Pushups are a great way to build muscles and develop your endurance, but they could be even more effective. If you know how to make push-ups harder, you can get more out of them.
In the same amount of time, with the same number of pushups, you can get perhaps twice as much gains. All you have to do is know how to make a few adjustments to the way you do pushups.
If you’re looking to boost your workout routine and get in shape faster or burn fat quicker, knowing how to make push-ups harder can help. This can be a great way to help you get past those plateaus in your workout goals.
A lot of times, you can hit a wall, so to speak, as you try to improved muscle gains and lose weight faster, but you don’t seem to be going anywhere. This is called a plateau, and by boosting the intensity of your workout or by doing more challenging exercises, you can push past the plateau and start losing weight, getting fit, and developing muscle again.
Push Up Faster
How to make push-ups harder without weights? The quickest and simplest way is to simply increase the intensity of your pushups. You can do them faster without the need for adding exercise equipment or a different position to the exercise.
By speeding up your pushups, you will get more out of them. They will become more challenging, and you’ll see greater gains quicker.
One Handed Push-Ups
It takes incredible strength to pull off a one handed pushup, but for many people, this is the natural next step to getting more of their pushups. If you feel like pushups are too easy for you, you may want to transition over to one hand pushups, even just doing a few out of your entire pushup routine.
They don’t all have to be one hand pushups for you to see some improvement and increased gains.
This is the kind of pushup modification you want to take slow and easy at first. Don’t push yourself too hard, and you can see how well your body handles the one-handed push-up. Once you’re comfortable with it, you can increase the frequency and speed of one-handed pushups that you do.
Change the Angle
Angled pushups can be more difficult than flat pushups. This kind of pushup requires you to put either your feet up high or your hands up high. In other words, one end of your body will be higher than the other.
Having your upper body up high may be even easier than the flat push up for you. There may not be a lot of challenge involved with this push up. However, it can be a great way to change up the pushup and work some other muscles that don’t normally get worked as much.
Declined pushups tend to be harder because you have to push your upper body with greater force to get off the ground. They are already pretty difficult for most people, but you may be interested to know how to make declined pushups harder.
One method is to increase the angle of incline. It could be that your decline pushups are not feeling as effective as they could be simply because your angle isn’t very great.
Increasing the angle can increase the amount of force required to lift yourself to where your arms are fully outstretched as you push up. You can also increase the speed and intensity of these pushups to make them more effective.
Another way to make declined or angled pushups more effective is to add some weights to your workout. You can wear a weighted jacket or use chains or other weights that can be worn or attached to your body to give you more to push up. Any weight you add to the pushups will definitely make you have to work harder and will help you get more out of your workouts.
If you are adding weights to your pushups, be sure to start out easy and light at first. Make sure you can handle it and that you’re not putting too much stress on your back or other areas of the body. As you get more comfortable adding weights, you can increase the weight to improve your gains.
Change Hands Position
How to make pushups harder, no equipment necessary? A very simple way is to change the position of your hands. You can move your hands further apart or closer together to make more challenging push-ups for yourself.
You will find that you have to strain more with these wider positions that aren’t as natural as the normal hand position for pushups. Typically, you keep your hands at shoulder width apart while you do pushups, but changing that distance can make a difference in how difficult the pushups are to do.
You can also try different elevations for your hands, with one hand elevated and one hand on the floor. You can do this next to a coffee table or a step for a very challenging pushup exercise.
You can also keep one hand where it would normally be for a pushup, flat on the ground directly below your shoulder, and then place the other hand farther or closer. This unbalanced pushup can be quite challenging as well.
How to Make Pushups Less Harder
Not everybody wants their exercises to be harder. Some people are looking for an easier way to do some of the exercises that they feel they ought to be doing.
If you’re looking for a way to incorporate pushups into your exercise regimen but you don’t feel comfortable doing regular pushups, there are some ways to make it less difficult for you.
Keep in mind that you have to do more pushups to get the same amount of muscle growth and weight loss compared to normal pushups.
One of the simplest modifications for pushups is to rest on your knees rather than on your toes. This is a much more relaxed position, and you won’t have to put as much effort into lifting yourself off the floor. This is a great way for people who are not very physically active to do pushups, as well as those who are very young or elderly.
You can do standing wall pushups as well. This is a great transitional exercise that begins out very slow and easy. It can help prepare you for regular push-ups.
Simply stand next to a wall with your legs spread apart at shoulder width. Lean toward the wall with your palms facing flat toward the wall and your elbows bent.
Extend your palms forward until they touch the wall and lean into the wall, putting balance on your toes. Hold that for about 10 seconds and then push back until you’re in an upright standing position.
Sitting pushups are something that a lot of people have probably done but never really thought of as an exercise. You simply sit on a bench with your legs hanging down, put your palms facing down and your arms resting at your side.
Your palm should be touching the seat you are on. Then, push up with your palms until your bottom and legs are about an inch off the ground. Hold that for about 10 seconds and release slowly.
You can modify this to lift yourself higher in the air or to hold the position for longer. You don’t want to overtire and strain your muscles, though. It’s better to hold a position for just a few seconds and then let go and then repeat several times to get the most out of this exercise.
These are a few ways to make your pushups easier, and we hope this is helpful as you try to modify the exercises to fit your needs. Whether you’re looking to increase your output or gains or you want to find a way to transition into regular pushups and build up your upper body strength, the exercises above can help you do that.
