Pushups Are Among Those Convenient Exercises That You Can Do Anywhere Anytime
It’s isn’t hard to think that pushups don’t come into your mind if you hear a word like exercise, workout, home workout. Pushups are one of the effective bodyweight workouts that are standing their ground from early on.
Nevertheless, pushups are often overlooked exercise, and it’s even considered a basic bodyweight workout for many in today’s modern bodybuilding. But, that’s not good. Pushups are capable enough to work your chest in every way as any machine or free weights can do, and further, it doesn’t require any particular place or equipment.
If you’re one of those who are thinking, yeah yeah, it’s quite easy, I know how to do it. I’m better on my own. I’ve won many 22 pushups challenge or if you’re the gym’s dude who can do 100 pushups in few minutes who thinks it’s for noobs, then hold on.
Here Are the Best Pushups for Chest – 4 Push Up Variations Everyone Should Do
Those who have mastered pushups and say it’s a straightforward exercise. Then, give a shot to these pushup variations and take it to the next level. Below are the different pushup variations that aren’t as easy as it seems.
- Decline Pushups / Feet Elevated Pushups
- Wide Arm Pushups
- Hindu Pushups
- Diamond Pushups / Pushups For Triceps / Close Grip Pushups
1. Decline Pushups / Feet Elevated Pushups
Decline pushups is another best pushups for the chest. Here, you keep your feet elevated, giving your body a downward angle. Compared to incline and traditional pushups, it’s an advanced variation that increases the difficulty level as your feet are higher compared to your hands.
Also, bench height is another determining factor for the intensity of this decline in pushups. Mainly it targets the chest, arms, core, and shoulders.
How to Do Decline Pushups
First, you’ll require a proper surface like a box, chair, or bench to perform decline pushups. For making it harder, you can choose the box or any other higher surface. Though, if you’re new and haven’t tried it earlier, it’s best to choose a low surface such as a stepper, and later on, you can increase the height.
- Get down with your back positioning at the bench.
- Position yourself by keeping your hand to the floor, shoulders over your wrists, and elbows.
- Get your feet on top of the bench. Keep your core, glutes, and quads tight. Bend down with your elbows while lowering your chest to the floor.
- Now perform like regular pushups and complete two to three sets of 10 to 20 reps.
If you get pain in the shoulders, elbows, or wrists, it’s recommended to stop doing it.
2. Wide Arm Pushups
Wide arm pushups are other best pushups for the chest that work more on your chest muscle while lessening other muscles – shoulders and triceps. However, it’s recommended that you go slowly with this and keep your movement controlled. So, you prevent yourself from being injured while maintaining the effectiveness of the exercise.
How to Do Wide Arm Pushups
- Start with standard pushup position but keep your hands wider than the standard pushups for wide arm pushups.
- For more comprehensiveness, keep your neck and head tightly in the line. Because allowing your head to hang will cause your upper back and shoulder to round, which is not a proper form, which often happens when you reach failure.
- Brace the core and raise your hips, so your body from head to heels stays in a straight line.
- Now, bend your elbows and lower your chest towards the floor while maintaining your weight on your arms.
- Pause for a second at the bottom with your chest near the floor without letting it touch the base.
- Press back upward with force to return to starting position.
3. Hindu Pushups
Hindu pushup is another best pushups for the chest that’s quite different from those traditional pushups. Hindu pushup can prove a great alternative to conventional pushups that builds muscles as well as gives flexibility.
It’s one of the excellent compound exercises that benefits your whole upper body while targeting the Pectoral, Deltoids, Serratus anterior, Triceps, Subscapularis, Spine Flexor, Erector Spine, and Hips. Also, Hindu pushups help increase testosterone levels and improve your posture.
How to Do Hindu Pushups
- Get to the traditional pushup position while keeping your feet hip-width apart.
- Keep your back straight and core tight.
- Now, push your torso backward and more your glutes up to form an inverted V position.
- Bend your elbows and move your upper chest close to the floor while keeping your glutes upward.
- Now, drop down your glutes, and get your body in the straight-line position.
