Do you want to do push-ups in the morning but not sure if it’s safe or how to get started? Well, you can do morning pushups.
In this article, you will learn about the benefits of doing push-ups in the morning plus other good-to-know things about morning pushups.
This post also covers the following topics in short – comparison between doing pushups before and after breakfast, how many pushups to do in the morning? tips about pushups in the morning and FAQs.
Related: Best time to do pushups in a day. | 3 Morning pushup routine for every fitness level.
When you do pushups it engages many muscles in your body, especially your chest, shoulder and arms. To date, push-ups are one of the most popular compound exercises you can do.
Benefits of doing push-ups in the morning
Pushups can be a great fit for your morning workout session. Because when you do pushups, it engages many muscles at once. It only takes 3 minutes to do 25-30 pushups. Doing pushups in the morning can help you to get your hand, chest & some other upper body muscles pumped before you leave for work or school.
If you are someone who has a busy schedule and managing time for a workout session gets difficult then you can do pushups in the morning plus add some other bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges, situps, burpees, plank etc. and there you have your 10-12 minutes quick morning workout session at home.
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The overall impact of doing pushups remains the same no matter when you do it. But when you do it first thing in the morning then it’s most likely that you will do pushups more often. Doing pushups more often and maintaining consistency will give you better muscle-building and toning results.
Top 5 Physical Benefits of Doing Push-ups
1. Pushups help you to build upper body muscles
The benefit of doing compound exercises like pushup is – it works many muscles at once. When someone does push up it helps them to engage their chest, arms, and shoulders muscles. These are also primary muscle groups in the upper body. After doing 20-35 daily push-ups for 30 days you can see improvement in your biceps, triceps, and chest muscle size.
2. It’s a full-body workout
Push-up is good for building upper body strength. But ultimately push-up is a full-body workout. When you do pushups, your abs and lower body act as supporting muscle groups.
3. You can get a strong core by doing pushups
Pushups might not be the best exercise to build abs. But it’s a good exercise to build a strong core. Doing push-ups can help you to strengthen your waist, side of the waist or abdominal section.
4. Push-up helps you to build overall body strength
As it’s a full-body workout, if you do push-ups daily then your overall body strength will improve. Have you ever wondered why military personnel do pushups in their training drills?
5. Good for burning calories and boosting metabolism
Doing pushups in the morning can help you to boost your metabolism rate and burn unused calories. Increasing your metabolism rate in the morning by doing exercises is a great way to help your body’s natural fat-burning process.
If you are trying to lower your body fat and gain some muscle mass then exercising before breakfast can be a good strategy. And pushups can be your go-to body-weight exercise to better shape your upper body.
Related: Pushup routine for beginners. | Morning pushup routine you can follow for beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
How many Pushups to do in the Morning
If you are just starting to do pushups in the morning then you can do 10-15 pushups in one go. It’s also quite normal for many people to do 5-7 pushups when they start at first. But if you remain consistent and do pushups more often then soon you will be able to do 10-15 pushups.
For someone who has been doing pushups for 1-2 months, you can do 22 – 30 pushups in the morning. And on some good days, you can cross the 35+ mark.
Also, how many pushups you can do in the morning depends on your stamina and body strength. Doing pushups more often will help you gradually improve your body strength & stamina. Increasing your strength and doing pushups more often will naturally increase the number of pushups you can do. One thing to keep in mind while doing more pushups is – you need to skip some days so that your muscles can recover. I would recommend you to do pushups 4-5 days per week and take rest on the other days.
Doing 2-3 sets of pushups in one session can help you to build & tone your muscles faster.
If you already do push-ups, then you can do 25-35 push-ups in the first set, 15 push-ups in the second set and in the third set you can do 5-7 push-ups until failure.
For beginners, you can start by doing 7-10 push-ups in the first set, 4-6 push-ups in the second and third set. After 1-2 weeks, your body strength will improve if you do push-ups 4-5 days per week. From the second week – try to do 15 pushups instead of 10.
Then when you are able to do 15 pushups in one go – you can challenge yourself each week by trying to do 2-5 more pushups than you usually do.
If a person does 3 sets of push-ups 4-5 days per week, then within 40 days they can do 30-40 pushups.
It may vary in some cases but for most people, if they don’t skip their daily pushups they will reach there.
Related:
- Should you do pushups every day or every other day?
- Pushup workout routine for women.
- How many calories do pushups burn?
QUICK TIP FOR YOU TO DO MORE PUSHUPS
Before you do pushups in the morning you can do this to improve your performance or the number of pushups you can do in the morning.
Stretch & activate your muscles like this in the morning for 1-2 minutes before you do pushups. Go to push-up position and slowly lower your body, let your chest rest on the floor for 10 seconds then go up and repeat it 3-4 times.
This will activate/warm up all those muscles you need to do push-ups. If you do this before you do pushups then you will do more pushups than your normal days.
I have personally tried this several times and it works like a charm. But if you are just started to do pushups and if this 1-2 minute stretch makes your muscles a little bit tired then you can take 3 minutes rest before you start doing pushups until failure.
Pushups first thing in the morning
When you are doing pushups in the morning right after waking up from sleep it’s important that you keep a few things in your mind.
The first thing you should do is to take a minute and sit on the bed or stand near the bed to remove any sleepiness that you may have.
After removing the sleepiness you can go to the pushup position you can do your morning pushups.
Or it’s even better if you take a minute or two to warm up your body by doing simple stretching or jogging on the spot.
Completing a warmup can help you have a better workout session.
To have a better morning pushup session do 3 sets of pushups. In your first set try to do it until failure. And on the second and third set do 15-20 pushups.
Pushups before breakfast or after breakfast?
Pushups before breakfast
Many people ask if they can do push-ups first thing in the morning.
Here I’ll answer if you can do push up before breakfast.
You can do push up before you eat your breakfast. For students and busy people, it’s better to complete their workout before breakfast. Because later in the day it can become difficult for them to manage time for exercise.
Also, when you get tired from work you might want to skip doing push-ups so in that case, you can do pushups before breakfast.
Pushups after breakfast
Some people wake up late in the morning. So there’s no option to do push up before breakfast. In this case, they can do push up after they eat their breakfast. But they need to wait for some time after eating.
After eating a regular breakfast you can do push-ups after 40 minutes to an hour.
If you don’t want to do push up in an empty stomach then you can eat some light food items 10-15 minutes before you do push-ups. You can have tea, coffee, cookies, bananas etc.
You might like to read this post where I explain in detail about finding the best time to do pushups in a day and how to find a pushup routine and some Q & A related to doing pushups.
Is there any major difference between doing pushups before breakfast and after breakfast?
There are no major differences between doing pushups before breakfast vs after breakfast. But in some cases doing push-ups before breakfast can be a better option. Here’s why:
One set of pushups can be done within 2-3 minutes. If you do more sets of pushups (let’s say 3) it can be completed within 10 minutes.
Now, most people can complete 3 sets of pushups before breakfast. Or if they do it after drinking tea/ coffee, that’s also fine.
But one disadvantage of doing push-ups after breakfast is – you have to wait for 40 minutes to one hour.
Now, in the morning for a lot of people, it might be difficult to wait 40 minutes every day to do push-ups. That’s why doing push-ups before breakfast is ideal.
FAQs About Morning Push-ups
If you are interested in pushups and bodyweight exercises then you might like to read some of my other posts as well. I have picked 3 for you. You can explore more posts on fitness here.
- Benefits of home workouts over gym workout.
- 10 Benefits of living an active lifestyle.
- 10 Best home workout tips
