In fact, studies show that a higher baseline push-up capacity is associated with lower incidence of cardiovascular disease events. (1) Plus, perfecting your technique and expanding your push-up repertoire can put you in a more advantageous position to crush compound lifts like the bench press and overhead press.

While it may seem like second nature to drop to the ground and start pumping out reps like you did in middle school gym class, the first step to maximizing your strength- and muscle-building efforts is to make sure you understand the biomechanics of the good ole’ push-up. Once you’ve really mastered the basics, you can level-up your training by swapping out the standard form of this time-tested exercise with unique push-up variations that target specific muscles more directly.

What Muscles Do Push-Ups Work?

• Push-Up Technique
• Muscle Recruitment
• How to Target Specific Muscles
• Push-Up Variations

How to Perfect Your Push-Up Technique

Luckily, the push-up is far less complicated than something like the clean & jerk. Still, it’s critical to perform any exercise with the correct technique for safety and efficiency — and it’s not different in this case.

Because push-ups can place quite a bit of stress on your wrists, being aware about the alignment of your hands can go a long way in staying pain- and injury-free. In addition, knowing how to position your elbows can make a major difference in completing a clean rep or setting the stage for potential shoulder problems.

If you want to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck, here’s what you need to do to perform the perfect push-up.

1. Start in a “high plank” position with your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and your elbows just slightly bent. Maintain straight legs without dipping your hips toward the ground or hiking them upward.
2. Engage your core by pulling your belly button toward your spine.
3. Slowly lower yourself to the floor, making sure to keep your elbows tucked close to your sides as your arms bend toward a 90-degree angle.
4. Once you reach the bottom of the movement, contract your chest and triceps muscles and push back through your hands until you reach the starting position.

Muscles Worked During a Push-Up 

Although many people look at the push-up as solely an upper body exercise, it’s actually a closed kinetic chain movement that involves multiple muscle groups from head-to-toe. Of course, since push-ups primarily involve the pectorals (major and minor) and triceps, it’s easy to see why they’re a popular choice for chest and arm day programming.

Yet when you consider the full scope of what the movement entails, you could make the argument that a push-up is truly a full-body exercise. After all, not only do you need to utilize your pecs, triceps, and shoulders, but you also have to recruit your abdominal, lower back, and leg muscles to perform a proper rep.

Here’s a breakdown of how and when the primary and secondary muscles are recruited during a push-up.

Pectoralis Major 

The largest of the chest muscles, your pectoralis major is a thick, fan-shaped muscle that acts as the agonist (primary mover) during a push-up. It consists of two heads: the clavicular (which originates from the front surface of your clavicles) and the sternocostal (which originates from your sternum and upper ribs).

The pec major lengthens and stretches as you lower yourself down during the eccentric phase of a push-up and it contracts as you push back up to the starting position.

Pectoralis Minor 

Located under the pec major, the pectoralis minor is a small, triangular muscle that originates from the third to fifth ribs and inserts into your scapulae (shoulder blades). Although it pales in comparison to the size of its larger cousin, it still plays a critical role.

As you perform a push-up, the pec minor keeps your scapulae in position. However, tightness in this muscle, or having relatively weak rotator cuff or scapular stabilizers, can lead to discomfort and imbalances. This makes upper body mobility work particularly important.

Triceps 

Besides the pec major, no muscle benefits more from the push-up than your triceps brachii. Located on the back of your upper arm, this three-headed monster includes the medial, lateral, and long heads — each of which has a unique origination point.

During the initial phase of a push-up, the triceps helps stabilize your torso. Then, once the muscle is under tension, it takes over as the agonist when you extend your arms to lockout the top of the movement.

Anterior Deltoids 

Similar to the triceps, the deltoids are comprised of three heads (anterior, lateral, and posterior). These large, triangular muscles are located on top of your shoulder joints, with the anterior head playing the most active role during a push-up. Besides assisting with shoulder stability during the eccentric phase, your front delts also help bring your arms inward towards your chest during the concentric portion of a push-up.

Core

Your core will receive a wake-up call when you perform a push-up, too. Comprised of five main muscles — the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, internal and external obliques, and the relatively small pyramidalis — your abdominals work synergistically with your erector spinae to keep your torso straight throughout the movement.

Failing to keep your core engaged from start to finish can affect your total-body position and alignment. Ultimately, poor core control may put you in a compromising position that could cause problems, or even pain, down the line.

How to Target Particular Muscles During a Push-Up 

The basic push-up does a solid job of recruiting several muscle groups, namely your chest and triceps, and even upper back for stability. However, you don’t always have to subscribe to the standard form, especially if you have specific muscle-building goals in mind.

