Get Off The Couch

All right drop and give me twenty!

You don’t have to wait to buy a gym membership to start getting in shape and start turning your life around. Turn off the television right now and get on the floor and do the exercise that in my opinion is the single most effective exercise for improving total body fitness–the PUSH UP.
There is no better or faster way of getting fit as doing push ups. When done properly push-ups work the chest, hands, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, traps, upper back, lower back, abs, glutes, hamstrings, quads, calf and over course the most important muscle of all–the heart.
Still not convinced? Ok, push-ups offer the benefits of weight lifting, stretching and cardio training all in one simple and straight forward exercise.

Push ups are a core-strengthening exercise that help improve balance by strengthening and shaping up most important muscle groups in your body - the core.
Holding the proper push up form is a great exercise alone, without even performing any repetitions. The push up form benefits the abdominal muscles through simultaneously flexing and stretching. When the lower back muscles contract to stabilize your form, your abdominal muscles are inadvertently stretched. The quadriceps is also relied on heavily to maintain proper form, giving your legs a decent secondary workout.

The push up motion trains the chest, triceps and the anterior deltoids, while stretching the biceps and back. Some consider the push up to provide the best all around chest workout.
In addition, a high repetition push up workout will work wonders for overall cardiovascular health.

What’s best about the push up is that they can be performed anywhere at anytime. All you need is to set aside a few minutes each day and then make up your mind to workout.

The Basic Push Up:
Lie down on the ground with your face down. Keep your palms flat on the ground shoulder-width apart. Make sure that your feet are together and keep legs and back straight.
Look ahead and while you go down, try to touch the floor with your chin.
When you rise, try not to bend your back.
While going up, breathe out.
Pause and repeat the exercise.

The Advance Push Up:
One hand Push Up –open your legs wide while keeping one hand under the center of your chest. Place your free hand at the small of your back. Now, follow the same process outlined in the basic push up.
Try to do five push ups using each hand. (Don’t overdo these push ups since they cause heavy strain on the elbow)

Diamond Push Up and Wide Push Up
For this exercise position your thumbs and forefingers in a diamond shape. Place your hands beneath the center of your chest and proceed with the push up motion.
The wide push up is done by keeping your hands about 4 feet apart.

Remember, the push-up should be performed in a rhythmic motion. At first, aim for 6 to 8 reps of 3 and then slowly increase your reps. Before you know it you will be churning out 20 to 30 reps.

Now, as I said at the top of this post—Drop and give me 20!!!!