Build Muscle Up with Several Pushup Variations
Most people don’t realize that you don’t need fancy gym equipment to build muscle — in fact, standard bodyweight exercises like pushups can be effectively used to build muscle up.
Frankly, it’s easy to underestimate how effective pushups can be at building your chest and arms. At a glance, pushups are plain and almost boring: down up, down up, down up — that’s it. And that’s true to a certain extent. But most people outside of the fitness circles are only familiar with the standard pushups that they were taught in their high school phys ed classes.
There is a wide variety of pushups that you can perform to isolate different muscle groups, but we’re going to concentrate on five styles in this article. These might not be the best five for all people, but they should open your eyes to the variety available with simple functional exercises.
Wide pushups: traditionally, pushups are performed with your hands being placed at shoulder width. Wide push ups, sometimes called “wide-stance pushups”, require you to extend your hands beyond the width of your shoulders. Wide-stance pushups work your chest muscles more heavily than military-style pushups, so if chest definition is what you are looking for — wide pushups are one exercise that will help you meet your goals.
Fist pushups: Sometimes referred to as “knuckle” pushups, require the use of your fists, instead of the palms of your hands, to bear your body weight during the pushup. Fist pushups are beneficial because they target different areas of your body than traditional pushups, and may actually increase the effectiveness of your workout.
Yogi pushups: also referred to as “divebombers,” you start the pushup in the yoga downward dog position, which is similar to a pike. On the down rep, you transition into the upward dog position in a motion that is similar to sliding under a fence, reversing this movement on the up rep. These pushups are brutal and really work your shoulders.
Incline pushups: Incline pushups are the exact opposite of decline pushups — instead of placing your feet higher than your head, your head should be higher than your feet for this exercise. Any sturdy surface that will allow you to perform the pushups unencumbered can be used. Incline pushups work your lower pectoral muscles.
Stacked pushups: with stacked pushups, one arm is spread wide to the side as in wide pushups, and the other is tucked in tight like military pushups. After 5 repetitions, the hand positions are switched.
Here are a few more pushup variations you might want to consider to build muscle up: fly, wide, diamond, military, fist, yogi, decline, incline, stacked, deep, prison cell, and inchworm pushups.
To get the most out of your pushup workouts, add some weight once the pushups begin to get easy. You don’t want to push out 50 easy reps. Rather, struggle with 20 or 30. Also be sure to add variety by varying your hand position for each of the above types of pushups.
Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper body and build mass, so they are a worthy addition to your muscle workouts. If you keep it interesting by mixing up your hand positions and trying a few different styles of pushups you can increase the effectiveness of your at-home exercising and relieve the boredom!
BodyBuilding Video Clips
BodyBuilding News
Time to go bananas during May 8 race at Ala Moana - Honolulu Advertiser12 Mar 2010 at 11:56am
High School and Miss High School bodybuilding and physique championships. The bench press contest will start at 5:30 p.m. and the bodybuilding and physique at about 7:30 p.m. The bench press will feature lightweight, middleweight, light heavyweight ...
Complaints about Blue Martini in North Naples prompt ... - News-Press
12 Mar 2010 at 12:03pm
1:10 A.M. — The reason a rising number of Blue Martini nightclub patrons have reported blacking out or collapsing at the club is likely due to their own mixing of alcohol and drugs, its attorney said Thursday. "We think that a lot of what's ...
Cop Fired For Steroids Wins Badge Back - KPHO
12 Mar 2010 at 12:17pm
An attorney representing Ramirez in his appeal argued that her client tested just above the allowable threshold for officers because he had been taking bodybuilding supplements that he had no idea metabolized into steroids when processed in the body ...
New Tag Results, from Technorati and Ingboo
by webmaster@technorati.com
4 Mar 2010 at 11:00pm
Technorati and Ingboo have partnered together to provide an all new kind of subscription experience for Technorati content, including tagged posts. Look for a blue Ingboo icon for a full range of subscription options.
Feeds a...
Tags: body build muscle, build muscle up, exercise build muscle, muscle weight gain
