You may be wondering how on earth you’ll manage to start and prop your hands on the floor just to do one rep; push-ups can easily be the most straightforward yet most challenging traditional bodyweight exercise ever. Exactly how many calories do push ups burn anyway? In general, pushups can burn at least 7 calories per minute.
Its popular for being exactly complicated and seemingly simple made fitness enthusiasts keep adding them to their workout routine, especially for those trying to aim for weight loss and strength gain all at once. So it should be clear that calories burned from push-ups are technically a significant amount.
If you are looking into revamping your workout program, then look no further than continue reading it below.
We will discuss the following:
- The significance and benefits of push up exercises
- How many calories do you burn doing push-ups
- How many calories do pull-ups burn
- Different push-up variations
Table of Contents
What Are Push-ups?
Push-ups are a fast and effective exercise for building strength. They are traditionally used to improve upper body strength. They can be done virtually anywhere and don’t require any equipment for the matter. They work on your triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders.
If appropriately executed in good form, they can significantly increase the lower back and core strength. Doing push-ups every day can be useful if you are looking for a consistent exercise routine to follow. You will likely see gains in upper body strength if you do push-ups regularly.
Benefits of Doing Push-ups
- Improves your Posture – Whenever you do push-us in your body’s muscles, responsible for supporting your posture are strengthened. Did you know weak core muscles cause that improper posture? It may seem like a bad habit you need to replace, but the very key to thoroughly improving your posture is to improve stability and strength in your core. The more you do push-ups, your body will naturally lean towards proper posture. This is one of the most influential passive benefits of pushups.
- Increases Muscle Definition – Once you do push-ups, your body automatically uses a wide array of primary and stabilizing muscles. Using your muscles simultaneously helps your body produce large concentrations of this specific hormone called “HGH” or human growth hormone that, when triggered, sends the muscles into hypertrophy and promotes muscle growth.
- Gives Muscles the right Stretch – Properly stretching your muscles will help it remain as flexible as possible, and push-ups are a sure way into providing the right stretch for your back muscles and biceps.
- Increase Functional Strength via Full Body Activation – As you lower your body to the floor and the familiar burn begins to encompass your muscles, the last thing you’re thinking about is the number of muscles you are using. However, this is one of the top benefits of pushups. As you engage in this exercise, literally every major muscle in your body is called upon to execute it. Major muscle groups such as your biceps, core muscles, triceps, anterior deltoids, and lower body muscle groups are activated to support your body while stabilizing your movements. Classified a compound exercise, meaning multiple muscle groups are called upon – you train the most important muscles throughout your body. Have you ever wondered why a standard bench press is so easy when compared to a standard push-up? This is why lol.
- Protects your Shoulders from Injury – The standard pushup is one of the most effective ways to safeguard your shoulder joints from injury, especially from older adults. The area around the shoulders of the body is strengthened and conditioned for dynamic movements. By supporting the health of primary and secondary shoulder muscles, the likelihood of injuries significantly lowers.
- It isn’t Time Consuming – We live increasingly busy lives, and while exercising is essential for a healthy body, it’s usually the first thing we write off in our to-do list. If you don’t have the time to do 30-minute cardio, you can achieve a full-body workout from 5 minutes of push-ups.
- No Cost for a Full Body Workout –By engaging in push-up exercises, you adequately fatigue major and minor muscle groups, which provides the same benefits as a traditional full-body exercise you can do with gym equipment. So you can skip the membership fees and do this workout at the comforts of your own home.
The Risk of Doing Push-ups Daily
There are certain risks to doing push-ups daily. One of which is the risk of your muscles plateauing. Doing the same exercise variation will make your muscles get used to the stress and no longer be challenged after a long while. They eventually adapt, and you won’t reap the same benefits as you did before, so variation is essential for doing workouts.
Some Helpful Tips to Get You Started
- If you’re going to do push-ups each day, having the correct form is also essential. Doing pushups without proper form can lead to an injury. For example, you may experience lower back or shoulder pain if you don’t do push-ups properly.
