The 1-Minute Morning Push-Up Routine

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Wake-Up Push-Ups!​

This routine will get your butt in gear quickly in the morning, relieve stiffness, and prepare your body for the big lifts.

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Eliminate your bad morning habits, leave your phone in another room, and summon your inner bro-yogi. Wake yourself up every morning with just a few sets of yoga push-ups.

Yoga Push-Ups: What They Are, Why They Work​

Yoga push-ups are basically regular push-ups 52 with a hip hike. The push-up part will do what push-ups always do, but that extra hike of your hips is what makes yoga push-ups so special. This is especially true first thing in the day when you’re stiff AF and need to get moving.

Yoga push-ups will loosen up your entire body, especially your shoulders and hammies, giving your posture 28 and low back some much-needed TLC to start the day.

You know how important your rotator cuff muscles are. But don’t forget that for optimal shoulder health and balance, your serratus anterior are arguably just as important. Yoga push-ups are not only good for opening up your shoulders in an overhead position, they’ll develop scapular upward rotation and the strength of your serratus anterior, too.

Let’s not forget the mini-pump push-ups will give you. Whether you’re heading to the office or the gym, a little extra blood flow never hurts anyone. Forget your mushroom coffee, a pre-breakfast pump is the only cognitive enhancer you’ll ever need.

If you’re “too busy” to add a minute of these into your morning routine, use them as a warm-up for your workouts.

Yoga Push-Up Variations​

There are heaps of modifications you could come up with. Frequently switching them up keeps it interesting while exposing you to the benefits of different positions. Here are some to try.

Feet Elevated: Elevating your feet is a great way to tax your upper body even more. Opt for one leg at a time if you want to add even more difficulty.

Toe Tap and Butt Tap: These variations add variety and help keep it fresh. Adding a reach with one arm allows you to get an extra single-sided stretch while firing up your core.

Spider-Man: Get mobile with a Spider-Man pose. These will open up your hips while challenging your rotary stability.

Y-Reach: A Y-reach will further improve your overhead position while activating key shoulder and scapular stabilizers.

Slider Variation: Add some sliders 21 to the mix to get all the benefits of yoga push-ups while hitting your core even harder. If you don’t have sliders, do them in your socks on a slippery floor.

The Renegade: Be a maverick with the renegade yoga push-up. You’ll probably want to skip these for breakfast, but these are a great workout finisher for a time-efficient push-up that’ll pretty much do everything.

Your Daily Prescription​

You don’t need to spend too long doing these to feel the benefits. Start by committing to just 10 reps first thing in the morning, then add a set or two. This shouldn’t take you any longer than a minute. Pick any variation you fancy.