Prioritize Your Triceps

To focus on building your arms, all you need to do is change your hand placement, as studies show that a narrow-width push-up provides more triceps activation. (2) The closer you put them together, the more you will shift the focus away from your pecs and toward your triceps.

While a close-grip push-up will certainly get the job done, you can make this triceps-centric exercise even more challenging by forming a diamond shape with your hands. Place your index fingers and thumbs so they touch, engage your core, and carefully lower yourself to the floor. Your triceps may detest you at the top of a diamond push-up, but they’ll thank you later for giving them direct attention with however many reps you get through.

Target Your Upper Chest

To emphasize your upper chest, steal a page from the traditional weight training playbook and press at an incline instead of a flat angle. To make this adjustment during a push-up, you must elevate your feet.

Although it may seem counterintuitive on the surface, doing a decline push-up — so named because your body is technically “declined” with your head lower than your feet — provides a stronger stimulus for the upper part of your pectoralis major than the standard version.

You can use a weight bench, plyo box, yoga blocks, or even stairs to turn an ordinary push-up into something that’ll help you develop more thickness at the top of your chest and let you fill out your t-shirts just a little bit better.

Activate Your Lower Chest

If you’re looking to build more muscle on your lower chest, take the exact opposite approach from targeting the upper portion. Rather than raising your lower body to stimulate your upper chest, place your hands on a step, platform, bench, or other apparatus to perform an incline push-up.

Changing your leverage and pressing angle in this manner will let your lower chest take on a more active role despite the more limited range of motion.

Push-Up Variations for Building Strength, Muscle, and Power

While the targeted variations outlined above are a solid start, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Whether you’re an athlete looking to increase your power or a home gym enthusiast who wants to incorporate dumbbells into a push-up, there’s a wide range of push-up variations that’ll serve your needs.

Here are three favorites that you should consider adding into your training regimen.

Plyometric Push-Up

An advanced variation tailor-made for athletes, the plyometric push-up (more commonly referred to as the plyo push-up) adds an explosive element by recruiting fast-twitch muscle fibers. Not only does it strengthen your chest, core, triceps, and shoulders, but it also can help improve your conditioning when performed as part of a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout.

How to do it:

1. Start in a high plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders.
2. Brace your core and lower yourself down until your elbows are at a 90-degree angle.
3. Engage your chest and triceps to push upward with sufficient force so that your hands actually leave the floor. (Optional: Clap your hands together at the top.)
4. Land lightly on the ground in the same starting position, then perform the next rep immediately.

Renegade Row Push-Up

You can kill two birds (aka your chest and back) with a combo move that incorporates dumbbells into the ultimate push-pull exercise. The renegade row push-up is by no means easy, but it’s an effective example of how to superset exercises for better efficiency and results. Essentially, you’ll be working your pecs, triceps, lats, rhomboids, and core, all while working to maintain stability and balance during this dynamic movement.

One note on this variation: The closer your feet are to each each, the harder it will be on your core. A wider stance will offer better stability and reduce the core-training challenge.

How to do it:

1. Place a pair of dumbbells on the ground about shoulder-width apart.
2. Place one hand on each dumbbell with your palms facing in, so the weights are parallel to each other.
3. Set up in a high plank position with your feet shoulder-width apart to start.
4. Lower yourself down until your elbows reach a 90-degree angle.
5. As you push back up, keep your body in a straight line and, at the top of the push-up, perform a dumbbell row by pulling the dumbbell up toward your ribs on one side.
6. Lower the dumbbell back down and perform another push-up, followed by a row with the opposite arm. Repeat in alternating fashion.

Spiderman Push-Up

Demanding, dynamic, and definitely not meant for beginners, the Spiderman push-up is a great way to get your core and lower body involved. This variation will wake up your obliques, rectus abdominis, hip flexors, and quadriceps while still providing more than enough of a challenge for your chest, triceps, and shoulders. Ultimately, your mobility and flexibility will be tested just as much as your strength and endurance.

How to do it:

1. Start in a high plank position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-distance apart.
2. Brace your core and carefully lower yourself toward the floor, keeping your elbows at a 45-degree angle from your body.
3. During the lowering phase, pick up your right foot and draw your right knee “up and out” so it approaches your elbow at the same time your chest is a few inches from the floor.
4. As you extend your elbows to press up, extend your leg backward and return your right foot to the starting position.
5. Repeat on the opposite side.

Get Creative to Get More Out of Push-Ups

Stop limiting yourself by solely sticking to the standard version. From narrowing your hand width to elevating your lower half to adding resistance, you can quickly transform the basic push-up into an exercise that’s far more dynamic, difficult, and deliberate in its purpose. Challenge yourself to try a new variation on a weekly basis, take note of any roadblocks, and keep expanding your arsenal so you can increase your strength, confidence, and coordination every time your chest hits the floor.

