The Humble Push-up & Its Friends

Whether you dream of a Muscle Beach physique or you just want to fit into your clothes better, you can do a lot of good with a few simple "bodyweight" exercises like pushups, squats, and pull-ups. This is especially true if you're working with a budget that doesn't include room for a gym membership or workout equipment. 

Bodyweight exercises get their name because they use the weight of your own body, rather than iron plates or elastic bands, as the resistance your muscles need to get stronger. They're a great choice because they're (1) free, (2) endlessly adjustable to your fitness level and goals, and (3) totally portable - anywhere your body goes, you can do them! 

What follows are a few tips to get you started with bodyweight exercises. Keep in mind that I'm not a physical trainer and I'm not qualified to give you professional pointers. Instead, I'm telling you what has worked for me. If you're going to engage in a serious fitness program, it always pays to check with your doctor first, to get expert guidance from a fitness pro, and to use common sense so that you don't overdo it. 

This time out, we'll cover pushups, which are great for working the pectoral muscles in your chest, along with the deltoid muscles in your shoulders and the triceps along the back of your upper arms. 

Pushups. You know the drill from every boot-camp movie you've ever seen: "Drop and give me 20!" Unfortunately, it's not so easy when you're starting out, and you may find out that you can't do even one pushup from the ground level. 

The solution is easy: work your way down to the ground - literally by degrees. Start by standing straight up (i.e. at 90 degrees from the floor) facing a blank wall, close enough that you can put your palms on it at arm's length slightly below chest level. Lean slightly forward, bend your arms until your nose is within an inch of the wall, and then push yourself back to the starting position by straightening your arms. See if you can do ten repetitions. Keep your body in a straight line from your ankles to the top of your head. 

Too easy? Move your feet back several inches so that you're at, say, a 75-degree angle to the floor, and try it again. If that's too easy - or if, after repeated every-other-day sessions, it becomes too easy - decrease the angle between your body and the floor. As you get lower, you'll want to press off something stable of intermediate height, like the edge of a counter or the back of a sofa. 

Eventually, you'll be strong enough to do your pushups horizontally, either in the "ladies" version (knees and hands touching the ground) or the full-fledged version (toes and hands touching the ground). Even that's not the end of the progression: there are plenty of serious strength trainees who do pushups with their feet elevated on a stool or the like. If you're really ambitious, you can even work your way up to handstand pushups, but that's very advanced. 

For starters, try an angle that feels pretty easy, and do a set of ten. Wait two minutes, then do another set of ten. Wait another two minutes, then do a final set of ten. Take a day off to let you muscles recover - ideally, you'll feel just a bit of soreness, but not too much - and then repeat the same procedure. With each successive workout, you should add two to four more repetitions per set. When it's easy for you to do three sets of twenty repetitions, add a little more resistance by angling closer to the floor, drop back to three sets of ten, and go through the process again. 

The emphasis here is on gradual improvement in strength and flexibility, not the gung-ho pushups-as-punishment you saw in Full Metal Jacket. Take it easy and take it step by step, and before you know it, you'll be cranking out pushups like a champ. 

Next time: pull-ups and squats.