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benefit of knee pushup

Knee Pushup- This Is Where The Beasts Start

Novice fitness fanatics want to get superhuman strength from day one. Let’s face it. We have all been there. It is our first day in the gym, and we want to pull off 100 pushups immediately. Well, why not? After all, it looks pretty darn easy. But not everything turns out to be as it seems.

Body weight pushup might seem relatively simpler from the outset, but it has more elements than you might know and consider. For a pushup to be correct, you need to make sure all those elements fall in the right place.

If not, well you can try to put them in the right place by practicing and mastering the art of pushup.

New fitness fanatics come out all gun blazing. They start out strong and perform the first set of regular pushup incredibly energized. But by the end of the second set, all that energy and fervor gets lost somewhere.

The hip starts to bounce all over the place, and you tend to finish the repetition as quickly as possible. But you should know that the workout isn’t for you if you body form starts to go haywire.

Understand you don’t need to be a superhero on the very first day or even in the first week. Learn the basics, and you will have a lifetime to gain superhuman strength. Or you can choose to push yourself really hard and damage a few muscles in the process. The choice remains to be yours.

Knee Pushup

If you feel that the regular push ups are way too much to sustain initially, you might want to look at modified push ups. One such alternative for regular pushup is knee pushup. It doesn’t require much strength and technical know-how to perform as compared to standard pushup.

They are quite simpler and help you gain the upper body strength and form, which is quite essential to do a standard push up.

In this segment, we will discuss the technique involved in knee pushup, the benefits of knee push ups, how this exercise helps you to achieve regular push up and the different varieties of it.

How to do a knee pushup?

Knee pushups are quite simple. This exercise is basically intended to get your juices going and get the feel of doing push-ups. The structure and the form involved in knee push up is quite simple, and it also doesn’t require much strength either.

Following are the steps involved in doing the knee pushup.

1. Start at the high plank position and knees on the ground. Makes sure you maintain a cross position with your legs just above the knees.

2. Keep the hips in line with the shoulders and start bending the elbow until it almost touches the floor.

3. Now hold your position for a second or two and then push up back to the starting position.

4. Repeat the steps until the set is finished.

It is a fundamental form and the simplest variation of a pushup. Even in other difficult variation that requires stronger muscles and core, knee position can be a help to reduce the intensity level and get accustomed to the exercise.

Muscle group Knee Pushup works on

It is an upper body exercise that mainly focusses on the chest muscles, and other secondary muscles like shoulder, triceps, biceps, and abs. In addition to this, the exercise also strengthens the core, helps in bone loss and increases the metabolic rate.

Use this exercise at the beginning of your workout, and loosen up before doing other weight training exercises. Since you are doing these push-ups on the knee, you are taking the lower body completely out of the equation.

Thus control and balancing factor isn’t required as it might be needed in other push-ups variation. This is one of the drawbacks of this exercise. So the sooner you get comfortable with the form and gain some strength, start attempting the proper push up.

Should you really do knee pushup?

To be honest, this workout routine is really not worth the consideration, if you are at intermediate or advanced level. There is no point spending your time doing it. There are other better variations of the push-ups, which are more beneficial.

For beginners, who are having trouble doing the regular push-ups can attempt the knee pushup. Try to accomplish 3 sets of 12 – 15 repetitions in quick succession.

Once achieved, you can move on to try the regular push-ups. But simply speaking, this exercise is a no-no for others.

Body Form and Breathing Pattern for Knee Pushup

You will attain the correct form when the hip, shoulder, and torso are in a straight line. Contract your abdominal muscles and maintain a neutral position with the spine.

Do not touch your chest on the ground while lowering yourself. Just hold it inches above the ground.

Breathe in as you lower the chest and breathe out as push yourself back up in the starting position. Remember, breathing is crucial and must be taken great care of.

Know your fitness level

It is really important to know your fitness level. There is no point in attempting an exercise to the point of failure. Pushing your limits and doing things out of comfort level, might result in injuries.

For example, if your shoulder bears extra stress that what it is capable of handling, you might end up breaking the rotator cuff.

So if you are a beginner, who is just starting out the fitness routine, develop goals based on your strength.

It is okay not to be able to do regular push-ups at the start. Build towards it, rather than rushing into it and damaging your muscles.

Alongside knee push-ups, you can try out other variation as well which are quite similar to it. You can attempt the push-up by leaning your body on the wall or by using a countertop.

This reduces the stress on the shoulder blades, back and your arms. These alternative exercises help you to build strength and momentum over time.

Pushup and Fitness – Incredible Nexus

Despite doing many weight training exercise, people often rate push-ups as one of the best exercises to gain muscular strength. This is because of the simplicity involved and other benefits it includes.

Push-ups increase the range of motion and work effectively on the upper body muscles. It can help you gain superhuman strength if done correctly while progressing towards many difficult variants of it.

There are multiple different variations available in push-ups. Speaking of which, regardless of your experience level, there is always a variation that you can try based on your strength and comfort factor. Thus the nexus between the two is great. Every fitness fanatic has a pushup routine involved in their fitness regime.

Knee push-ups vs. other bodyweight exercises

Knee push-ups is a beginner’s exercise. This exercise is strictly for the people who want to gain some experience and training to correct their body form. For people who have previously had some form of shoulder and wrist injury, this exercise can be a great variation to gain some strength and tone your body.

Other bodyweight push-ups are difficult and require a considerable amount of strength and experience to perform. They require a lot of core strength and shoulder muscles.

In other pushup variations, control of the body and balance is extremely crucial, thus increasing the difficulty level of the exercise.

When compared to knee push-ups, this variation of the exercise isn’t as complicated due to the lack of requirement, for control and balance.

People often tend to believe that the weaker ones attempt the knee push ups. But there is no shame in doing the workout that best suits your strength.

It is better to start low and slow, rather than damaging your muscles in attempting something that isn’t for you and ultimately get bedridden for days, if not months.

Wrapping Up

A gentler alternative which provides assistance in developing strength and allowing you to build yourself to the next level – that is the regular or standard pushup variation. This exercise mimics the motion involved in the regular push-up and is a fantastic way to get used to the range of motion.

For beginner level, it becomes important to understand their limit and strength position. There is no point in pushing the body and rushing into something, which is not doable. So start with the basics, learn what is required of you and the technique, master the art of movements and then take it to the next level.

Understand there is no shame to start from the bottom. So go on, get the floor mat, put on your PJ’s and start doing some knee push-ups. Once you are able to do 3 sets of at least 12 repetitions without breaking your form, take your fitness routine to the next level, which is, the traditional push up.