about different types of push ups to do, practice picture-perfect, controlled form on every single repetition, and give yourself two days to recover from every push up workout.
You can do other exercises during those recovery days, but not push ups, or any “pushing” movements that use your chest, triceps, or shoulders.
Also, make sure that you are getting plenty of high-quality protein. If you don’t get enough protein for muscle repair, your chest will never grow.
Hope that helps!
C Vaughn Says: October 13th, 2009 at 6:12 am
Hey Aaron, hope all is well. So let me get this. In regards to doing push-ups, is it ok to do them every other day and not daily? And if you can’t do them everyday as suggested and reccomended, how come guys who were incarcarated for a long period of time comes out of prison very sculpt, and they state they would do push ups everyday?
H
H
Aaron Potts Says: October 13th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
There is nothing wrong with doing push ups every day, as long as you don’t over do it and not give your body enough time to recover. Long before today’s high-tech workouts came along, people were doing 50 push ups and 50 sit ups every morning or every night, and it was indeed a good practice.
The thing to keep in mind here is that the push up workout on this page is just that – an entire workout. It targets all of the push up muscles over and over again, and from many different angles, which is exactly why it is so effective.
However, if you target a specific muscle over and over again, and work it out intensely, it will never grow completely unless you give it a chance to fully recover. Remember – when we exercise, we BREAK DOWN muscle tissue, we don’t build it. The building part comes from proper recovery, and proper nutritional intake during that recovery.
All of that being said, these concepts are what we call “best practices”. In other words, following proper workout and nutrition tips will get you the best results, in the shortest time, and with the least chance of injury.
That isn’t to say that it’s not physically possible to do tons and tons of push ups and get good results from that. The goal, however, is to get the BEST results possible, in the SHORTEST amount of time, with the LEAST chance of injury.
Hope that helps to clear things up!
Joe Forte Says: October 24th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
How many sets do I do per workout? For example, if I am doing 5 at each position, do I only do 45 pushups, or 2 sets of 45, 3 sets, etc….thanks!
Aaron Potts Says: October 26th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Joe,
As a general rule, 3 sets of any given exercise is a good idea. That way you get to fatigue the muscle, you get to work it while it is fatigued, and then you get to over-work the muscle it while it is fatigued.
Yes, there are other ways to do that as well, so I am not saying that the “3 set rule” is the only way you should ever exercise. However, if you want to get better at push-ups, then yes, 3 sets at each push-up position would be a great place to start.
Gary Says: November 29th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I don’t understand the legs in alignment with the body…could you give me a better explanation? Love your site, btw.
Thanks!
Aaron Potts Says: November 29th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Thanks, Gary – glad you like the site!
The 3 push up variations where your legs are in alignment with the body are simply “standard” push ups positions where your body is parallel to the ground. The only thing that changes is the distance that your hands are apart; close-grip, standard-width, and wide-grip.
The other variations are in height; legs elevated, legs in alignment (body parallel to the floor), and upper body elevated.
The idea is to change the angle of attack on the pectoral (chest) muscles. By changing the position of your hands and your feet, you work the muscles from every conceivable angle, which equates to more results.
It’s a glorious thing!