• Push-up bars reduce the strain on your wrists and give you more options in your workout.push ups image by Steve Lovegrove from Fotolia.com
  
  Push-up bars reduce strain and tension on your wrists while giving you an effective workout for your shoulders, chest, back and arms. The bars come in sets of two, and you can position them in a number of ways to work different areas of your upper body. All of the exercises involve doing basic push-ups with your hands and feet in a variety of positions.
  
  

Shoulder Presses

• Do shoulder-press exercises with your feet elevated on a sturdy object such as a chair or couch to move your weight forward to your shoulders. Hold the bars parallel to each other either shoulder-width apart or as wide as is comfortable for you to continue doing repetitions. Turn the bars to make a V-shape, facing your body. Hold them either close together so the ends of the bars are touching or as far as shoulder-width apart. Doing push-ups with your arms in this position creates resistance on your shoulders.
  
  

Triceps Exercise

• Place the bars parallel to each other, hip-distance apart. Place your hands on the bars and sit between the bars with your legs stretched out in front of you. Use your arms to lift your body up. This works the back of your arms to increase muscle and get rid of flab.
  
  

Chest Presses

• Hold the bars so the handles are horizontal and even with each other. Hold them either shoulder-width apart or as close together as possible. Do push-ups and keep your head forward over your hands and shoulders. This creates a need for your chest to support the rest of your upper body, so it works your chest muscles and tones them.
  
  With the bars horizontal and shoulder-width apart, shift the outside edges of the bars to make a V-shape so the point of the V faces you. Doing push ups in this position works the wider, outside muscles of your chest.