Forget about chest presses, overhead presses, or standard push-ups for a while, because cross-body push-ups work your deltoids, triceps, chest, core, and legs without weights.
To perform a bodyweight workout, do push-ups on your best yoga mat, stretching one leg underneath and across your body and twisting slightly to one side. It’s easy? After doing 50 times a day for a week, he realizes that upper body exercises are by no means “easy.”
If you need to improve your push-ups, try these. Here’s how to do crossbody pushups, the benefits, and what happened when I added this exercise to my upper body workout during a weeklong fitness challenge.
Do I need a rest day to do push-ups?
Everyone responds differently to training stimuli, so what is considered “overtraining” to one person may be fairly standard to another. However, performing high reps of one exercise every day without rest is not ideal in the long run. It takes time for your muscles to recover from high-intensity resistance training, but you also don’t need to do push-ups every day to see upper body benefits.
A few times a week is enough to strengthen your arms, chest, and shoulders. Before attempting cross-body push-ups, we recommend building up your basic strength first.
While it was fun to spend time on these, practicing in the mirror, and seeing my form progress throughout the week, I don’t recommend doing them every day long term. Variety helps keep your muscles challenged and your mind stimulated.
How to do a crossbody pushup with correct form
I chose this beauty from Firefighter Functional Fitness and was surprised I hadn’t thought of this pushup variation yet. Although the team calls it a “good core workout,” advanced push-ups primarily target the anterior deltoids (front of the shoulders), pectoralis (chest muscles), and triceps. Don’t forget.
Here’s how:
- Start in a push-up position with your shoulders slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and stacked over your wrists.
- Tighten your core, bend your elbows, and lower your chest toward the floor.
- As you lower your body, rotate your torso to the right and kick your left leg from under your body toward the right side.
- Pull your elbows back and pause with your left leg extended, then press up as you return to the starting position.
- Repeat on the other side.
The straighter you move your legs, the more difficult the exercise will be, but you can bend your legs to reduce the strength of your lower back and quads if needed.
I did 50 crossbody push-ups every day for a week – here’s what happened.
Here’s what I learned.
These set my torso on fire
This exercise targets your obliques, lower back, and hip flexors, so get ready to feel a 360-degree core activation. To me, this movement felt similar to a bicycle crunch using a slow, controlled twisting motion. Sure, this move will still hit your chest and triceps, but this pushup variation will give your entire torso some love. After 50 reps on the first day, I already knew it was going to be a tough challenge.
Can increase strength on both sides
I think I’m good at push-ups, but this time I got knocked out six times. In addition to focusing on lowering your chest, lightly tap the outside of your hips against the floor as you move your legs away from your body. Naturally, when you twist your body, you no longer lower his chest to the floor from a front-facing position, so the emphasis changes.
Instead, emphasize one side of your body more at a time. For example, when you twist to the right, as you shift your weight, you create more tension on your left side, including your left shoulder, pectoralis major, and triceps. I liked that unlike standard push-ups, I was able to build strength on both sides of my body at once, and I could immediately notice the difference between each side. In my case, my left side felt much weaker than my right, and the movement dominated my triceps, making me feel much more fatigued than normal.
My form took some work
The benefit of this exercise is that it works your entire torso, as well as your hip flexors and quadriceps. It quickly became a full-body workout, testing my core and hip strength, and I focused on keeping my legs elevated while moving. Transitions from side to side also required incredible flexibility. I tried to keep my moving legs straight while pulling my elbows back and testing my upper body strength to keep my form solid.
To tighten my form and hold myself accountable, I did these reps in the mirror, rested when needed, and made sure to work the right muscles without relying on my lower back. It took longer than his usual 50 reps (talk about ego death), but at least he was able to focus on quality first.
verdict
Cross-body push-ups can be incorporated into your core training routine as much as your upper-body or chest routine, but we highly recommend doing 10 to 15 standard push-ups before attempting advanced variations. To do. If you’re having trouble lowering your chest all the way during a standard push-up, it’s worth focusing on building the necessary range of motion and form beforehand.
For me, after this challenge, washing my hair became (almost) as much work as doing push-ups.
