Exercise, Build Muscle with Simple Pushups

Most people aren't aware that you can build muscle without using any fancy gym equipment -- in fact, standard bodyweight exercises like pushups can be effectively used to build muscle up.

Frankly, it's easy to underestimate how effective pushups can be at getting results. At a glance, pushups are plain and almost boring: up down, up down, up down -- that's it. And that's true to a certain extent. But most people outside of fitness enthusiasts are only familiar with the standard pushups that they were taught in their high school phys ed classes.

There are many kinds of pushups that you can use to isolate different muscle groups, but we're going to focus on five variations in this article. These might not be the best five for all people, but they should open your eyes to the variety available in basic bodyweight exercises.

Military pushups: military pushups are similar to standard pushups, except that you move your hands underneath your shoulders and tuck your elbows tightly to your side. This variation works the triceps more than the chest.

Fist pushups: Sometimes referred to as "knuckle" pushups, require the use of your fists, instead of the palms of your hands, to bear your body weight during the pushup. Fist pushups are beneficial because they target different areas of your body than traditional pushups, and may actually increase the effectiveness of your workout.

Fly pushups: adding another layer to wide pushups, fly pushups require you to begin the pushup with your hands a normal width apart at the top position. When lowering your body to the ground, you should slide your right hand out roughly 12 inches, and then slide it back to normal width on the up rep. On the next repetition, you would perform this motion with your left hand. Hint: place your hand on a towel, piece of cardboard, or similar item to assist with the slide, or "hop" your hands in and out.

Decline pushups: Instead of placing your feet on the floor, or using your knees, place your feet on a platform so that your head is lower than your feet.  You can use a chair, a stepstool, or a bench -- pretty much anything that will allow you to raise your feet up so that they are higher than your head. These types of pushups work your upper chest muscles.

Deep pushups: If you are working out at home, you can perform raised pushups with the help of three sturdy chairs. By placing each of your hands on an opposite chair, and your feet on the third chair, you can increase the depth of your pushup and thereby increase the effectiveness of your workout routine. A similar, but less intense, movement can be performed with pushup stands. The "Perfect Pushup" bars work wonders.

Here is a more comprehensive list of pushup variations to achieve muscle weight gain: wide, fly, diamond, military, yogi, fist, decline, incline, deep, stacked, prison cell, and inchworm pushups.

Tips to increase the effectiveness of your pushup workouts: remember to add some weight once the pushups begin to get easy. You don't want to push out 50 easy repetitions. Rather, struggle with 20 or 30. Also be sure to add variety by varying your hand position for each of the above types of pushups.

Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper body and exercise, build muscle at the same time. If you keep it interesting by mixing up your hand positions and trying a few different styles of pushups you can increase the effectiveness of your at-home exercising and relieve the boredom!