Chest Workout for Women : Push Ups

We all know a chest exercise or two. Chest muscles need to be strong, but they need to be strengthened the correct way. Each of the exercises below are safe and effective for building a strong and balanced chest.

Typically women don’t want to work these muscles because we think it will make our chest appear larger. FALSE! In fact, working the muscle correctly will result in a natural lift! How lovely :)

nee Push Ups

Start- Begin on all fours. Your knees should be directly under your hips and your hands directly under your shoulders. You should be looking at the floor.

Go For It- Slowly lower your upper body towards the ground. Try to touch your nose to the floor. Pause for one second and lift back to start.

Tips and Techniques-

– Inhale as you lower your body weight. Exhale as your lift your body back to the start of the chest exercise.

– If your wrists bother you, move them more forward.

– Keep your back flat at all times.

Modified Push Up
This pushup is great because it doesn’t require you to jump into “boy” pushups right away. Doing push ups on your knees does reduce your output from about 60% of your body weight to only 35%. But this is a good starting place and you can always work up to the full push up. You can also modify this further by performing push ups against a wall (easiest) or high counter to give you some leverage until you can build up to floor exercises. We know you want to bust out a GI Jane one-armed push up, but that takes practice… so be realistic and get to work!

1. Lie flat on your stomach.

2. Place your hands flat on the ground next to your armpits, with elbows bent. Don’t place your hands too far away from your body. They should end up right under your shoulders once you push up.

3. Bend your legs at the knees and cross your ankles, lifting your ankles off the floor. This will ensure that you use your knees as your fulcrum (pivoting support) instead of your feet.

4. Push up with your arms as you pivot on your knees, keeping your back and neck in alignment the whole time. Keep your face turned to the floor and do not arch or round your back. If you have trouble keeping your spine aligned, concentrate more on contracting your abs to stabilize your core.

5. Lower yourself back toward the ground in three to four counts, but don’t touch the ground with your chest. Keep a few inches between you and the floor, and then repeat the push up.

6. Do three sets of 10 reps, with 30-60 seconds rest in between. Work up to three sets of 20 reps by adding an additional five reps to your routine each time you can complete all three sets without trouble, two exercise sessions in a row.