Reverse Push-Up: The Push-Up that Blasts Your Core
Reverse Push-Up: The Push-Up that Blasts Your Core
Push-ups are one of the oldest exercises in the books, but there’s a reason they have so much staying power. When performed correctly, they are one of the most effective and simplest exercises to build a strong upper body and midsection.
Plus, you can easily tweak your push-up technique to turn it into a powerful core-building workout by doing a push-up in reverse.
Blast Your Core With the Reverse Push-Up
Your body has 29 core muscles, which are located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.
When thinking of core exercises, many people make the mistake of thinking that crunches are the best option, when in fact you must incorporate a variety of stabilization, functional and traditional exercises. One such option is the push-up – and if you want to supercharge your core workout, the reverse push-up.
You can see a demonstration in the video above, but it involves lowering your body into the typical push-up position, then, instead of pushing your body upward, bending your knees and moving your body backward before again moving forward into the push-up starting position. This intense movement will work out your arms and shoulders while also pushing your core muscles to the max!
Even Traditional Push-Ups Work Your Core – IF You Do Them Correctly
Adding both reverse and regular push-ups into your workout routine makes sense, as both will work your core in a variety of different ranges of motion, in different angles and positions, in order to engage all muscles. But an improperly performed push-up is a waste of your precious workout time.
Common mistakes most people make when performing a push-up include going too fast and using only partial range of motion. In the video above, Darin Steen demonstrates the perfect push-up. First, slow it down and use a three-second contraction. Try to really feel the muscle groups you’re targeting and do a full range of motion — starting all the way down at the floor and pushing all the way up.
Pay particular attention to the alignment of your elbows. The ideal angle from your sides is about 45 degrees. This allows you to effectively work your chest muscles and prevent injuries from overextension. I recommend watching Darin’s demonstration of the proper form, but here’s a summary of key points to remember:
- Keep your body stiff and straight as a plank
- Elbows at a 45-degree angle from your sides
- Breathe in on the way down
- Lower your body all the way down, allowing your sternum to gently touch the floor
- Breathe out on the way up
Push-ups take a certain amount of strength to perform properly, so if you’re just starting out you may want to begin by keeping your knees on the floor. Bring your heels up toward your buttocks, and keep your body straight. Go slow and use full range of motion, allowing your chest to gently touch the floor. By pulling your elbows closer to your sides, you can place more focus on your chest muscles.
Another beginner option is the wall push-up. Stand with your feet about three feet away from a wall, then lean against it with your palms flat. Push backward with your arms, and then slowly come forward, making a push-up motion with your arms. Once you can comfortably perform about a dozen push-ups this way, advance to the regular push-up technique, keeping your legs straight and balancing on your toes. Then, when you can do 12, 15, or 18 repetitions for two or three sets, move on to the reverse push-up, as described above, or try one of the more advanced techniques below.
Want to Take Your Push-Up Workout Up a Notch?
Doing the standard push-up exercise with your legs straight or knees bent on the floor will start to lose effectiveness over time if you don’t add in new challenges. To get more out of your push-ups, try mixing up your routine with the reverse push-up as well as these simple tweaks:
- Put your hands on an exercise ball. As the ball shifts, it will force your core muscles to work to keep you in balance, while providing a greater challenge to your upper body. A similar option is to use two medicine balls, place the palms of your hands on top of the balls and perform the push-up from there.
- Alter your hand positions. The placement of your hands will dictate which muscle groups are targeted. Instead of the traditional hand placement (slightly wider than shoulder-width apart), try widening their stance to work your chest and shoulders. If you bring your hands together below your chest, you’ll work your triceps. You can also elevate one arm (place your hand on a yoga block, or lift it into the air, for instance), which will challenge your upper body even more.
- Lift and extend your leg. As you extend your leg behind you, your upper body gets a challenge while your core and glutes get toned.
- Elevate your feet. In the traditional push-up position, put your feet on a step, chair, or gym ball, so your feet are higher than your hands. This puts more weight on your upper body, giving your arms, chest and upper back a workout.
- Do push-ups off your fingertips. This is a more advanced technique that will improve the strength and grip of your hands.
Three Push-Up Exercises to Target Your Abs
If you want to target your abs, in particular, while doing a push-up, try:
- 1. While in plank position, pull in your bellybutton. Your bellybutton is attached to your transverse abdominis, that inner sheath that holds your gut inside and gives your spine and vertebrae a nice, weight belt-tightening type of support. So by pulling it in, you begin to contract that deep inner transverse abdominis muscle.
2. Next, do a Kegel squeeze. More women than men might be familiar with this term. A Kegel squeeze is performed by drawing your lower pelvic muscles up and holding them up high and tight. For men who aren’t familiar with that term, it’s similar to trying to stop urinating in the middle of the flow. This squeeze will allow you to feel and focus on your abdominal muscles.
3. Try a push-up dumbbell row. Start at a dumbbell weight suitable to your current level of strength and fitness and progress into higher weights as you go along. Place the dumbbells at a 45-degree angle; pull in your bellybutton; draw up your lower pelvic muscles (Kegel squeeze), and breathe in as you lower your upper body to the floor. Breathe out on the way up, and once your arms are in the fully extended position, perform a row — pulling the right dumbbell up toward your chest.
On the next push-up, pull up with your left. This advanced technique will work your abs from side to side, and target those deep core muscles as well.
Combining Push-Ups With Peak Fitness
The most recent research shows that relatively short bursts of intense exercise — even if done only a total of a few minutes each week — can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits you get from doing hours of conventional exercise. By doing just two or three 20-minute Peak Fitness workouts a week, you could see significant changes in important health indices.
You don’t need a gym to perform high-intensity interval exercise. It can be performed with virtually any type of exercise, with or without equipment. You can just as easily perform interval training by walking or running outdoors as you can using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine. You can add in push-ups to your high-intensity routine, specifically:
- Plyometric push-ups: Once your sternum touches the floor, hold your position and breathe for about three seconds, then perform an explosive push upward.
- Three minutes of push-ups: It’s quite simply, how many push-ups can you do in three minutes? You need to have good technique, good form and a strategy. If you go all out you’ll lose your energy and likely won’t last for three minutes. So go at a pace of about 80 percent of your total ability, and when you can’t go any further, rest for 20-30 seconds, stretch and then resume.
- The handstand push-up (highly advanced): Facing a wall, place your hands at a 45-degree angle about one to two hand-lengths from the wall. Kick your legs up. You can use the wall to stabilize you as you perform the push-up. Breathe in as you lower yourself to the floor, and breathe out as you push yourself up.
Push-ups, whether performed traditionally, in reverse or using any of the other techniques described above, are a simple way to add tremendous core-building benefits to your comprehensive fitness routine.