The following exercises focus on strengthening your chest. The byproducts of the workouts is a strong core and developed arms. These 10 exercises do not require any special equipment and could be completed at home.
1. Regular Pushup
Image via Madbarz
This exercise is a great starting point to build the strength in your chest and triceps. It relies on the individual to raise themselves from the floor with their own body weight. The correct form requires putting your feet together, balancing on their toes, as seen in the pictures above, and placing the hands shoulder width apart. Each repetition has the individual hovering the chest just above the floor, then extending their arms and focusing on their chest as they push to raised position. Be sure to keep your head still and back straight through this motion.
2. Elevated Pushup
Find a stable and immobile object nearby to place your feet and do pushups as indicated by the picture above. This alternative workout to the regular pushups provides additional difficulty and focus more on the stabilizer muscles and shoulders. Try starting with your feet elevated at a low height and then move onto higher platforms as you become more comfortable with this exercise.
- Great for workout classes and regular home use, you can work out anywhere in your home, office or...
- Adjustable heights: 4” to 6” to 8”
- This 31'' exercise stepper will help you work on your coordination as you improve your...
3. Diamond Pushup
Diamond push ups provides additional difficulty to the standard pushups and puts more focus on the triceps. The correct form requires placing your hands together below the middle of your chest and form a diamond shape as indicated in the pictures.
4. Wide Grip Pushup
The wide grip pushup is a variation of the regular pushup that has the individual place their hands out outside their ders and triceps, and emphasizes on strengthening the chest muscles. Try to place your hands wider apart as you get more used to this exercise. Widening the position of your hands will reduce the overall range of motion you can get off the ground, but increases the stress that is put on your chest.
5. Medicine Ball Pushup
This variation of the pushup exercise challenges your chest strength by isolating and elevating one side at a time. The overall body position is the same as the wide pushup with the slight difference of having one of the hand placed on a medicine ball. This workout is commonly done with a medicine ball, but any object that acts as a elevated platform may substitute it. Benefits of this workout includes shoulder stability and getting rid of strength imbalances that may exist on a particular side of the body.
- 10-pound weighted medicine ball for upper, lower, and full body exercises
- Constructed with sturdy, firm rubber with weight labeled on both sides of ball; lightly textured...
- Can bounce off hard surfaces
6. Elbow Drop Pushup
The elbow drop pushup is a great complement to the medicine ball pushups by providing another exercise that isolate and elevates the right and left side of your body separately. Start off in the regular pushup end position and proceed to lower one side of your body and have your elbow touch the ground as shown in the image. Repeat this step with the other arm. Your end position is a plank position while resting your body weight on both elbows. To complete this exercise, do all the steps in reverse and prop yourself back to the start position one arm at a time.
7. Spiderman Pushup
Spiderman pushup exercise is performed like a regular pushup with the exception of moving your leg so that the knee makes contact with the elbow, as shown in the picture. This extra motion works your core muscles as you stabilize yourself between each pushup attempt. Make sure to alternate which knee is brought forward for each repetition.
8. One-Arm Pushup
One-arm pushup is an exercise for those hardcore gym rats that finds the previously mentioned chest workouts to be easy. This exercises strengthens the same muscles as a regular pushups, while requiring a higher level of body control and balance. The body position for the one-arm pushup requires the individual to place their feet wider apart and have the unused arm located behind the back throughout the pushup motion. Additionally, keep your elbow close to your body and shift your body weight towards this arm. Success to this particular exercise demands great patience and discipline to keep your body positioned correctly throughout each repetition.
9. Clapping Pushup
Clapping pushups is an explosive movement exercise that requires timing and incredible strength to catch yourself before easing back into the pushup motions. Start this exercise by positioning yourself in the regular pushup form. Before you start using this exercise, try pushing yourself off the ground as explosively as you can and then proceed to catch yourself and ease back into the starting position. Once you are comfortable doing repetitions of this movement drill, add a quick clap subsequently after the explosive push off the ground. This workout is not recommended until you have made adequate progress with supporting your own body weight with regular pushups.
10. Burpee with Pushup Added
Burpee is a full body exercise that ends each repetition with an explosive jump squat. Here we are modifying the exercise to incorporate a pushup with each burpee repetition. This exercises is broken into five steps. 1) Start off in the standing position. 2) Squat down and place both hand shoulder widths apart on the ground. 3) Kick back your feet into the standard pushup position. 4) After completing a single pushup, bring yourself back into the squat position. 5) Explode from the squat position and jump as high as you can while extending your arms toward the ceiling. Try challenging yourself by constantly doing burpees for a specific amount of time or increasing your number of reps for each sessions.
Upon successful incorporation of these exercises in your workout routine, try challenging yourself with the following variations: add number of repetitions, wear a weight vest, and complete the exercise via slower and controlled motions unless the exercise requires explosive movements.
Suggested Products:
If you are interested in taking your pushups to the next level, there is the Perfect Fitness V2 Elite Perfect Pushup you can get on Amazon. It will help you do pushups from different angles and widths.
Last update on 2024-04-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Leave a Reply