There’s a reason Monday is commonly called “International bench day.” Training for a powerful, muscular chest is awesome and it could be appreciated year-round. However the bench press isn’t the one method to get there. The common-or-garden push-up is commonly brushed aside in the hunt for a powerful and muscular chest because the most recent flashy chest exercise featured on Instagram might look “way cooler.” But is it as effective because the push-up? Probably not.
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When performed usually, the easy push-up and its variations will provide help to construct greater pecs, triceps, and shoulders, improve your relative strength, and it could even transfer over to boosting your bench and overhead press numbers.
Listed below are 10 push-up variations to try when you’re ready to present body weight training a good shake. You won’t ever take a look at push-ups the identical way again.
Best Push-Up Variations
Chaos Push-Up
This difficult variation takes the usual body weight push-up up a notch through the use of a resistance band in a quite unusual way. By performing a push-up together with your hands on the band as a substitute of the ground, the highly unstable element fires up your whole shoulder and core stabilizer muscles.
The band gives you easy feedback when using anything lower than perfect form. You’re forced to maneuver at a slower speed to keep up control, and the increased time under tension does wonders for adding muscle.
When to Use it
When regular push-ups are easy and also you’ve advanced to doing push-ups for seemingly countless reps, the chaos push-up will snap you out of this funk. The increased time under tension makes it great for adding muscle and it’s an awesome alternative exercise for dumbbell bench presses. The instability of the chaos push-up is superb for extra rotator cuff strength when you’re getting back from a shoulder injury.
Tips on how to Do it
Loop a heavy-duty resistance band around safety pins on the squat rack, at roughly waist height. Light to moderate bands may not find a way to support your body weight. The upper the band is placed and the upper your body angle, the simpler the exercise will likely be.
Place your hands on the band in a shoulder-width grip and hold tight with stiff arms. Bring your legs behind you and permit the band to support your weight, while engaging your glutes and core. Bend your arms and slowly lower yourself right into a push-up. Press yourself up, pause briefly at the highest to reset and stabilize before repeating.
Decline Push-Up
The decline push-up is one of the crucial common variations of the classic push-up. It’s implausible for adding muscle since it’s relatively low stress on the joints, requires minimal equipment to perform, and may be trained for very high reps which advantages size and strength.
This movement shifts the main focus to the upper chest and anterior deltoid, just like an incline bench press, for higher overall muscle development of the chest and shoulders.
When to Use it
Your chest is a comparatively large muscle with multiple sections, or heads, so it pays to coach together with your arms at quite a lot of angles relative to your torso. (1) Perform the decline push-up in any workout instead of your standard push-up, particularly in case your workout lacks angled chest exercises or in case your shoulders are bothering you from other pressing exercises.
Tips on how to Do it
Place your toes on a box, step, or flat bench and position your hands underneath your shoulders. Engage your core to maintain your spine neutral, neither sagging nor excessively arched. Lower yourself right into a push-up until your chest is just above the ground and your elbows are angled roughly 45-degrees out of your sides. Pause briefly at the underside and ward off to the starting position. Reset your body position at lockout and repeat.
Incline Plyo Push-Up
The incline plyo push-up permits you to generate upper body power with less compressive stress on the joints than similar free weight movements.
The incline plyo push-up is a superb regression (less difficult variation) from the clapping push-up since you press less of your body weight on account of the inclined position. This may assist you to squeak just a few more reps and apply more explosive force.
When to Use it
Use sets of six to 10 reps with this powerful variation as a “primer” at first of a heavy bench press workout to recruit more muscle and ignite your CNS. (2) In case you’re having difficulty with plyo push-ups from the ground, that is a great method to introduce explosive movements while constructing strength, speed, and power.
Tips on how to Do it
Place your hands on a stable platform like a secured bench or box, a set of steps, or a Smith machine bar. Keep your arms straight as you lean forward and position your feet back, keeping a straight line through your body. Bend your arms and lower yourself rapidly toward the bench before explosively pushing yourself up and allowing your hands to depart the bench.