References

1. Yang, J., Christophi, C. A., Farioli, A., Baur, D. M., Moffatt, S., Zollinger, T. W., & Kales, S. N. (2019). Association between push-up exercise capacity and future cardiovascular events among active adult men. JAMA Network Open, 2(2), e188341. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.8341
2. Marcolin, G., Petrone, N., Moro, T., Battaglia, G., Bianco, A., & Paoli, A. (2015). Selective activation of shoulder, trunk, and arm muscles: A comparative analysis of different Push-Up variants. Journal of Athletic Training, 50(11), 1126–1132. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-50.9.09

Featured Image: ESB Basic / Shutterstock

The post What Muscles Do Push-Ups Work? Get More Out of This Timeless Exercise appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Whether it’s performing crunches before breakfast or sit-ups before bed, some people make consistent ab training a priority. Some even take it a step further and use progressively more challenging exercises, which is where the bicycle crunch often appears.

By combining a rotational upper body movement with lower body coordination, the bicycle crunch can effectively train your abdominals and oblique muscles in unison. This makes it an effective muscle-builder while also creating athletic core strength that can carry over to performance on the field, in the ring, or on the lifting platform. Here’s how to get the most out of this complete core-builder.

Bicycle Crunch

• How to Do the Bicycle Crunch
• Bicycle Crunch Mistakes to Avoid
• How to Progress the Bicycle Crunch
• Benefits of the Bicycle Crunch
• Muscles Worked by the Bicycle Crunch
• How to Program the Bicycle Crunch
• Bicycle Crunch Variations 
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Bicycle Crunch Step By Step

The bicycle crunch may look like it requires “pat your head and rub your stomach”-levels of total-body coordination, but it doesn’t. Break the exercise into its component parts and you can learn the technique.

Step 1 — Lie on the Ground

Lie face up on the ground with your legs bent at roughly 90-degrees. Your feet should be in the air with your toes pointed up. Rest your head on the ground and bring your hands to your ears. Let your fingertips barely touch your head behind your ears with your palms facing the ceiling.

This is a familiar setup for many ground-based ab exercises whether it’s a full sit-up, crunch, or any related variation. Some exercises would have your feet planted flat on the ground, but the bicycle crunch requires your legs to begin in the air.

Form Tip: Don’t interlock your fingers and cradle the back of your head. This would put you in position to unconsciously crank your neck to complete repetitions. Your fingers should lightly touch the sides of your head or your ears.

Step 2 — Pedal the Bike

The bicycle crunch gets its descriptive name from the lower body action that appears similar to riding a bike. Contract your core muscles to raise both shoulders slightly off the ground. As your torso comes up, bring your left leg up and in toward your upper body.

At the same time, “crunch” your upper body forward and lean your right side toward the approaching leg. The range of motion will be relatively short, so focus on bringing the opposite sides together.

Don’t overfocus on reaching your elbow to your knee. That can lead to flapping your arms with reduced core activation. Instead, think about bringing one shoulder toward the opposite knee even though they don’t need to actually touch at the top of the movement.

Form Tip: Visualize an X-shaped band across the front of your body. As you move, think about each line drawing one leg and the opposite shoulder closer together.

Step 3 — Repeat the Rhythm

After a strong contraction at the top, extend your left leg forward while lowering your upper body to the floor. When your shoulders are on the ground and your leg is returned to the starting position, smoothly transition to repeat the movement with the other side.

Draw your right leg toward your torso while crunching your upper body forward and leaning the left side of your body into the approaching leg. As you complete multiple repetitions, alternating sides with each rep, you may eventually find a natural rhythm not unlike the rhythm needed to pedal a bike smoothly.

Form Tip: Perform each repetition slowly at first. Focus on the cross-body activation and core recruitment. As you become more comfortable with the movement, gradually increase the speed without sacrificing the quality of individual reps.

Bicycle Crunch Mistakes to Avoid

Because the bicycle crunch involves your legs and torso working together, there are several opportunities for things to go wrong. Here are some big issues to watch out for.

Elbows Flapping

Some people misinterpret the cross-body action of bringing their legs and upper body together, and end up swinging their upper arms and elbows toward their knee instead of activating their abdominals.

This not only reduces the work done by your abs, but it may potentially strain your shoulders or neck. Keep the movement strict, maintain focus on feeling your abdominals working to crate the movement, and don’t make it a priority to force your elbow and knee to touch in the middle of your body.

Avoid it: Keep your hands very lightly against your head, which will make any shoulder or elbow movement more noticeable. As you crunch, keep your elbows “back” nearly in line with your ears. Don’t allow them to point forward.

