Push-Ups: The Best Exercise? 5 Reasons Why

No matter what your work-out routine is you should keep push-ups in mind. Even if they don't play into your primary workout, if you can you should be doing push-ups whenever you get a spare moment. Here's why:

1. No equipment required.

You don't need to go to the gym or purchase any expensive equipment to be able to do a good push-up. This means you could even do push-ups at work (if you work in a cubicle like I do)! While other exercises also share this trait, the push-up comes out on top because it also does the following:

2. Engages many muscles.

A quick look at the Wiki article on push-ups reveals a long list of muscles worked by this exercise. At first glance the push-up might seem to be an upper-body workout but in reality you're engaging muscles all the way down to your glutes and quads. As a result the push-up is an incredibly versatile exercise, especially when combined with:

3. Versatile variations.

The same Wiki article also begins to get into the many variations of push-ups. There are so many ways to modify push-ups to suit your needs that regardless of what muscle you want worked you'll likely find a push-up variant that targets it. If you can't do a normal push-up yet there are variations that can make it easier until you build your strength, or if you're looking for a challenge you can find that as well. On top of that, you can try lot of variations because:

4. Push-ups are quick.

If you find a spare minute any time you can drop down and do a set of push-ups. If you remember to take advantage of spare minutes throughout the day, you'll actually rack up quite a few push-ups. With enough dedication to the regiment, you'll find that push-ups are:

5. Gateway to other exercises.

The Marine Corps. has a workout they recommend for getting better at pull-ups called the Armstrong workout . One of the primary components of this is push-ups. This is just one example of how push-ups can lead to improvements elsewhere in your workout program. Even if push-ups is all you do your ability in activities not involving pushing your body away from the ground will improve.

So what's keeping you from doing push-ups? Get to it!