I'd say most films can be pushed around two stops with minimum shadow detail loss and a slight increase in contrast.
Personally its not been a choice pictorially when pushing film, normally out of necessity due to the speed of subject movement or just poor lighting. If you have 400ISO film an ƒ2 lens and you have to record something pushing will get you printable results rather than thin results that you need to be a hero to print.
Make no mistake you won't get much more shadow detail, and you'll get higher contrast but you will at least get a result.
I tend to push faster films because they are normally more forgiving like Delta 3200 rather than Pan F which would be tougher because of the inherent contrast of slower emulsions.
Here is Tri-x I pushed back when i was 16