- Straighten your arms and get your chest in the upward direction and form an upward facing dog position, as it’s done in yoga.
- Ensure you keep your chest forward and keep your throat open. Pull your shoulder blades together while keeping your legs tight and active.
- Get back to start position by pushing your torso back and repeat the movement.
4. Diamond Pushups / Pushups for Triceps / Close Grip Pushups
The diamond pushups is another challenging variation of pushups that works your chest but primarily targets your triceps muscles. Unlike regular pushups, where the shoulder gets more load, these close grip pushups (diamond pushup) puts it on your triceps.
This variation becomes quite tricky as, unlike classic pushups, you keep your hands together for making a diamond shape. This pushup is quite popular in the army, and it helps build chest and abdominal along with arm muscles, especially triceps.
How to Do Diamond Pushups
- Get in a plank position as you do for traditional pushups but keep your hands stacked directly beneath your shoulders.
- Keep your hands close together and spread your fingers in such a way that it creates a diamond shape through your index fingers.
- Similar to a traditional pushup, lower your chest towards the floor while keeping your back flat.
- Now, press back into a full arm extension and repeat to complete the set.
Easier Pushup Variations for Beginners
Standard Pushups
Standard pushups are regular pushups that you are taught in the school. It works with different muscles, namely, chest, triceps, shoulders, core, back, quads, and glutes. You can say it’s one type of moving plank, where you keep all your muscles tight while bending your arms.
How to Do Standard Pushups
- Get into a high plank position while keeping your hands flat on the floor.
- Keep your hand shoulder-width apart and wrists under your shoulders.
- Get your body straight in line and bend your arms while lowering yourself as close as possible to the floor. And, during the whole execution of the exercise, keep your elbows at around a 45-degree angle towards your torso.
- Now, push back to the start position and complete the set.
Incline Pushups / Hands Elevated Pushups
Those who’re total beginners can start with incline pushup variation as it’s easier than the traditional pushups. As the name implies, you keep your upper body elevated using an exercise box, bench, chair, or any other equipment in incline pushups.
In this incline position, often called hands elevated pushups, little pressure is taken off from your arms and shoulders, resulting in a good chest workout.
How to Do Incline Pushups
Like traditional pushups, make sure your body is aligned in a straight line in the plank position. Because if you get too close to the box, it’ll arch your back. Another thing to note is that you choose nonslip pads or another floor that prevents you from slipping while performing this incline pushup.
- Grab the box, chair, or any other equipment and stand in front of it. Now, squat or bend down and place your hands on either side of it while keeping your fingers forward.
- Elevate both your hands on that box about shoulder-width apart. To make yourself comfortable and safe.
- Get your hands in the correct position, get your back into a plank position, through one leg at a time.
- Check whether your body is in a straight line while having your head aligned with your spine and lower back isn’t sagging. Look few inches ahead of yourself, instead of down at the box on which you’ve elevated your hands. It’ll keep your body straight.
- Now, bend your hand as you do for regular pushups – slowly lower the chest towards that equipment or box.
- Straighten your arms to get back on starting position.
- Continue doing a one set that’s anywhere from 10 to 15 for three sets. Increase the repetitions if you want.
How to Make Pushups More Challenging
Pushups are great for the chest. Secondarily, it helps to build other muscles like the triceps, shoulder, and even core muscles. Yet, once you get accustomed to doing pushups regularly, it hardly helps, and many times it becomes one of the warmups workouts.
But, you can make it more challenging that may even help you put on chest mass. For instance,
- You can go for an advanced level by adding free weights or a sandbag on your back.
- Slowing tempo either during concentric, eccentric, or both phases by 4-5 seconds.
- Super setting with other workouts like the bench press.
- Prioritizing it in between or last exercise.
Wrapping Up
We often get intrigued by free weights so much that we forget the importance of basic exercise, and pushups are among those. Though everyone gets accustomed to it after a while, it’s one of the basic exercises that you can do differently to make it challenging so it doesn’t become boring.
Yes, free weights do make a difference, and it helps in packing muscles. Still, exercises like pushups can make a lot of difference if used wisely and differently instead of sticking with traditions of doing warmups.
