Overview
These aren’t the first push-up handles to hit the market and make the same claims. The Perfect Push-Up started it all, and the Pushup Pro is trying to get some market share by undercutting them in price. They have the 2003 world-record holding push-up champion Jack Zatorski endorsing and promoting it. The concept is simple enough: by letting your arms rotate, similar to the way they do when you throw a punch, you allow a full range of motion which produces a more effective exercise.
The Claim
Pushup Pro claims to be the ultimate upper body workout, and that you’ll see the results in just 10 days. While you can’t deny that the push-up is a great workout for the upper body, it still leaves some muscles untreated, so it’s not as if you’re getting a full upper body workout by performing this one exercise. It does a good job of working the chest of course, and secondarily it works the triceps, shoulders (mostly just the anterior deltoid), and also works peripherally on the midsection, and other smaller muscles associated with the chest and shoulders.
They also claim that it relieves you from wrist strain that often comes with doing push-ups the old fashioned way. Testing has found that it does in fact help alleviate much of the pressure placed on the wrists.
The Cost
Pushup Pro started off pretty cheap and the price keeps dropping. If you order direct from the main site you can a double order for $16 which includes shipping. When compared to its competitors this is a great bargain. If you just want one set you can find them at a local retail shop such as Wal-Mart or Rite-Aid for $20 or less. Definitely worth it at this price.
The Pushup Pro gets put to the test:
Evaluation
When you do a standard push-up your arms are locked into one position. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it forces you to use the same muscles again and again. When you do a push-up with Pushup Pro your shoulders and elbow can rotate. If you throw a punch very slowly you can feel and see your arm rotate. This same rotating motion gets incorporated into the Pushup Pro push-up, so you end up working different muscle groups than you do with just a regular push-up.
For example, because of this motion your shoulders get more of a workout. There are lots of sinews that make up the shoulders, so by letting them rotate you engage them more in the exercise and you’ll see and feel the results more than you normally would doing push-ups the usual way.
If you start off doing wall push-ups, then doing the intermediate level where you put your knees on the ground, and then doing them with your knees up, and finally graduating to raising your legs up with a chair, you’ll definitely see marked improvement. Because of the swivel action you work all areas of the chest, not just the front part of it.
You should not abandon the regular push-up entirely, as it still provides benefits and focuses on specific muscle groups, making them stronger and more powerful. Be sure to do some ordinary push-ups as well, perhaps as a warm up to your Pushup Pro routine.
The price is right, the product gets good reviews, and it works like it is designed to. Of course there will always be a faulty one that finds its way into a buyer’s home and produces a negative review or two, but overall the consensus is that you can get the same benefits as you can from the more expensive Perfect Push Up with the Pushup Pro.
Our Recommendation
While you can’t replace a good upper body routine at the gym with the Pushup Pro, it’s nice to have it available for those days that you don’t want to go to the gym, or for days between workouts when you just want a quick workout and touch up on your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
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View Comments
For older people, whose wrists are not as strong as they used to be, especially older women trying to stay in shape, these are wonderful. I do wall pushups and probably won't get much beyond that considering how vulnerable my wrists are. Without the Pushup Pro gizmos, this would not be part of my exercise routine.