Shoulders Stay in the Air

One bad habit some people develop when performing high-rep sets of bicycle crunches is holding an ab contraction, remaining in the top of a crunch position, while “pedaling” their legs and explosively rotating their shoulders back and forth.

While this may potentially increase some work for your oblique muscles, you’re short-changing your abdominals because you’re holding a static contraction instead of working through a range of motion.

Avoid it: Treat each phase of the movement as separate parts — crunch and twist in one direction, lower fully, crunch and twist to the opposite side, lower fully again, repeat. Don’t try to rush through the set by completing reps as quickly as possible.

Not Enough Leg Movement

The bicycle crunch requires you to drive one leg up with each repetition. Performing the upper body movement without also “operating” your lower body changes the exercise. Instead of a bicycle crunch, it becomes a relatively more basic twisting crunch.

This can be an effective exercise on its own merit, but it doesn’t offer the same lower ab and hip flexor recruitment of the bicycle crunch. (1) If you begin a set intending to get the benefits of the bicycle crunch, make sure that’s the movement you end up performing.

Avoid it: If your legs aren’t moving, you’re not performing a bicycle crunch. With each repetition, draw your leg in toward your upper body and extend it as the opposite side moves.

How to Progress the Bicycle Crunch

Even though it’s a bodyweight exercise, the bicycle crunch can be considered relatively advanced because you’re operating your upper and lower body together. Work up to the full movement by mastering these foundational movements.

Crunch

Arguably the most fundamental ab exercise of all time, the basic floor crunch is an essential movement to be familiar with. The crunch offers lower body stability, with your feet firmly on the ground. The movement also lets you zone-in on creating a strong abdominal contraction over a short range of motion.

Be sure not to turn the crunch into a full sit-up by raising your torso too high. The sit-up can also be an effective exercise but it won’t carry over as directly when building to a bicycle crunch.

Twisting Crunch

As mentioned earlier, failing to properly incorporate your legs into the exercise turns the bicycle crunch into a twisting crunch. However, you can flip that situation around by deliberately performing the twisting crunch as a way to build up core strength for the more advanced bicycle crunch.

By learning how to crunch “up and over,” you’re recruiting your obliques and abdominals into a single movement. When you become comfortable and capable with the twisting crunch, add the alternating leg movement to evolve the exercise into the bicycle crunch.

Benefits of the Bicycle Crunch

The bicycle crunch recruits your entire core by involving your upper body and lower body with rotational movement. This makes it a versatile and effective exercise for many fundamental goals.

Core Strength

Athletes in traditional sports, strength sports athletes, and recreational lifters can all benefit from a stronger core. Core strength has also been shown to help reduce lower back pain. (2)

The bicycle crunch can be an efficient addition to a comprehensive core-strengthening routine. The exercise works upper and lower body coordination and strength transfer, while also activating the obliques, which can play a major role in many athletic movements from running to throwing.

Ab Muscle Development

The upper abdominals are recruited in many ab exercises, but the lower abs are only heavily activated when the hips and lower body are involved in a given movement. The bicycle crunch achieves this increased muscle activation through repetitive leg movement.

The twisting motion of the torso also activates the oblique muscles, which are strongly recruited during rotational movements. Because it maximizes activation of several different ab muscles, the bicycle crunch is a very comprehensive bodyweight ab exercise.

Muscles Worked by the Bicycle Crunch

Most ab exercises, as expected, train your abs. The bicycle crunch kicks it up a notch by involving rotational movement which also recruits the obliques on the sides of your abs.

Abdominals

Your abdominals, or rectus abdominis, run along the front of your torso from the bottom of your chest to your hips. The abdominals are technically one single muscle with various muscle insertions, which means the muscle needs to be trained with a variety of movements for complete development. (3)

Essentially, movements focused on curling the trunk with a stable lower body will emphasize the “upper” portion of the abs while movements that emphasize curling the hips with a stable upper body, such as a reverse crunch, are more effective at recruiting the “lower” section of the muscle.

Obliques

The obliques are a pair of muscles on either side of your abdominals, near your hips. Your obliques primarily work to rotate your torso, as well as resist rotation. The oblique muscles are also activated side side flexion — bringing your shoulder closer to your hip in a sideways motion.

During the bicycle crunch, your obliques are strongly recruited as your torso twists in the direction of your approaching leg. So-called “love handles” are typically body fat that your genetics have decided to store near your oblique muscles. Contrary to popular myth, training your oblique muscles will not create love handles.

How to Program the Bicycle Crunch

As an efficient ab exercise, the bicycle crunch can find a home in any well-planned ab workout. Here are a few guidelines to get even more benefit.

