Body Position

• The exercise is performed face down on the floor, while pressing up and lowering down the body while supported by hands and toes, or knees for a modified push-up.
  
  

Primary Benefits

• The muscles that benefit most from push ups: chest, especially pectorals; hand, forearm and upper arm, especially the deltoids and triceps; shoulders and upper back.
  
  

Secondary Benefits

• To properly do a push up, you also must keep your neck and lower back flexed, your abdominal muscles stretched, and you must provide resistance through your gluteus (butt) muscles, thighs, calves and feet, and each repetition stretches and strengthens your hamstrings.
  
  

Limited Benefits

• You won't get much cardiovascular benefit from doing push ups, but a study by the American Heart Association, determined that resistance training, including using one's own body weight for resistance exercises, yields increased heart muscle strength.
  
  

For Beginners

• If you can't do a push up with your legs extended without using other muscle groups (usually hips) to lift your body or without breaking the line of your body, start by doing the push-ups using your knees, rather than your feet, as the starting point.
  
  

Variations

• There are limitless ways to perform a push-up. Use can do a tradition push-up or perform them at all sorts of angles using benches or walls or bars to work different parts of the body.