- If push-ups are too difficult at first, modify the exercise. Do them on your knees or against the wall; If push-ups are too hard on your wrists or have a wrist injury, see a physical therapist before performing pushups. They may recommend dolphin push-ups on your forearms instead of your hands, or knuckle pushups as an alternative.
- Always check with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine. If you’re not convinced into adopting a pushup routine in your exercise program or simply wish to understand this simple exercise’s power, continue reading to uncover the real benefits of doing push-ups.
How Many Push-ups Should You Do Per day?
There really isn’t a standard as to how many you should do since it works differently for everyone, but if you want to get a general idea to get you started, you can do 2 sets of 10-20 push-up reps and gradually build from there.
Will Push-ups Build Muscle?
Doing push-ups every day will help improve your upper body strength,
Doing pushups every day will help you gain upper body strength. But keep in mind that you’ll need to mix up the types of pushups you’re doing after a while to continue to challenge your muscles. If you want to try a pushup challenge to do the exercise daily, or several times a week, try different types of pushups.
Do Push-ups Can Reduce Belly Fat?
Do Push-ups make you lose belly fat? Absolutely; Push-ups are the best bodyweight exercises to keep your core tight and running. It puts a decent amount of stress to your arms, back and legs so you’ll be sweating after your first 5 reps. The more muscles you work, the more fat you will eventually burn.
Suppose you want to know and target the number of push-ups you should accomplish in your workout program. In that case, there are many available Push-up calorie calculator apps available online that you can download for free.
Which Form of Exercise Burns The Most Calories?
- How many calories do squats burn – A person who weighs 165 pounds and performs 5 minutes of squats should burn about 52.5 calories.
- How many calories do pull-ups burn per minute- A regular adult should burn around 4.03 calories per minute.
- How many calories do planks burn – This isometric exercise burns about two to five calories per minute on a regular adult.
- How many calories do push ups burn – A 56kg individual doing knee push-ups should burn 35 calories in 5 minutes.
Types of Push-up Variations You Can Do
Cross Body Push-up
- Assume a standard push-up position.
- As you lower yourself to the ground, simultaneously pick up one leg and cross it beneath your body as you rotate your hip toward the ground.
- Reverse the movement to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
Strict Push-up or Military Push-up
- Start in a standard push-up position with your feet together or no more than 12 inches apart, hands flat on the ground below your shoulders, and arms straight.
- Breathe in as you bend your elbows—keep them tracking back alongside your body—to lower your chest to slightly below your bent elbow level.
- Breathe out as you push back up to the starting position for one repetition.
Wide Hands Push-up
- Do a strict push-up, but with your hands farther out to each side, roughly 2.5 to three feet apart (the farther apart, the more difficult).
- Keep your elbows tracking back throughout the movement.
Triangle Push-Up
- Begin in a plank position, with your hands together and angled inward at 45 degrees so that your index fingers and thumbs touching to form a triangle (or diamond).
- Keep your elbows tight to your body and bend them to lower your chest toward the triangle.
- Reverse the movement to the starting position for one repetition.
- Keep the triangle directly below your chest throughout the movement.
Spider-man Push-up
- Assume a standard push-up position.
- As you lower yourself toward the ground, simultaneously bring one knee out to the side and up to touch your elbow, with your leg parallel to the ground.
- Your knee should touch your elbow at the lowest point of the push-up.
- Reverse the movement to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
Are Knee Push-ups as Good as Normal Push-ups?
Whenever you do the standard push-up, you pretty much lift around 60 percent of your body weight instead of knee push-ups that should only lift approximately 50 percent of your body weight.
But that doesn’t make it any less of an exercise to normal push-ups. Since your whole upper body is propped the very same way, it would still give you the right amount of muscle utilization and strength gains just by doing it on your knees. It’s an excellent way to condition your body if you are new to push-ups; then, it is something you can do and build on until you get strong enough to do the regular one.
Final Thoughts
Push-ups are one of those compound exercises that you can heavily rely on for strength gains and weight loss. You can do it nearly anywhere within a short period and still get amazing results.
The number of calories you burn per push-up also varies from person to person; your weight and height are usually factored in to compute the definite amount of calories you may consume per push-up. There’s a lot of available push-up calorie counter apps that can help track your progress.