Unweighted, Moderate to High Repetition

The nature of the bicycle crunch movement doesn’t lend itself to adding external resistance. Wearing a weighted vest can impede torso rotation and adding leg weights will excessively fatigue your smaller hip flexor muscles before targeting your ab muscles.

To get the most out of the exercise, use only your body weight as resistance and focus on achieving a strong muscular contraction with each repetition. Try completing two to four sets of 10 to 20 repetitions. Count once to each side as a side rep — left leg to right shoulder followed by right leg to left shoulder would be one single repetition, not two.

Bodyweight Circuit

Because the only “equipment” required to do the bicycle crunch is a clear section of floor, the exercise makes an efficient addition to a bodyweight exercise circuit (technically a workout complex, if all the exercises are bodyweight-only). For a quick and effective conditioning workout, try the following for three to five total circuits.

• Reverse Lunge — 10 reps per leg
• Push-up — 15 reps
• Bicycle crunch — 20 reps

Bicycle Crunch Variations

Whether you’ve mastered the bicycle crunch or need another complete core-building exercise to complement it, here are some of the most similar movements.

Hanging Scissor Kick

The scissor kick is a hanging leg raise variation. It involves dynamic action, alternating your legs with each repetition. Even though your upper body isn’t actively involved in performing a crunch, you can still benefit from a cross-body movement — especially if you “angle” your kick slightly toward your opposite shoulder.

Don’t let your grip strength limit performance. If necessary, use lifting straps to secure yourself to the overhead bar. The exercise can also be done with your elbows supported at a “Captain’s chair” knee raise station.

Cable Woodchop

The cable woodchop, specifically the high-to-low variation, strongly recruits your obliques with stabilization assistance from your abdominals. Your lower body provides a stable base, while pivoting on your feet creates a strong transfer of power for greater athletic carryover.

The low-to-high woodchop variation could be used for variety, but may excessively recruit your shoulder muscles. The low-to-high movement also requires less ab and oblique involvement in exchange for more lower and upper back activation.

Dead Bug

The dead bug may have one of the most visually descriptive exercise names of all time, but it’s also an underrated movement for core strength. It appears similar to be a “slow motion bicycle crunch” due to the cross-body movement and arm/leg coordination.

One key to getting the most from the dead bug is to keep your lower back flat on the ground. If your lower back arches, you significantly reduce the core strength benefits. To stay focused on your lower back position, be sure to move slowly and deliberately, unlike the often more fast-paced bicycle crunch.

FAQs

References

1. Sarti, M. A., Monfort, M., Fuster, M. A., & Villaplana, L. A. (1996). Muscle activity in upper and lower rectus abdominus during abdominal exercises. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 77(12), 1293–1297. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0003-9993(96)90195-1
2. Smrcina, Z., Woelfel, S., & Burcal, C. (2022). A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Core Stability Exercises in Patients with Non-Specific Low Back Pain. International journal of sports physical therapy, 17(5), 766–774. https://doi.org/10.26603/001c.37251
3. Escamilla, R. F., Lewis, C., Bell, D., Bramblet, G., Daffron, J., Lambert, S., Pecson, A., Imamura, R., Paulos, L., & Andrews, J. R. (2010). Core muscle activation during Swiss ball and traditional abdominal exercises. The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy, 40(5), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2010.3073

Featured Image: Ground Picture / Shutterstock

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Whether you should focus on pulldowns or pull-ups can depend on a few factors, including your experience and your goals. From technique, programming, and step-by-step execution, here is everything you need to know about these foundational back-building exercises.

Lat Pulldown and Pull-Up

• Exercise Differences
• Exercise  Similarities
• Technique Differences
• How to Do the Lat Pulldown
• How to Do the Pull-Up
• When to Program the Best Pulling Movement for Your Goal

Exercise Differences

Recognising the differences between the lat pulldown and the pull-up can put you on the fast track for better results. Some key differences involve the equipment used, or lack thereof. Some relatively subtle, but significant, differences in programming can also be found.

Human Body vs. Machine

The major visual difference between the lat pulldown and pull-up is the fact that one is a bodyweight exercise and the other requires a full cable station. This brings with it two major considerations.

The lat pulldown uses a specialized cable stack pulley system to anchor your body in place while you move an adjustable weight stack, whereas the pull-up simply requires a fixed overhead bar that can support your body weight.

This can affect the relative ease of implementing each exercise into your program based upon availability of equipment, as well as your own capabilities — body weight pull-ups may be too challenging for beginners, while pulldowns can accommodate lifters of any experience or strength level.

As a calisthenics exercise, the pull-up places a greater stabilization challenge on your entire body, from your back and shoulders through your core to your lower body. The stable machine and fixed anchor points provided by the pads on a lat pulldown machine make it tremendously easier to take a seat and get to work. The machine itself provides stabilization, so you can focus targeting your back muscles.

