Fitness tip

Build Your Upper-Body Strength With These Push-ups!

Remember when you first started working out and couldn't do five consecutive push-ups without collapsing? Now that you've been training for a while, you can do sets of ten without even breaking a sweat. Feels good, right? Well, maybe it feels a little too good. It might be time to push yourself a bit by introducing some push-up variations to further train the chest, triceps, and shoulders.
Here are two advanced push-ups to add to your repertoire:

Plyo Push-up

Start in your usual push-up position. Slowly lower yourself to the floor. With an explosive burst, exhale and push yourself up, bringing your hands off the floor and clapping them together. Land in the push-up position and repeat. The plyo (for plyometric) push-up increases muscle power by adding extra difficulty.

Close-Grip Push-up

Start in a push-up position but keep your hands directly under your shoulders instead of out to the side. Your legs should be extended straight out behind you, your feet slightly apart, so you are balancing on the balls of your feet as well as your palms. Keep your elbows pressed firmly against your torso as you slowly lower yourself down. Exhale, press back up to the starting position, and repeat. This close-grip push-up places more emphasis on your anterior shoulder muscles and triceps as well as your chest.