Why Banded Pushups Are Much More Effective Than Regular Pushups

Pushups are a great exercise that can provide you with several incredible health benefits when you do them every day. First off, you'll want to stay off those knees! You're at a greater risk of injury to your shoulders and lower back. Train yourself to do standard pushups instead of knee pushups for the most benefits and less risk of injury. Pushups are a full-body workout that exercises mainly your arms, shoulders, chest, back, and core. While you do get some exercise in your lower body, pushups leave some room to increase the work your legs do. The solution? Add a looped resistance band around your ankles for an excellent whole-body workout that adds difficulty to your legs.

If you're training yourself to get into standard pushups instead of knee pushups, start with an incline. Invest in an exercise box or stepper that you can modify to make it higher or lower, so you can slowly decrease the incline over time until you are finally doing a standard push up on the floor. If you don't have a box or stepper, you can use a chair at home. Get into a standard pushup position with your hands on the exercise box, which will make it a little easier for you to do a standard pushup. You can still add the resistance band around your ankles (via Well + Good).

Get in a pushup position with the band around your ankles. Keep your feet a little more than hip-width apart to activate your leg muscles and make the band work for you. Lower your body to the floor, hovering just above it. Hold for one second and push yourself back up to the starting position. Once you get good at banded pushups, you can add a move for a burst of cardio. It's essential to keep adding difficulty to your exercises when you're able to so you can continue gaining muscle strength and stamina. 

That move is a resistance band burpee — yep, there's a new burpee in town, and it's a little more difficult with the resistance band around your ankles. Do the banded push up as instructed earlier, but this time, once you get to the top of the pushup, hop your feet in close to your hands, jump up, and then reverse the whole exercise. Land in a standing position, bend over, put your hands on the floor, and kick your feet out, so you're back into the pushup starting position. That's one resistance band burpee. 

Just a few of those will get your heart rate up and have worked your entire body. Add even more difficulty after you've become used to the resistance band you're using. Resistance bands come in different resistance levels — light, medium, heavy, and extra heavy. Start with the light band and move on to medium when you can. With practice and time, you'll be using the extra heavy band and challenging yourself with a great full-body workout.