Loading

One of the largest differences between the lat pulldown and pull-up is the range of resistance you can use. The lat pulldown is a highly adjustable machine that simply requires you to add more plates or lower the pin on the weight stack further and further — sometimes exceeding a comparable pull-up load.

The lat pulldown is more scalable than a pull-up — the resistance can be quickly and easily reduced to allow relatively weaker lifters to perform the exercise. Aside from getting creative using resistance bands to assist a pull-up or having access to a dedicated assisted pull-up machine, it can be quite challenging to overcome the baseline level (your body weight) needed to perform a pull-up. This is especially true if you want to perform multiple repetitions per set.

Sets and Repetitions

Similar to the differences in loading, the lat pulldown and pull-up are often paired with distinct set and repetition schemes. For many people, the pull-up is an upper body strength movement that lives in a lower repetition range. Whereas, the lat pulldown typically exists as an effective muscle-building tool that thrives with more moderate repetitions.

You’ll often see pull-ups performed for two to three sets of anywhere from one to 10 repetitions. While the pulldown could be performed with much heavier weights for low-rep sets, it’s nearly impossible to maintain strict form with such programming due to poor leverage. Having your lower body and core locked into position becomes a limiting factor.

In contrast, a lat pulldown is typically done for two to four sets of eight to 12 repetitions. Reaching that type of volume with pull-ups is typically reserved for experienced lifters of a significant strength level, either performed with added weight or with body weight alone.

Exercise Similarities

While there can be several key differences, the lat pulldown and pull-up do share some significant overlaps to consider, as well. They will hit many of the same primary muscle groups, both require some degree of overhead mobility, and the exercises share many basic variations.

Muscles Worked

The lat pulldown and pull-up primarily target your latissimus dorsi — a large swath of muscle located on either lateral side of your back. While the latissimus dorsi (lats) are the prime mover, both exercises will also heavily involve your upper back, biceps, and varying degrees of core musculature to stay in an efficient pulling position.

Mobility Requirements

The vertical pulling pattern used in both exercises requires you to be able to successfully, comfortably, and safely get your arms fully extended overhead. While that may sound simple enough, shoulder mobility and joint health is a very important component of avoiding training-related aches or pains in the long-term.

If you can achieve the overhead position effectively, both the lat pulldown and pull-up can be effective at maintaining your overhead mobility, especially when you focus on working through a full range of motion in the stretched (overhead) position.

Grip Variations

When it’s time to introduce exercise variety, the lat pulldown and pull-up can both allow narrow or wide hand positions, which can alter the muscle emphasis from your lats to your upper back or even your biceps. (1)

Both exercises can also be performed using unique grip orientations, from neutral-grip to overhand or even freely rotating (using individual handles or straps to allow your wrists to rotate during each repetition). Like grip width, changing the orientation of your hands and forearms is an effective way of altering muscle recruitment by making slight adjustments. (2)

Technique Differences

The lat pulldown and pull-up have some definitive technique differences. Because one is a calisthenics exercise and the other is performed while seated on a machine, your overall body position will affect exercise technique.

Hollow Body

The hollow body is a full-body bracing technique that helps to create a rigid body posture. The high level of total body tension it creates allows you to better control your movement through space. This technique is especially important during the pull-up, where you will be freely moving without any anchor points aside from your grip.

In order to successfully perform a pull-up, establishing a strong hollow body technique is essential to maintain stability. The lat pulldown, on the other hand, provides this stability on your behalf by offering leg pads to hold you in place.

Torso Angle

Your torso angle during each repetition is a major difference between the pull-up and lat pulldown. Because your lower body is secured under the knee pads, the lat pulldown allows you to manipulate your torso angle to target subtly different muscles. A greater degree of backward lean could emphasize more of your upper back, whereas a more vertical torso angle puts your upper back into a less advantageous position and emphasizes lat activation.

On the other hand, fairly consistent technique and upper body position is required for a proper pull-up. From a dead-hang position (gripping the bar with your arms fully straightened), you must set your shoulder blades by first “shrugging” yourself up. In doing so, you will be able to better leverage your latissimus dorsi to complete the rep and actually pull you up.

When you get this technical cue right, you will have a slightly backward-leaning torso angle while performing each repetition, but nowhere near the freedom of motion provided by the lat pulldown machine.

Lower Body Position

Your lower body positioning will certainly be a notable difference in each exercise. Similar to the stability requirements during the hollow body technique in the pull-up, your leg position will be affected by the need to stay rigid. Fully lock your legs out, leaving them either hanging straight down or angled slightly ahead of your body. You cannot achieve a strong, stable hollow body position with bent legs.

