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TikTok’s Left-Right Push-Up Challenge Has User Cores Burning

Fitness can be a motivational challenge. Morning are mornings and evenings are, well, evenings. Just getting out of bed or just easing down from work, many people find it challenging to drive to a gym or suit up to play sports. Need a push? How about a challenge? Specifically, how about a TikTok challenge that already has 900 million views?

What is this ultra-popular pop-up? Why the Left-Right Push-Up Challenge, named after the song that inspired it. How do you do it? Does it work? Read on to find out. 

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Traditional push-ups are beneficial for building upper body strength. They work the triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders. When completed with proper form, push-ups also strengthen the lower back and core muscles by engaging (pulling in) the abs. The problem with typical push-ups, however, is twofold. One, practitioners tend to plateau, thus reducing the efficacy of the exercise. And two, the traditional up-down of a push-up lacks diversity and thus fails to engage critical micro-muscles.

An alternative to normal push-ups, the push-up challenge allows you to work additional muscles in order to achieve a full-body workout. Paired with the song, Grab Da Wall & Rock Da Boat — created by 504 Boyz and Weebie — the challenge also engages participants by asking them to break a sweat to the music’s beat, thus providing a perfect distraction from exercise to focus on actually completing the challenge. 

To begin, simply set yourself up into a push-up position. Then, once the lyrics say “left, right,” release one arm and touch your other shoulder, and repeat that on each side two times. Next, as the rhythm speeds up, do a set of mountain climbers (running from left-to-right foot in a push-up position — a killer workout for your entire core, abs and obliques included. Finally, once the chorus drops, do push-up jacks — push-ups with arms and upper body combined with a jumping-jack motion with the feet. Got you sweating just thinking about it, right?

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The Left-Right Push-Up Challenge offers an excellent full-body workout that works a diversity of muscles that can level-up (or down) and differentiate as people want. Check out the now thousands of TikTokkers flipping the push-up challenge on its head. 

Whether it’s doing them while inverted against a wall, hopping between boxes, or simply with beer cans, there’s something in the Left-Right Push-Up Challenge for everyone. Putting your push-up challenge results out for the social media/TikTok world to see is, of course, up to you. Check out the video below if you’re looking for some inspiration and/or direction. 

Read More: Walmart Is Practically Giving Away These Adjustable Dumbbells

Matthew Denis
Matt Denis is an on-the-go remote multimedia reporter, exploring arts, culture, and the existential in the Pacific Northwest…
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