As you land, barely bend your elbows and “catch” yourself on the way in which all the way down to higher absorb the force. Descend easily into the subsequent repetition.
Clapping Push-Up
The clapping push-up is performed with maximum force. On each repetition, your hands will leave the bottom and you may quickly clap them together to display power, coordination, and control.
Power exercises just like the clapping push-up train the fast-twitch muscle fibers of the body, that are able to more growth than slow-twitch fibers. (3) This exercise is a progression of the incline plyo push-up and will only be performed if you’ve mastered the incline movement.
When to Use It
As the primary exercise of the workout, before heavy lifting, perform sets of six to eight reps. This can construct explosive strength and help to enhance your performance with other pressing exercises following within the workout, akin to the overhead press and bench press.
Tips on how to Do it
Lie on the ground in a great push-up position together with your hands under your shoulders, your legs straight, and your spine neutral. Bend your arms and lower yourself right into a push-up position together with your elbows at a roughly 45-degree angle. Before your chest touches the ground, press explosively and let your hands leave the ground. Quickly clap your hands together and get them back to the ground to catch yourself. Reset your body before the subsequent repetition or, when you’re advanced, immediately transition into the subsequent rep.
Spiderman Push-Up
The Spiderman push-up is a sophisticated variation that requires your upper body and lower body to work along with coordination, strength, and stability.
This push-up variation will increase your chest’s time under tension at the height of your push-up contraction, which can challenge your strength and improve the hypertrophy stimulus. It also tests and challenges your core stability and hip mobility, making it a superb “bang for the buck” movement.
When to Use It
The Spiderman push-up is superb to insert right into a conditioning workout or fat loss circuit since it trains many muscles with one movement and improves your upper body, core, and hip flexor strength. Be certain to do equal reps on each legs.
Tips on how to Do it
Assume your regular push-up position on the bottom together with your hands barely wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower your chest toward the bottom while concurrently pulling your right knee toward your right forearm. Don’t allow your torso to rotate excessively to accommodate your rising leg
Pause briefly in the underside while your chest hovers near the bottom before reversing the method and bringing your foot back to the starting position while pushing yourself back up. Repeat the subsequent repetition with the left leg. Alternate legs with each repetition. To cue the general movement, imagine you’re a web-slinging superhero climbing the skin of a constructing.
Slider Push-Up
For the slider push-up, you’re using a straightforward slider device to succeed in one arm forward as you perform a standard bent-arm push-up with the other arm. This variation recruits more of the serratus anterior (outer chest muscle which controls the shoulder blades), while also increasing muscular tension in your chest and triceps.
If you may have shoulder mobility issues, stay inside a variety of motion you may control by limiting how far you reach forward. The slider push-up challenges your shoulder stabilization and should improve shoulder health over time.
When to Use It
The slider push-up is an awesome exercise to eventually construct as much as a one-arm push-up because a lot of the work is completed by one arm while the opposite is providing support. For max focus and strength, perform this exercise near the start of any workout, before fatiguing your chest and triceps with other exercises.
Tips on how to Do it
Kneel on the bottom and put an exercise slider or furniture slider under each hand. Rotate your shoulders to place your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in a stacked position. Straighten your legs and stabilize your entire body in a front plank position. Engage your glutes and keep a good core.
Lower right into a push-up by bending one arm while keeping the other arm straight because it extends forward. After reaching the bottom comfortable position, pull the forward hand back while pressing the bent arm to lockout. Alternate sides with each repetition.
Suspension Strap Single-Arm Push-Up
This variation uses suspension straps, like gymnastic rings or TRX cables, to regulate your body angle which changes the intensity of the push-up. The straps also add a component of instability, which suggests you’re training core strength in addition to upper body and lower body stabilizers.(4)
This exercise will help strengthen imbalances between sides and provide you with easy feedback if there may be anything amiss together with your pressing technique because it requires total focus and control.
