Can push ups make your chest look strong and nicely shaped? Yes, they can! But, there’s a little trick – not all push ups work the same way. Changing how you do them and doing them the right way is the key to making your chest look great. If you do push ups really well, they can be more than just a usual exercise; they can be your chest’s best friend. But, venture without proper guidance, and you might just find your shoulders and triceps stealing the spotlight. Here is how to grow your chest with push ups.
What you will learn in this article:
Fix this to grow your chest with push ups
If you can’t feel your chest when doing push ups or got problems to build your chest in the first place, try these 2 quick fixes.
Increase the range of motion
Instead of mainly pushing from your elbows and letting the triceps do most of the work, move your shoulders all the way back to increase the range of motion and with that stimulate your pecs much better. Moving your shoulders back and retracting your shoulder blades not only results in a nice chest stretch at the bottom, but also protects your shoulders. All these points can work with a close, a medium or a wide grip. The only thing we don’t recommend is a very wide grip because it increases the stress for your shoulders and even decreases the muscle activity for your chest.
Additional Tip: To get a bit deeper than on the ground you can use Push Up Handles, Rings or Parallettes but don’t overdo it. Too deep is more risky for unprepared joints, tendons and muscles and also offers no additional benefits for your chest.
Do Ring Push Ups with an additional adduction
Talking about Rings: The second tip is to do Ring Push Ups with an additional adduction. Crossing your arms at the top gives your chest a full contraction and is best done on rings because your hands can move freely and are not fixed like in a regular push up. To increase the resistance for the adduction a bit more you place the straps wider apart. Because of the higher resistance for the adduction you now might not be able to cross your arms anymore.
If Ring Push Ups are too hard to start with, do them on your knees or try different progressions of Incline Ring Push Ups. To train all muscles in a balanced way you should join our Calisthenics Online Courses on calimove.com. Every Program comes as a step by step guide you can follow easily. Just pick the right program for your level and your goals and you’re right to start.
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