Further throughout my reading of Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia I have continued to learn about the
different parts of the body and how they work together throughout not only your
daily activities but also your workout routine. On page 46 and 47 it shows an
easy way of "pumping up" your pectorals which is by doing push ups. It demonstrates
proper techniques for doing a push up. A push up is a quick and easy exercise because you
don’t need any special equipment for it. It is also good because you are able to do as many as you
can and push your limits to what your body can handle. The muscles used for
this exercise is pectorals major, triceps and deltoids. As seen again on page
46-47 there are also ways to hurt yourself so you need to make sure to follow
proper technique. Moran shows how to avoid injury by saying “lay on the floor
with your feet together and your hands shoulder width apart. Push up and then
come back down until your chest touches the ground then come back up, repeat
until you cannot go any longer” (47). By saying this he shows how to avoid
getting hurt as well as showing other techniques to effectively carry out this
particular exercise. One of the other techniques that Moran shows is to instead
of doing this form against the floor you can also do it against a wall. This is
useful for beginners because you aren’t trying to push your entire weight, you
can angle yourself up against the wall so you are leaning more or less of your
weight depending on how much you can lift at that time. Another way to modify
this exercise is to put your feet up on a chair. If you feel as if this
exercise is too easy for you and you are getting bored with it, if you put your
feet up on a chair it makes it so you are using slightly different muscles which
will make it a more challenging exercise. Finally,
do you think having different variations on this exercise is an effective way to build up you muscles? Why or why
not?
Sink down into this pose to complete one singular push up, my arms are bent 90 degrees and I'm far enough down for what The Muscle Encyclopedia says I should be.
Moran Oscar. Muscle Exercises Encyclopedia. Cape
town: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2012. Print.
I think their is another variation, where you would put your feet up on something it would help work your torso an arm muscles rather then your pectoral muscles. This is because you are at an incline, so you focus more heavily on your arm and core muscles. Especially, because it is harder to keep your self straight when you are at an incline.
ReplyDeleteI see what you are saying and I agree, I feel as if this is another added benefit to this exercise to make it better for working out several more muscles as well. This is beneficial to doing this exercise because now more of your muscles are also growing instead of pinpointing only one or two of them.
DeleteHey Katie!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, variations on this exercise can definitely help build up different muscles. There's probably thousands of different ways people have done a push up, but for me two variations come to mind. First off is the oblique push-up, which is just crunching your leg toward your side while going down, therefore working your obliques (hence the name). Also, I've done triceps push-ups where you have your hands in closer so when you go down your arms are flush against your sides. On a separate note, I agree with your comment about push-ups being beneficial due to several muscles being worked, and being quick and easy to do. I feel that push-ups tend to be one of the better exercises that can be done in a timely manner but also work your muscles just as much as other exercises Do you agree?
Anyway, great post! It's pretty fun to get more in depth into exercises that I've been doing my whole life! Good luck!
- Logan Munoz
Hey Logan! I agree with what you're thinking about the different variations because like you said it is fun to get more into detail about exercises that we've been doing our whole lives. I also agree that they are good because you can do them in a timely fashion which is beneficial for when I'm trying to get everything I want to in a shorter amount of time. Thank you too!
DeleteHi Katie, I personally think that adding variations to your exercises is very helpful. This is because the more variations you add to your exercise the more muscles you work out. For example, a wide push up builds your chest, triceps, and the front side of your shoulder. If you do inclined pushups, you will work out your deltoids, triceps, and core muscles. Professional athletes like football players need to make sure they’re working out their whole body by using variations in their exercises to make sure their body is as physically ready as possible for the excruciating games ahead. Therefore, adding variations to your exercises is helpful because you can build different types of muscles while still doing the same type of exercise.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying about different variations being helpful. I also see where you are coming from by saying that football players have to have their shoulders built up because they do have all of the different types of exercises and use for them so push ups and different variations would be very beneficial to football players.
ReplyDelete