Push-up bars are great for your wrists, experts say — if you buy the right kind
Fitness experts explain how to shop for push-up bars — and what features to avoid.
Redipo’s Push Up Bars are made from polypropylene and steel, and include foam hand pads. The push-up bars come up 5 inches off of the ground — a little taller than the Perfect Fitness Pushup Stands — but like the Perfect bars, the Redipo Push Up bars are rated to hold 300 pounds, according to the brand. You can also disassemble the Redipo bars in case you need to bring them with you on a trip or store them in a stuffed closet for the long-term. The Redipo Push Up Bars have a 4.4-star average rating from more than 3,500 reviews on Amazon.
CAP Barbell’s Pushup Bars consist of chrome-plated metal bars with a foam padding for ease of use. They come about 3 inches off of the ground and they’re rated to hold about 300 pounds, CAP says. It doesn’t appear that you can store them on top of one another, like the Perfect Fitness Pushup Stands, but you can assemble and disassemble them for travel or storage. They have a 4.5-star average rating from more than 3,000 reviews on Amazon.
The N1Fit Push Up Bars are made of polyvinyl chloride (a hard plastic) and they have comfortable foam grips to make your push-ups feel more supported, N1Fit says. Like the Redipo Push Up Bars, the N1Fit Push Up Bars come about 5 inches off of the ground to elevate you further in the air than the Perfect Fitness Pushup Stands and the CAP Barbell Pushup Bars. N1Fit says they are rated to hold up to 250 pounds, a little bit less than the other push-up bars here. And reviewers praise the N1Fit Push Up Bars for how easy they are to assemble. They have a 4.2-star average rating from more than 2,200 reviews on Amazon.
Made from hard plastic, the Readaeer Push Up Bars have a comfortable — and colorful — cushioned foam grip around the handles, Readaeer says. Similar to most of the other push-up bars we’ve looked at here, they come about 5 inches off of the ground. Though they aren’t rated to hold a specific weight, there are many customer reviews from customers who say they weigh over 200 pounds and use the push-up bars just fine. The Readaeer bars are easily assembled and disassembled for transport or storage. The Readaeer Push Up Bars have a 4.5-star average rating from more than 900 reviews on Amazon.
A push-up bar is a tool — made from steel or hardened plastic — that helps a person’s arms remain in a more comfortable position during push-up exercises. It is designed to reduce wrist strain, too, by encouraging your wrist to sit straight during a push-up. It also elevates the difficulty of the push-up by increasing the range of motion, depending on the height of the push-up bars. Typically buying “a push-up bar” means buying a set of two push-up bars, one for each hand.
Push-up bars are also good to use if you’re a beginner who hasn’t built a push-up routine yet, said Kercher.
“The biggest advantage [of using push-up bars] is wrist position,” said Michael Boyle, co-founder of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning gym in Woburn, Massachusetts. When doing a push-up, “I would rather you[r hands] be positioned like you’re going to punch somebody, with your knuckles down,” Boyle said. Because you’re gripping the bars, your arms and wrists remain straight. If you perform push-ups with your hands flat on the floor and your wrists bent, you may experience wrist pressure — and discomfort.
Beyond the health of your wrist, another benefit of using push-up bars is an enhanced range of motion during the push-up. “Any strength exercise benefits from using a full range of motion, and [push-up bars] allow you to get a little deeper” than you would otherwise, said Kercher.
Using a push-up bar — similar to many pressing exercises — primarily works the chest and triceps. “Any time you’re extending your elbow joint, that’s a tricep exercise, and it’s a chest exercise because you’re moving that upper arm forward,” said Kercher. Another good thing about developing a push-up bar habit, experts told us, is that you’re playing with multiple joints, which means you’re working multiple muscle groups.
Although there are some highly rated rotating push-up bars to choose from, our experts warned against looking at them. “If someone had a really good reason [to use a rotating push-up bar], then sure,” Kercher said. “If they’ve already developed a push-up habit and a strength training habit, then that might be doing something they could get up to.”
If you’re new to push-up bars, a rotating push-up bar adds an unnecessary level of instability to your workout. Boyle also noted that, although he personally enjoys the spinning aspect of rotating push-up bars, the rotating function tends to get sticky and stops working well relatively quickly in his experience.
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