With a lat pulldown, you will be in a completely seated position with your feet flat on the ground driving your knees up against the pad. While some lifters disregard the knee pad and let their heels leave the ground during pulldowns, this poor form doesn’t add any benefit and only reduces your stability and upper body pulling power.

How to Do the Lat Pulldown

Sit on the lat pulldown machine and adjust the knee pads to snuggly anchor your legs in place with your feet flat on the ground. Stand back up and grab the lat pulldown bar evenly, about shoulder-width apart, with an overhand grip.

Brace your full body and sit down, securing your legs under the knee pads. Squeeze the bar tight, brace your core, drive your legs into the knee pads by performing a static calf raise.

Lean back slightly and pull the bar toward your chest. Focus on feeling your back squeeze in the bottom position before straightening your arms to return to the starting position.

Form Tip: Be diligent to avoid momentum. Secure your body in the machine and brace hard – only move the bar by squeezing your back and pulling with your arms. Do not excessively sway your torso backwards. 

Benefits of the Lat Pulldown

• The lat pulldown has a high degree of stability, making it a more effective way to focus on the back muscles.
• The pulldown machine offers highly scalable loading, making it easy to perform for lifters of all experience levels.
• Multiple handle attachments allow many variations for different benefits.
• It’s relatively safe to take this exercise close to muscle failure.

Lat Pulldown Variations

The majority of effective lat pulldown variations will capitalize on different handle attachments to slightly change your technique and alter muscle recruitment.

Close-Grip Pulldown

Close-grip pulldowns draw your hands slightly closer together than the standard, shoulder-width grip. This increases the amount of leverage your lats have and slightly increases the range of motion — both of which can lead to a stronger training stimulus.

The close-grip pulldown can make the exercise more effective when you’re just learning general technique by delivering a strong training stimulus without needing heavy weight.

Wide-Grip Pulldown

Wide-grip lat pulldowns place your hands slightly farther apart than the standard issue grip placement. This will put your lats at a greater disadvantage, making some of the supporting musculature in your upper back, shoulders, and arms contribute more. This will also reduce the load you’ll be able to lift.

This is a great exercise to fill gaps in your physique or in your strength development. By strengthening relatively weaker links, wide-grip pulldowns can also prolong the amount of time you can make progress before adding weight.

Dead-Hang Pulldown

The dead-hang style of lat pulldown will have you fully “relax” your shoulder blades and assume a completely upright torso between each repetition. Your teres minor (a small shoulder muscle) will get some added work helping to stabilize your shoulder for each repetition.

This is a great way to gain, and maintain, shoulder stability. The increased muscle recruitment will also help upper back development.

Single-Arm Pulldown

The single-arm lat pulldown turn the exercise into a unilateral (single-sided) version. This forces each side of your body to work independently of the other, which will greatly help to accommodate any body size or shape while addressing any natural asymmetries.

The single-arm pulldown is also a tremendously effective way to add more progression time to your lat pulldown exercise by essentially doubling the amount of load each side will have access to.

How To Do The Pull-Up

Perform the pull-up by grabbing a straight bar that is high enough for your legs to dangle freely without touching the ground. Use a small box or (safely) jump to grab the bar with an overhand grip approximately shoulder-width apart.

Perform a hollow body technique by flexing your core, depressing your shoulder blades, engaging your glutes, and locking your quads.

Engage your lats and flex your arms to pull your chest toward the bar. Once you have reached the highest point that you can pull yourself to, slowly lower back to the starting position using control. Maintain your brace and perform for your target repetitions.

Form Tip: Be diligent about maintaining hollow body tension and eliminating any lower body sway. Performing a pull-up gets exponentially more difficult when you have to counter any unneeded movement. Stay braced and aim to start each repetition from a motionless position. Swinging your hips and legs may help you perform more reps, but it reduces muscular stress on your back.

Benefits of the Pull-Up

• The pull-up requires little-to-no equipment.
• Bodyweight exercises can improve coordination and proprioception (body awareness) which can carryover to general athleticism.
• Scalable to suit either strength or hypertrophy goals when appropriate programming and loading is used.

Pull-Up Variations

Pull-ups can be modified to attack a few different goals. Similar to pull-ups, changing your grip position can deliver some unique benefits.

Wide-Grip Pull-up

Wide-grip pull-ups place your upper back (teres minor) on blast. A wider grip will make it harder on your lats, but also put a bigger emphasis on your ability to maintain the right shoulder positioning for each repetition.

When you’re looking to train nearly your entire upper body, while also seriously roasting your shoulder stability, use the wide-grip pull-up.

