Plyo Push Ups are some of the toughest exercises that you can do in the gym. These exercises are designed to activate those elusive fast twitch muscles that cannot be activated with traditional weight exercises. We have studied the art of plyometric exercises a little deeper and we have found a few reasons why you should try and include them in your workout.
Tips For Doing Plyometric Pushups:
Ensure That Your Core Is Contracted
To get maximum results and to put as much strain on the core as possible, you will need to focus on keeping the core contracted. This will force more blood to the muscles and allow your core muscles to not only grow, but also have improved endurance.
Consider Adding Wrist Tape
The plyo pushup will put a lot of strain on the joints and when you do this for a prolonged period of time, the wrists will take quite a beating. The wrist guards or straps will help protect the joints and this will keep stubborn joint pain from setting in.
Keep Your Body Straight Throughout The Movement
Once your body starts slacking, the pushup will not be as effective and you will also find it harder to do. By keeping your spine straight and ensuring that you are in a comfortable positions, you will put much more strain on the pectoral and deltoids. This will lead to much better results.
Ensure That You Do Down Deep
The plyo pushup requires you to go down deep if you are looking to get an effective motion. The deeper you go down in the pushup motion, the more strain will be put on the triceps and shoulders. This will also give you a much better base to launch yourself of the floor.
Benefits of Doing Plyo Pushups:
Improves Weight Loss:
Often times we are recommended to get into the gym and start working out. Most medical and even health professionals will recommend this as one of the first steps for those looking to start losing weight. Once you start building muscles, the metabolic rate will also speed up and this will help with that stubborn fat.
Plyometric exercises are known for their ability to activate the fast twitch muscles and this will help speed up the weight loss process. Plyometric exercises are those exercises that work with explosiveness and since you will be using much more effort, you will also be burning more calories.
Push ups Will Improve Overall Growth And Plyo Push Ups Will Speed This Up
Push-ups are one of the oldest ways that many people use to train their body. The push up can be done in various ways, but it will still give you a near full body training experience. The push up is also a really great way for you to release your natural human growth hormone and this will certainly allow you to get much better results. Your overall body will also naturally grow much better.
Plyometric push ups are the explosive variation and they will speed up this process, but we do recommend that you start off with normal push ups if you are a beginner.
Helps Improve Core Strength
Many of us might feel lazy from time to time when needing to train the core and the abs. We are generally taught to keep our abs contracted when working out and this will naturally also improve the overall core stability.
While plyometric push ups will need you to use the entire body to get off the ground, one of the most important parts will be the core.
Once you master the technique and you start building muscles in the core, you will naturally also start shredding those unwanted belly fats. This can really help to improve your overall look and also the way you go about lifting other weights.
With improved core stability, you will be much more inclined to get great results in the gym.
Build Muscle Much Faster
Whether you consider yourself to be a bodybuilder or simply just another athlete, you will have that goal of building muscles. The plyometric push ups will activate those fast twitch muscles that cannot otherwise be activated with normal endurance training.
This will force more blood to go to the muscle and with more blood in the specific muscle; you will naturally grow much faster.
One tip that we would like to include is that you should try and have some BCAAs before starting your plyometric workout routine. This will give you much better recovery times and your results should be that much better in the short term.
Boost Efficiency Of The Neuromuscular System
Plyometric pushups are considered to be a stretch-shortening exercise and you will be contracting and relaxing the muscles within short intervals of one another.
This rapid contracting and relaxing of the muscles will send a signal down the neuromuscular system and start training this system to be much more effective.
Once this system is trained and the neuromuscular system can effectively send these signals, the faster your body will allow you to contract and relax the muscles. This will in turn lead to much more speed and power.
When combing these two factors, your overall explosiveness will be improved and you will find yourself lifting heavier weights and also running much faster on the track
Plyo Push Ups Variations
There are a few variations that you can consider doing when mastering the art of plyo pushups. These variations will give you much more strain on the muscles and they will also give you some much better results.
The Normal Plyo Push ups
The normal plyometric pushup requires you to get on all fours in a normal push up position. You need to go down and then launch yourself with your hands leaving the ground, before simply landing on your hands and repeating the motion.
Clap Variation
The clap variation will require you to do a normal plyo pushup, but as you go up, you should clap your hands before landing. This will force you to push yourself higher and you can also start adding more claps.
Full Body Variation
The full body variation is where you simply perform a plyo pushup and you will lift your whole body into the air. As with the normal plyo pushup, you will go down and as you come up, you will get off the floor with your hands and feet before dropping back down.
Falling Variation
The falling variation is advanced and this requires you to stand in an upright position. You will then fall down into a pushup position and stat doing either the normal, clap, or full body variation.
This variation is quite dangerous and should only be done if you have full confidence in your wrists.
There are many more advanced variations that you could choose from, but these 4 are the main ones that you should consider starting out with.
See the video for other variations
Final Thoughts
We would like to thank you for reading this article and we certainly do hope that you have a better understanding of plyometric pushups and how they could improve your workout. We would like you to let us know what you think of these exercises in the comment section and also be sure to share this with your friends if they are into fitness.