I’m horrible at benching and would like to add some pushups into my routine to help me progress a bit quicker.
Don’t distort an exercise trying to ‘target’ some specific part. You can do dips with somewhat different style (depending on how much you incline forward), but DON’T contort yourself. That’s a recipe for shoulder injury.
You can bench to improve your pushups, or do pushups to improve your bench.
@Charlie
This is a BWF forum, so generally we don’t suggest benching.
Presley said:
@Charlie
This is a BWF forum, so generally we don’t suggest benching.
Thing is he’s asking for chest size help, and bench and weighted exercises are the quickest route there.
@Avery
Absolutely, that goes for any muscle group. People are generally here bc they don’t have access to weights among other reasons.
Presley said:
@Avery
Absolutely, that goes for any muscle group. People are generally here bc they don’t have access to weights among other reasons.
Oh that’s interesting. I always assumed this sub was full of people that just really enjoyed calisthenics.
@Avery
Well, with all those downvotes, maybe I’m wrong!
Presley said:
@Avery
Well, with all those downvotes, maybe I’m wrong!
I think helping is first and bodyweight exercises are second. Like even with bodybuilding for the most part you don’t even target muscles by doing different angles and stuff it’s pretty close to a myth.
Chest size does increase with band pulls and Oldtime strongman stuff like that. That’s about it.
Presley said:
@Avery
Well, with all those downvotes, maybe I’m wrong!
This is from the sidebar:
> Bodyweightfitness is for redditors who like to use their own body to train, from the simple pullups, pushups, and squats to the advanced bodyweight movements like the planche, one arm chin-ups, or single leg squats.
> We do not frown on weights or barbells as another tool for training.
@Avery
Actually, it’s a mix of both.
Avery said:
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More effective for me as regards push-up progression was: normal push-up → feet elevated normal push-up → archer push-ups → diamond push-ups → diamond push-ups with hand moving slowly out to the side until you eventually are just using one arm.
Avery said:
@Dru
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Cool. GTG is great.
Avery said:
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With exercises that only work one side at a time and you have to alternate left/right, like an archer push-up, do you wait the usual 60-90 seconds between doing a set on the right side and then switch to the left? Or just pump out a set for the right and left side back to back with little or no wait time?
I’ve done push-ups the “normal” way for years and got good results but then I found a video on here of Antranik showing “proper” push-ups and I can definitely say the proper push-ups have helped give me a small but impressive gorilla chest.
EDIT: Sorry I was lazy, here is the link for gorilla chest push-ups
These proper push-ups felt stranger and definitely harder than my “normal” push-ups. I really felt the forward lean, sexy,
EDIT2: My arms burned out quickly but keep doing them, the burn will reach your chest. Then add horse hair to your upper body and beat it like the true king of the jungle.
@Dez
Lmao gorilla chest and horse hair.
@Dez
I already do most of that, but I didn’t know that you’re supposed to keep the forearm more or less vertical, instead of just lowering the shoulders. He didn’t offer an explanation as to why this is, though. It’s a lot harder to do them like that, but he didn’t explain why simply lowering the chest to the floor is bad.
@Sullivan
Maybe not the only reason, but a big part at least.
You keep the arms vertical because you place unnecessary stress on your joints if you allow your elbows to flare out. You can injure yourself. It also becomes triceps dominant very quickly the more the elbows go away from straight above the hands.
@Remy
>You keep the arms vertical because you place unnecessary stress on your joints if you allow your elbows to flare out. You can injure yourself.
Keeping your elbows close to your body is what keeps them from flaring out.
>It also becomes triceps dominant very quickly the more the elbows go away from straight above the hands.
But the technique in the video puts the elbows as directly over the hands as possible. What makes push-ups triceps heavy is keeping your elbows close to your body.
What I’m wondering is why the forearms should be kept as vertical as possible. It’s much harder than simply lowering your shoulders to your hands, so I’m just wondering if that’s a good thing or a bad thing (harder isn’t necessarily better).
@Sullivan
>It also becomes triceps dominant very quickly the more the elbows go away from straight above the hands.
This was your answer.
Moving your elbows to the side, flaring, is bad because it puts stress on your shoulder. I believe there’s a muscle/tendon that rubs your collar bone past 30-45 degrees.
Letting your elbow move down over your hand I think is not outright bad for you, but puts more emphasis on your triceps. Look up impossible push-ups. You lower your elbow to the ground for those, and it works the triceps hard.
@Blaine
Ah, so both my answers were the same thing. I didn’t make that connection. I thought it was more about the angles you are pushing from than the muscle involved. Makes perfect sense though.