Push ups are a very simple movement that can be incredibly hard to do. The push up targets the pectoral muscles and the triceps when you are pushing your body away from the ground.
The push up is incredibly versatile, with the repositioning of the hands; the certain muscles can be targeted in different ways to develop different areas of the chest and triceps.
Wide Arm Push Up
Move your hands further apart, more than shoulder width apart. The push ups will engage the pectorals more than the standard push up and will be less intensive on the triceps as a result.
This allows greater focus on the chest muscles and lessens the work done by the triceps. This exercise can be combined in a workout routine with the Diamond push up to effectively work both the chest and triceps.
Diamond push up
From the standard push up position, move your hands together until the touch, touch your thumbs together and make a diamond shape in between your hands. Now perform the normal press up motion.
This is extremely intensive on the triceps, and to an extent the outer area of the pectoral. You are using your triceps to push a large portion of your bodyweight compared to the standard push up.
When you are comfortable with the standard push up, you may want to increase the difficulty of the push ups to build greater strength or endurance.
By placing a greater emphasis on the chest and triceps, by doing Wide Arm and Diamond Push Ups respectively, you can increase the load on these muscles to build greater strength and muscular endurance.
The classic compound exercise for the upper body, the push can be very difficult for the novice due to the number of muscle employed. However with time and effort, the results can be spectacular.
Who would have thought your body weight would be such an effective training aid for developing your upper body.
The classic upper body workout, give thanks to the Push Up.
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