As with most exercises, the push up helps build strength. The muscle group that gets the most benefit is the arms. Push-ups define the muscles in the arms so they will appear bigger. The chest is another part of the body that benefits from this exercise. If you do the push up in the correct basic position, the pressure will increase, making the chest bigger and wider.

To properly do a push up you must get in the correct position. First, lie down with your chest on the ground. Place your palms on the floor just to the side and slightly in front of your shoulders so that you are balanced on your palms and toes. Have your legs together or shoulder width apart. Push up, by straightening your arms, and lift your body. Keep your back straight. Breath out as arms begin to get straight. Lower the body toward the floor, bending the arms and keeping the body straight. L

Next, you use the arm muscles to push up your body off of the ground. The humerus is being extended. In this action you are extending the elbow, but be sure not to lock the elbows, just straighten. The elbow is adducted, brought back toward the midline. This process is a concentric movement of the triceps brachii. Although it may seem that the biceps brachii are doing a lot of work, they are not. The biceps do not get hardly any work at all. While pushing the body up off of the ground the triceps brachii get mainly all of the action. The biceps merely get flexed, which does not work the muscle at all, it just moves it. The prime mover of the push up is the triceps brachii and the synergists are the corachobrachialis and the pectoralis major. The pectoralis minor and the serratus anterior are used in the process by abducting the scapula during the push. The anconeus muscle is used to extend and stabilize the elbow joint from the previous bent position. The picture below is used to illustrate the action.

When finished with the desired number of push-ups, you return to the anatomical position. The humerus must be adducted and extended back to normal. The latissimus dorsi, teres major, subscapularis, infraspinatus, and teres minor all work together to lower the arm back to the side, just by movement. In this process, gravity is also the main candidate for this movement.

Just simply pushing yourself up off of the ground is the basic push up. In this outline, the push up started out on the ground and only the pushing up part was demonstrated. Usually when doing push-ups you keep going and do not lie back onto the ground. After pushing up off of t

Some topics in this essay:
, triceps brachii, biceps brachii, anterior deltoid, elbow joint, ground pushing, serratus anterior, straight lower body, rhomboids levator scapula, pronator teres brachioradialis, trapezius rhomboids levator, teres brachioradialis, exercise stretch, subscapularis infraspinatus, pronator teres, muscles bones joints,