Add pushups to your chest workout for bigger pecs
A big impressive chest can be quite a sight. The pectoral muscles are also very important if you are playing any sport that involves the arms such as martial arts, basketball, baseball or football. Some of the greatest bodybuilders of all time have attributed their success to having large, defined pectoral muscles.
Bench press ain’t the only way to grow pecs
Many people think that the standard bench press, fly, cable routine is the only way to get big pecs. And, for the most part, they are right. These are very important mass building exercises and you should never forget them. However, the humble pushup should not be discounted as a beginner exercise because it has amazing potential to boost your strength, power and muscle gains. It has been used by warriors for thousands of years, martial artists in more recent time and bodybuidlers even today.
So, if you are a little bit bored of the old chest routine that you do at the gym then trying supplementing one of the lighter exercises like anything you do on a machine for some of these pushup ideas.
How to do a pushup for the chest
Before I get on to giving you some ways to liven up the pushup I have to make sure you know how to target your chest. It is quite simple really, the wider your hands are apart the more you will target your pectoral muscles. The closer you bring your hands together the more you will target your triceps. It is the same as on the bench press: close grip for triceps, wide grip for chest.
The question then is, how wide should the be apart? And the answer is, there is no answer. It is different for each person. Some people (like me) have bad wrist injuries from years of tough sport and cannot do my pushups too wide for fear of my hand falling off! You should experiment with different widths as well as different positions for your torso. Should your hands be in line with your nipples, shoulders or ribs? These are questions you need to ask yourself.
How to do BETTER pushups
The regular pushup is pretty boring. We all know it. However, I have made some excellent strength and size progress by jazzing up the old pushup. Here are some of my favorite ways:
1. Incline
The first and most popular way is to put your feet higher than your hands. This takes the emphasis off of the chest slightly but will challenge your strength and endurance.
2. Add weight
When you are at the gym on the bench press you add weight each session (or should be!) so why don’t you for the pushup. There are plenty of ways to do it. You could add some weight discs into a backpack. You could strap some weight to a weight belt and do your pushsups with your hands and feet on some chairs. Use your imagination but be safe.
3. Add pace
This is my favorite way and will give you some really sore pecs in the morning! Get a clock and do your pushups in time with the movements of the hands. For example, my friend and I would see how many pushups we could do in half and hour with a goal of getting to 1000. Our strategy was to do puhsups for the first 35 seconds of the minute and then rest for the remainder of the minute. It worked, we nearly threw up all our lunch and pulled every muscle in our upper body but we did the 1000 pushups. When you break a barrier like this one you find that you are able to do other things that you always doubted. I was lifting bigger weights, running further and even pushing myself harder with my study.
4. Super set
After doing a set of bench press stick the weight in the rack and drop to the floor and pump out a fast set of pushups. This is an excellent way to fatigue your muscles and give them something new to be sore about! Do your bench press nice and slow and then the pushups nice and fast and your chest training will take on a new dimension
Concusion on pushups
Many of the old exercises like pushups, pull ups, etc. have been given a bad rap despite being some of the most powerful and effective muscle and strength building tools we have. Don’t let all the fancy machines and workouts at the gym seduce you when what you really need is a simple workout and some dedication and mental strength.
April 15th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Love this post! I am such a big fan of the pushup. I always wonder why people think they are too good or too big to do them. I’m gonna send this post to some friends of mine. Nice work!
April 15th, 2007 at 1:02 am
Thanks Jim. Im a big fan of them too.
There are so many ways to jazz them up so they don’t get boring. It’s a realy strength workout when you do lots together.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
My buddies and I would do the “pyramid” pushup workouts when we were away from the gym for 2+ days, and I always noticed that it would work my chest differently than my typical gym workout.
Do 25 pushups, wait 1 minute, then 24, wait 1 minute, 23… etc etc. Puts you at 325 pushups. About 5 minutes later, we’d see who could do the pyramid back on the way up! Lots of fun and a great workout.
February 14th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Nice post! I’m a big fan of push ups. When my shoulders are feeling bad, which is quite often in my sport (Volleyball),or generally once a week for good measure I sub in push ups. They are great for learning to control your scapula and does wonders for shoulder health as well as increasing strength. When you do a pushup, you need to keep your scaps a lot more controlled than in bench…I feel like my shoulders are a lot more ‘free’ after doing a set of push ups, as opposed to bench. Many people out there can’t do full good quality push ups, and it probably has a lot to do with their poor shoulder control.
Thanks for the great post.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Sasper - That sounds like a lot of fun. In a painful kind of way!
Lauren - Interesting you say that about pushups being good for the shoulders. I know a lot of people who get the bench press wrong and as such damage their shoulder joints. Maybe they should start with pushups.
Thanks guys.
February 28th, 2008 at 8:32 am
HI all i like the way u all described to make the chest muscles huge ..but guys can some one send me a routene of exercises to follow day by day .And i also want to know after how long u shoould change ure routene of exercise .I will be waiting for the answers buy .and by the way the 25,24,23 is working goood thanks for the tips….
March 6th, 2008 at 11:58 am
man i love doing push ups all day ever day but the most all done in fifty minutes is 400 push ups all did like four differnt stlyes. my arms and pecs are geting big. how can i get more push ups under fifty minutes. i have a nother ? is their a limted to my mussle growth will they stop growing at a certain point?
March 9th, 2008 at 3:23 am
I’m a big fan of pushups also. One of my favorite workouts is about 4 minutes long. It is 20 seconds of pushups (as many as you can do), 10 seconds of rest. Do a total of 8 times. Record the total reps and try to increase each time.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Justin - Sweet stuff. You will not stop growing as long as you keep upping the intensity. More reps, weight, sets, etc.
Exercise Advice - I like that workout. Nice work indeed!
RT
April 13th, 2008 at 5:04 am
Mix pushups with hindu pushups,
i do 15 hindu pushups, then 5 pushups and then repeat for as long as i can . Works entire upper body incl abs and biceps.
Increase the numbers as u get stronger.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:46 am
how do u do hindu pushups
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hindu pushups are to complicated to understand their proper movement in words here, look up on Youtube.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Abdi - Ksh is right. They are a little hard to explain. Here is a video on Youtube of a Hindu Pushup. It comes from a Yoga Asana called Salute to the Sun which you also might want to look up.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=g1xjTt2TIKA
RT