Over the years we have done a lot of Push ups at the Karate and the Hapkido club. On this page we will share with you some of the Pushups we do regularly and others that we have experimented with. Push Ups are fantastic exercises and dont require fancy equipment. Everyone can do them from Children to the Elderly. Like everything else just start off slow and work up to more repititions and more intensity.

The basic push up

One handed push up

Fingertip push up

Push ups on the backs of your hand

Diamond and wide push ups

Ballistic push ups

Hindu push up

Knuckle push ups

Progressive push ups

Wall and three quarter push ups

Push ups with chairs

Slow Push Ups

Team push ups

How to do the basic push up

The World Record for non-stop pushups is 10,507 by Minoru Yoshida of Japan on October, 1980. If you think you can do more, heres instructions about how to do them properly.

Lie down on the floor, chest down. Palms are flat on the floor about a shoulder-width apart and level with your shoulders. Your feet are together and your legs are and back are straight

Look forward and as you go down , make contact with the floor with your chin

When you come up, dont bend or arch your upper or lower back as you push up. Apart from being poor form this makes you look like a floundering lobster !

Breathe out as you go up.

Pause and then repeat the process

Once you have mastered the basic push up, there are many many ways to customize it to your liking and fitness level. Some of them are very challengeing, others are great fun to do with freinds. Experimenting with these will help keep you motivated - well, hopefully.

The One handed Push Up

Spread your legs apart

place one hand beneath the center of your chest

with your free hand place it in the small of your back

try to do five repitions

these push ups place a heavy strain on the elbow, so dont overdo it

repeat with the opposite side

The fingertip push up

Begin the push up on your fingertips, with your hands shaped like bear claws

Set your hands about 3 feet apart

Increase the difficulty by succesively lifting fingers off the floor

Work up to doing forefinger and thumb pushups

Push Ups on the backs of the hands

Lie face down on the floor with the hands under your chest, the backs of your hands on the floor

Try to do ten pushups

As your skill increases, do the pushup and come up fast enough to lift your hands off the ground and flip your hands over to the normal push up position

This hurts !, be careful.

Diamond push ups and Wide push ups

Bring your thumb and forefinger together in the shape of a diamond

Do push ups with your hands in the center of your chest

For a wide push up, place your hands 4 feet apart

Ballistic push ups

Do basic push ups and come up so fast you can clap your hands together before going down

For an even greater challenge, spin your whole body around before lowering down again

Hindu push up

Start in a push up position

push yourself forward as well as going down and arch up your back

reverse the whole process and end with your legs straight and your body at 90 degrees to your legs. Hands stretched out in front.

Knuckle push ups

Find a hard floor surface

Do push ups using the first two knuckles of each hand

Gradually build up callouses untill you can drive nails into 2x4's with your knuckles !

Progressive Push Ups

Find yourself a willing partner who is a s crazy as you are

You do one push up while your partner stands next to you

Your partner jumps over your back, then dives under you while you are in push up position with your arms extended

You do two pushups

Partner jumps over you and dives under you as before

Keep this up untill you do one last set of ten pushups

Switch places with your partner and he does the pushups, you do the jumping and diving, this gives you a rest!

Both you and your partner collapse in pain

Wall and three quarter pushups

These push ups take some of the weight off the hands and so are a little easier to do for beginners

Push up off the wall with feet at ever increasing distance from the wall

Move the feet further away from the wall in increase resistance

Three quarter push up is done like a normal pushup but with knees on the floor

For more resistance, increase the distance the hands are out in front of you

Chair Push Ups

Warning - make sure you use chairs that are strong and sturdy, that wont tip over or break. A lot of people break chairs or have the chairs fall over doing this one so dont use your Moms favourite chair!

Get three strong chairs, arrange them so they are under your feet and hands, while you are in the push up position

Do regular Push Ups and go down much deeper, below the level of your hands

A simple alternative to doing chair push ups is to use a device called the Perfect Push Up. Its much safer than using a chair and you have the benefit of a good strong grip to support yourself. The handles allow you to get a great range of motion in the exercise.

Slow Push Ups

Start in push up position with chest on the ground

Lift your chest six inches off the floor, hold for a count of ten

Lift yourself up twio inches more, hold for count of ten

Continue rising two inches at a time and counting to ten

Go down all the way and repeat.....if you can !

Team Push Ups

This one requires coordination and teamwork

Get together with a bunch of freinds, get down on the floor, in a line, in the push up position

The person in front puts his feet on the shoulders of the person behind

Everyone does pushups simulteaneously, or at least tries to!

Everyone must move up and down at once, does this slowly, even then you will all be falling down. Great Fun

The same exercise can also be done in a circle

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the types of pushups. If anyone else has more please drop me a line. Our team of experienced testers will check it out and add it to the list.

For Sensei Willies Rivergrove Class Page, Click Here
For Sensei Kyoko's Saturday, Sunday and Monday Programs, Click Here
For the Chukido-Kwan Hapkido page, click here
To get back to the South Common Home Page click here