Is pushup the best exercise today

1. What people mean when they ask “best” — goals and constraints matter

As fitness media and experts repeatedly note, what counts as the “best” exercise depends on objectives like longevity, strength, calorie burn, mobility or mental health; publications urging readers to pick sustainable, measurable habits stress personalization over one‑size‑fits‑all prescriptions ^{[1] [5] [6]}. Public health guidelines cited by TODAY underline that adults should hit weekly totals for aerobic and muscle‑strengthening activity rather than favoring a single move, implying the “best” exercise is the one that helps a person meet those targets consistently ^[7].

2. How pushups score: strengths supported by movement science and expert lists

Pushups are a fundamental push pattern in the same family of daily movements experts encourage training (hinge, squat, lunge, push, pull, rotate), making them functionally relevant to everyday tasks and therefore valuable in a balanced program ^[3]. Fitness roundups that list high‑value exercises include bodyweight pushes as accessible starters and activation tools for day one, which aligns with the notion that pushups offer high return on adherence and can be scaled for many fitness levels ^{[4] [8]}.

3. Limits and missed benefits if one only does pushups

Contemporary reporting warns against narrowing exercise to a single movement because other modes—squats for lower‑body strength, pulls for shoulder balance, aerobic work for heart health, and rotation for core resilience—deliver distinct physiological benefits that pushups alone can’t provide ^{[4] [3] [2]}. Meta‑analyses and science outlets highlight mental‑health and disease‑prevention gains from combining aerobic and resistance work, suggesting a mixed program outperforms any solitary exercise for outcomes like depression reduction and chronic‑disease risk ^{[9] [10] [11]}.

4. Practical cases where pushups might be the “best” choice for today

For someone with limited time, no equipment, and a need to train upper‑body strength quickly, pushups are an excellent choice because they are quick, require no gear, and scale from wall or knee variations to advanced reps—matching the advice to prioritize short, frequent sessions and habit formation ^{[5] [12]}. Newsroom trend pieces also point out that the fitness landscape rewards consistency and quality of movement; a person who will do pushups daily and progress them reliably may get more benefit than someone who sporadically cycles through complicated trends ^{[1] [4]}.

5. Hidden agendas and alternative viewpoints in coverage

Some lifestyle pieces and product tie‑ins promote apps, challenges or branded workouts as the route to success, which can skew emphasis toward particular moves or programs rather than evidence‑based variety and sustainability ^{[7] [4]}. Other reporting elevates higher‑intensity or novel modalities (Hyrox, TRX, stair protocols) as zeitgeist trends, underscoring that media attention doesn’t equal universal superiority and that the best exercise should be judged against personal goals and safety ^{[1] [13] [14]}.

Bottom line: a nuanced verdict

Pushups are among the best single exercises for accessibility, functional relevance and scalability today, but they are not categorically the best overall; balanced programs that include push, pull, hinge, squat, rotation and aerobic elements align with expert guidance and the strongest research on physical and mental health outcomes ^{[3] [9] [10] [2]}. For most people the pragmatic prescription is to use pushups as a reliable building block within a varied routine that targets weekly strength and aerobic goals, because adherence and breadth of movement drive the largest health returns ^{[7] [5] [12]}.