Push Ups Vs. Bench Press

A push up is a simple bodyweight exercise performed by lowering and raising your body using your arms, while resting it on your toes. It is a strength-training exercise and focuses on almost all the chest muscles.

A bench press, which is a crucial part of bodybuilding, is also a strength-training exercise, and is performed by pressing the weight of a barbell away from the body, while lying on your back on a bench. It does not work on all chest muscles and needs supporting exercises to ensure a complete chest workout.

• Here, you lift almost 60-65% of your body weight. But you don't have to worry about it even if you are a little overweight, as the resistance you subject your body to during a push up, is proportional to the capacity of your body.

• Once you are capable of doing twice the number you did when you started, you can try doing them with your feet elevated. This small change in position works all the core muscles and helps you in muscle building.

• Numerous push up variations are possible that you can implement in stages and have a complete upper body workout. 

Simple variations that can be tried are - placing your hands on medicine balls instead of the floor, placing one hand on a medicine ball and the other on the floor, doing it on fists or fingertips, keeping the feet elevated above ground level, jumping up and clapping in between, etc.

• Moreover, you do not need any equipment or a hefty gym membership to get all the benefits of a good workout. This is because, in a bench press, your shoulder joints have to support excess weight, and if not done correctly it can cause small injuries. 

So it is advised that all the gym exercises should be done under the supervision of a qualified trainer This is an important benefit of push ups.

• This is an essential routine if you want more intense strength training along with gaining mass. Here, you can add as much resistance as you want by adding weights to the barbell.

• While doing so, you have the option of going for positive or negative training. You just have to lower the bar for negative training, and push the bar back up for positive training.

• It also allows you to work your upper body parts individually. This happens, because you are lying on the bench, and your lower back does not come into play. You can also choose to work separately on your chest and triceps, which cannot happen while doing push ups.

• Even a very heavy person can work out with this exercise, whereas he may be unable to do a single push up.

This weight training comparison cannot have a single definite verdict. If you are looking for basic fitness and natural bodybuilding, the former exercise will be more than enough for you. Also, there are many ways of bringing about variations.

But if you want to increase and build muscle strength by a great deal, go for bench press.

Disclaimer: This story is for informative purposes only, and should not be used as a replacement for expert medical advice.