How To: Do POP push-ups

Learn how to do POP push-ups and sculpt your body without weights. Presented by Real Jock Gay Fitness Health & Life.

Benefits
POP push-ups combine the many benefits of the standard push-up with power, speed, and control training. To do POP push-ups, you'll blast up out of a deep push-up with explosive power, such that your hands come into the air for a moment. You'll use core strength to control your landing.

Muscles Worked
Chest
Shoulders
Core

Starting Position
Stand behind a flat bench that is firmly bolted to the floor. Important: Do not do this exercise using a moveable piece of furniture. Place your hands flat on the bench about shoulder-width apart and walk your feet back behind you until you achieve an elevated plank position, with your weight on your toes and hands, your back flat, and your shoulders directly over your hands. For a more advanced version of this exercise, try the on-the-floor variation described below.

Exercise
1. From the starting position, do a standard push-up, bending your elbows to lower your chest to the bench while keeping your back flat and a straight line from the top of your head to your feet. Lower down until your elbows are at a 90-degree angle.
2. From the bottom of the push-up, push up with fast and explosive power so that your hands momentarily come entirely off the bench at the top of the push-up. When your hands land back in the starting position, immediately descend into the next push-up. As you push up and descend, engage your core so that your hips never dip below level with your back.

On-the-Floor Variation
To increase the difficulty of this exercise, do the POP push-ups on the floor rather than a flat bench.