Today, we will focus on one of the seven fundamental movements (everything else we do are just variations of these), Push!  Pushing is the opposite of what we talked about last week, pulling. This involves pushing an object or weight away from your body or pushing your body away from an object or away from your hands. Much like pulling, pushing can be either horizontal or vertical, such as a push-up or dumbbell shoulder press. Pushing works a variety of muscles- the chest, triceps, and front shoulder muscles.

There are many benefits to working this set of muscles beyond the obvious gains to those muscles specifically. Working on your chest muscles helps support your shoulder joints, which helps reduce injury. Also, because your chest muscles are attached to your ribs, they expand with every breath, therefore strengthening and lengthening your pectoral muscles can aid in deeper, better breathing! Increasing strength in your triceps obviously increases overall strength in your arms, and also helps with a wider range of motion and improves flexibility! Your front shoulder muscles are important too- they are integral in a lot of daily motions, and strengthening them helps prevent injury inside AND outside of the gym!

Why not add a good pushing exercise or two to your workout today? Even if it is as simple as a push-up (or a variation of a push-up, sometimes you have to work your way up!). Stop by FIT today and we will be more than happy to give you advice based on your current level of fitness!