A few tricks to raise pushup intensity and effectiveness, and lower the reps:
- lower yourself on a count of 5 instead of full speed,
- or hold at the bottom to a count of 5,
- or go to bottom, then halfway up, then down again, then full up
Mix and match. It's harder. After a while, people can just crank out regular pushups without much sweat. This applies to gals also. We advise not doing 50 of these modified pushups daily, however. Every other day, at most.
What are pushups good for? You can call them a calisthenic but they are upper-body strength-builders.