Video Pushup Variations

Here is a new video i made about pushup variations.
Hope you enjoy it


Pushup Variations

There are many different variations of pushups, these include scooping, narrow, wide, triangle, decline, incline, reverse, Medicine Ball, Swiss Ball, Clapping and Box.
This report is just going to give a brief description of how to do each of these pushups and what the benefits are.

Scooping
Scooping pushups are harder than normal pushups because they are more full body and concentrate more on the smaller muscles of the tricep rather than the big chest muscles.
The only bad thing is Scooping pushups attract a lot of weird looks and comments in the gym but they really are a great exercise.

Narrow
I classify anything ‘narrow’ as anything closer than shoulder width. Narrow pushups really nullify the use of the front deltoid and chest muscles and really focus on the Tricep muscles throughout most of the movement.
Great for building up the Triceps.

Wide
Wide pushups are the opposite of narrow pushups. They are performed with a wider than shoulder width hand position and really nullify the tricep involvement and concentrate more on the chest and shoulder part of the movement.
I believe that wide pushups are a waste of time and if you want to build chest and shoulders just do normal pushups.

Triangle
Simply put you hands next to each other and make a Triangle with your thumbs and index fingers. Once you have done this start your pushups. This exercise is taking the Narrow pushups to the extreme.
You might find when doing this exercise tat due to your hands being so narrow a lot of pressure is put onto your wrists and elbows and may result in sore elbows for a couple of days.
Great for tricep building but due to the amount of stress placed on the elbows I don’t recommend this type of Pushup.



Decline
Decline pushups are done when your feet are elevated on an object and you are doing your pushups. This exercise is great if you want to add some extra weight to your pushup because when doing a Decline pushup you arms are pressing more weight.

Incline
Incline pushups are simply the opposite of Decline pushups. Instead of your feet on something you put your feet on the ground and hands on an object that’s higher than your feet.
When completing an Incline pushup due to your weight being in your feet you are lifting less weight than normal pushups.

Reverse
Reverse pushups are a ridiculous variation to a pushup and have no benefit to them that a normal pushup doesn’t.
To do a reverse pushup you put your hands by your sides but instead of having your fingers pointing forward (like every other variation) with a reverse pushup your fingers face your toes.
To put yourself in this position already requires a significant amount of flexibility in the wrists and forearms and I advise you to give these pushups a go but don’t do them regularly or you will injure the ligaments in your wrists.

Medicine ball
Medicine ball pushups are a fantastic excise designed to not s much build up your muscles but to also work your upper body co-ordination.
To complete MB pushups one hand starts on top of the ball and one on the floor. Complete a pushup and then quickly swap to do a pushup on the other side of the ball. To do this you must at some stage quickly change hands atop the MB. This is where co-ordination comes in.
To make this exercise harder us a smaller ball, to make it easy use a bigger ball.

Swiss Ball
Swiss ball pushups are a fantastic exercise that requires strength and control. You simply put your feet on the floor and your hands on a Swiss ball and then complete a pushup. Due to the instability in the ball your muscles must contract and adjust very fast resulting in many trainers shaking very badly every rep.



Clapping
The famous ‘clapping pushup.’ As you perform an explosive pushup (getting airborne) clap before your hands touch the ground and begin then next rep.
This exercise is fantastic for upper body power, explosiveness and co-ordination. Some people can even get so high after their pushup that they can clap behind their back before the next repetition.

Box
Get 2 boxes of equal size and put them under each hand. Situate your body in between each box so that when you go down your body goes lower than it would with a normal pushup increasing the range of movement of the exercise.


Good luck doing pushups as they are a great form of strength especially to the younger generations who are a bit too young to start weight training.
Pushups are a great exercise and can be done anywhere so if you are away on travel and cant get to the gym start pushing out some pushups and you will have a great workout.

Matt D’Aquino
10/10/2007