What Is the Right Way to Hold Push Up Bars?

The standard pushup is a classic exercise that doesn’t require additional equipment. But that doesn’t mean that a good thing can’t be improved. Pushup bars, or handles, can help make your pushups more comfortable, particularly for your wrists. The devices also tend to make your pushups more intense because you move through a greater range of motion. Like the pushup itself, there’s more than one way to hold pushup bars.

  1. Standard Positions

    • To use pushup bars you’ll typically assume a standard pushup position, face down on the floor, with your weight balanced on your toes and hands, and your hands below your shoulders. From this position, grasp the bars with your palms facing each other, or turn the bars perpendicular to your torso and grip them with your palms facing back to your body.

    Variations

    • When you vary your hand positions you shift the exercise’s emphasis a bit, around different areas of your chest. For example, instead of positioning the bars either parallel with, or perpendicular to, your torso, split the difference by angling the bars at 45 degrees and positioning your hands so they face your body. If you set the bars perpendicular to your torso and use an underhand grip, with your palms facing forward, you shift some of the emphasis onto your biceps.

    Perfect Pushups

    • The perfect pushup device, invented by a former Navy SEAL, is essentially a pushup bar that rotates on a fixed base. You can use these as you would standard pushup handles, or you can begin with the bars parallel to your torso and your palms facing your body, then twist your hands as you rise, so the bars become perpendicular to your torso -- with your palms facing your body -- at the top of your motion. Perfect pushup devices may not be suitable for those with shoulder problems.

    Alternatives

    • A pair of hexagonal dumbbells can substitute for pushup bars. You can also lay a barbell below your shoulders, perpendicular to your torso; use an overhand grip to perform standard pushups or an underhand grip to hit your biceps. Do your pushups while grasping a raised horizontal bar, using an overhand grip, for a less-intense workout. Placing your palms on top of a pair of medicine balls, with your fingers pointed forward, offers the added challenge of keeping the round balls in place as you raise and lower your body.