When to Use It
Unilateral (single-arm) presses are great for strengthening imbalances between sides, since most individuals naturally have one barely more developed or barely stronger arm. In case you find one arm lagging behind the opposite through the bench press or overhead press, that is an efficient method to goal either side by itself.
Tips on how to Do it
Loop the handles together and grip the strap over your shoulder with one hand. Adjust your intensity by moving your feet closer to the anchor point (harder) or further away (easier). Slowly lower yourself while keeping your shoulders square to the ground. Don’t rotate or shift to favor either side. While learning the movement, control the range of motion and don’t let your elbow go too far past your torso. Press back, reset, and repeat. Perform all reps on one side before switching.
Band-Resisted Push-Up
Body weight push-ups won’t ever truly exit of favor, and sometimes you only wish to add resistance to this classic exercise. Putting weight plates in your back is okay, but it could get awkward to maintain them in place as you progress. That is where a looped resistance band is available in.
The band’s ascending resistance will make the exercise tougher toward the highest of the push-up, which maximizes your muscles’ peak contraction.
When to Use It
The band provides the vast majority of resistance within the upper end of the range of motion, which can help construct triceps lockout strength and muscle gains on your chest and triceps. Do that when you should add variety to your training, construct some chest muscle, and put some pep back into your bench press without joint stress from a barbell.
Tips on how to Do it
Loop a resistance band around your upper back and put the ends of the band snugly under your hands. Place your hands underneath your shoulders and rise onto your toes in a front plank position. Keep a straight line through your core and squeeze your glutes. Slowly lower yourself down until your chest is almost touching the ground. Take into consideration driving your hands through the ground as you press back up and fight resistance to the starting position.
Archer Push-Up
This exercise has you performing a push-up with primarily one arm while the opposite arm provides support, just like a slider push-up. The wide grip and long range of motion make this certainly one of the more advanced push-up variations.
By alternating side to side, you permit each arm to do its own share of the work. This unique training angle also works the chest in a different way from most exercises, which may stimulate more muscle growth.
When to Use It
In case your goal is to find a way to do one-arm push-ups, archer push-ups can play an enormous role in getting you there. It will possibly be used as a “gateway” movement to construct the pressing strength and total-body stability needed to realize a clean one-arm push-up.
Tips on how to Do it
Get on the bottom together with your toes planted and your hands set well-beyond shoulder-width. Your wrists and elbows could also be more comfortable when your fingers point “out” toward the side partitions as a substitute of forward. Maintain a stiff body position through your core.
“Pull” your right chest down toward your right hand by bending your right elbow. Keep your left arm straight as your body approaches the bottom. Press through your bent arm to return to the starting position and repeat to the other side. Alternate sides with each repetition, and perform an excellent amount of labor on either side.
Yoga Push-Up
This unique exercise is one part push-up and one part “downward dog” yoga pose. It trains strength, mobility, and adaptability in your pressing muscles, core, upper back, lower back, hips, and lower body.
Your pecs and triceps get significant time under tension and a change of pressing angle just like a decline push-up. The “downward dog”-like position helps to enhance strength and mobility within the thoracic spine (upper back), hips, and hamstrings.
When to Use It
The yoga push-up is good if you’ve finally decided to perform a few of the mobility work that always gets forgotten. It really works well as a time-efficient warm-up before any workout, especially sessions that can involve chest pressing or shoulder training since it addresses the upper and lower back.
Tips on how to Do it
Start in a daily push-up position, in your toes and hands, together with your body straight from head to heel. Descend into a regular push-up together with your elbows roughly 45-degrees away out of your torso. When your chest is barely above the ground, press up while pushing your hips back at an upward angle. You need to feel a stretch in your hamstrings as your torso and legs form an the other way up “V” shape.
Keep your shoulders relaxed and pushed away out of your ears. Reverse your complete movement to transition back into the starting push-up position and repeat for reps.
Muscles Worked by the Push-Up
Most push-up movements primarily work the chest, with support from the shoulders and triceps, while the abdominals and lower back work to maintain a powerful core.
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Nonetheless, specific variations can emphasize the upper chest, focus more on core strength, or construct shoulder and upper back mobility.
Pectorals
Your chest muscles are front and center with the push-up. Your pecs are largely answerable for arm adduction (bringing your arms closer to your centerline) which occurs if you push your body away from the ground.
Triceps
Once your elbows break 90-degrees as you press upwards, your triceps take over significantly to increase your elbows and lockout your arms. Performing any push-up with a comparatively close-grip (your hands closer than shoulder-width) can even increase triceps activation. (5)
Anterior Deltoids
The shoulder muscle has three individual heads, each answerable for moving your arm in a special plane relative to your body. The anterior deltoid on the front of the shoulder works to “raise” your upper arm in front of your body. It assists your chest and triceps when pushing your body away from the bottom.
Core
In case your spine doesn’t stay neutral through the push-up, all of it counts for naught since you’ll compromise joint health, safety, and efficiency. The anterior and posterior core — your abs and lower back — keep your torso rigid so your chest and triceps can apply maximum force. Single-arm movements just like the slider push-up and single-leg movements just like the Spiderman push-up require more core activation to counterbalance a reduced base of support.
Push-Up Form Suggestions
Essentially the most common technique flaw within the push-up is a lack of core stability. This leads to an ugly-looking push-up which strains the lower back and increases the danger of injury. Your best bet is to interact your abs and glutes, and stop the movement when you end up losing spinal position.
Although there may be nothing necessarily improper with having your hands wider than shoulder-width apart when performing the fundamental push-up, you should definitely keep your elbows angled near 45-degrees out of your torso for many push-up movements. When your hands are placed wide, it’s more work on the shoulders (and shoulder joints) and fewer involvement from the chest and triceps.
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The cardinal sin of virtually all push-ups is reaching your head all the way down to meet the ground. That is high risk in your cervical spine and neck, and it short-changes the effective range of motion on your goal muscles. You possibly can prevent this error by tucking your chin to your chest, pulling your head back to make a “double-chin”, and staring directly at the ground.
Push Yourself with Recent Exercises
Too many lifters write off the push-up as being “a straightforward exercise.” They underestimate its value due to the final lack of load and apparent simplicity of the movement. But as any of those variations showcase, just a few tweaks here and there’ll take the body weight push-up to the subsequent level by adding extra movement, changing the angle of labor, or throwing stability requirements to the combination. Tackle a few of these exercises and the push-up won’t ever seem so “easy” again.
References
- Rodríguez-Ridao, D., Antequera-Vique, J. A., Martín-Fuentes, I., & Muyor, J. M. (2020). Effect of Five Bench Inclinations on the Electromyographic Activity of the Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoid, and Triceps Brachii through the Bench Press Exercise. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(19), 7339. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197339
- Sale D. G. (1988). Neural adaptation to resistance training. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 20(5 Suppl), S135–S145. https://doi.org/10.1249/00005768-198810001-00009
- D’Antona, G., Lanfranconi, F., Pellegrino, M. A., Brocca, L., Adami, R., Rossi, R., Moro, G., Miotti, D., Canepari, M., & Bottinelli, R. (2006). Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and structure and performance of skeletal muscle fibres in male body builders. The Journal of physiology, 570(Pt 3), 611–627. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2005.101642
- Borreani, S., Calatayud, J., Colado, J. C., Moya-Nájera, D., Triplett, N. T., & Martin, F. (2015). Muscle activation during push-ups performed under stable and unstable conditions. Journal of exercise science and fitness, 13(2), 94–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesf.2015.07.002
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Kim, Y. S., Kim, D. Y., & Ha, M. S. (2016). Effect of the push-up exercise at different palmar width on muscle activities. Journal of physical therapy science, 28(2), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1589/jpts.28.446
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