Neutral-Grip Pull-up

On the opposite side of things, a neutral-grip pull-up places you in a much more inherently stable position. The relatively closer grip and neutral (palms facing in) hand placement will make it easier to harness your back muscles to pull you up, but also take some of the shoulder stability challenge away.

When you’re looking to go for moderate or higher reps, or build a foundation of strength and muscle, neutral-grip pull-ups are a great option.

Towel Pull-up

Towel pull-ups are a huge boost to your grip strength. This low-tech modification, draping a simple (but sturdy) towel over a bar, will seriously challenge your ability to simply hang on.

If you’re in the market for a stronger grip and bigger arms — and if you can already perform more than a handful of pull-ups — challenge yourself with towel pull-ups.

When to Program the Best Pulling Movement for Your Goal

There are several instances where either the lat pulldown or pull-up might be the better option. Your specific goals and training experience are unique factors to consider.

Beginner

When you’re a beginner, you’ll be looking to build a base of muscle and strength before eventually launching into a more structured and challenging program. With that in mind, you may struggle with pull-ups because they can be very unforgiving.

While there are ways to make pull-ups more accessible for beginner lifters, such as using resistance bands for assistance, oftentimes a pull-up is a bit of a tall order. Instead, spending some time building a super-strong lat pulldown can be a relatively lower barrier to entry. Once you’ve accomplished this, either option is freely available and effective.

Muscle Gain

Both the lat pulldown and pull-up can be very effective muscle-building tools, but there are some subtle differences that likely edge the lat pulldown ahead. The lat pulldown is a more stable training tool. This means that there will be less “moving parts” in your way while you chase highly stimulating sets that accumulate volume needed to build your back. (3)

The lat pulldown also allows for a slow, controlled, and incremental increase in loading which once again provides a boost to long-term muscle growth. The pull-up is great in its own right, but it’s hard to beat the lat pulldown for pure muscle gain.

Strength Gain

Gaining strength can be accomplished with both the lat pulldown and pull-up. However, the lat pulldown can more easily be loaded and trained for strength-focused results. With that in mind, it’s going to offer you more lat-specific strength.

On the other hand, the pull-up, as a bodyweight exercise, is more of a full-body exercise. In this instance, the pull-up will help build greater full-body strength. If you want better overall strength potential, emphasizing the pull-up will likely be the better option.

Limited Equipment

When you don’t have access to a gym, the choice is a simpler one. The lat pulldown literally requires a machine, which likely is only accessible through a commercial or home gym equivalent.

While a pull-up bar may seem mandatory for doing pull-ups, it is not actually required. A pull-up can, technically, be performed anywhere you have access to a strong, stable anchor point to safely grab. The pull-up wins when you have limited equipment. 

Advanced Athlete

If you’re an advanced athlete in nearly any sport, it’s a toss up. Once you’ve developed a strong base of muscle, strength, and coordination, both the pull-up and lat pulldown can be tailored to your needs.

Both can be loaded and progressed, both have unique variations to prolong your progress, and both are relatively easy to master after a short amount of focused time. Depending on your goals or needs, either the pull-up or lat pulldown (or even both) can be effectively programmed for athletic goals.

Prioritize Your Pulls

The lat pulldown and pull-up are both iconic staples of weight training. The exercises have unique benefits, times of superiority, and some clear drawbacks. Depending on your training age, goals, and available equipment, one option may jump out as the obvious choice. Review the information and make the best decision for your goals. Prioritize your pulls for some big gains and, one day, both classic movements may find their way into your program.

References

1. Andersen, V., Fimland, M. S., Wiik, E., Skoglund, A., & Saeterbakken, A. H. (2014). Effects of grip width on muscle strength and activation in the lat pull-down. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 28(4), 1135–1142. https://doi.org/10.1097/JSC.0000000000000232
2. Signorile, J. F., Zink, A. J., & Szwed, S. P. (2002). A comparative electromyographical investigation of muscle utilization patterns using various hand positions during the lat pull-down. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 16(4), 539–546.
3. Schoenfeld, B. J., Contreras, B., Krieger, J., Grgic, J., Delcastillo, K., Belliard, R., & Alto, A. (2019). Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 51(1), 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764

Featured Image: Tom Wang / Shutterstock

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This staple exercise should be the backbone of many pulling workouts for beginners and advanced lifters alike. You don’t even need a gym. Heck, you don’t really even a pull-up bar. A sturdy tree or swingset can be enough to deliver you massive back, shoulder, and arm gains. Mastering the pull-up will be a game changer in your fitness journey.

• Benefits of the Pull-Up
• How to Do the Pull-Up
• Pull-Up Variations
• Pull-Up Form Tips
• How to Program the Pull-Up

Benefits of the Pull-Up

The pull-up is a training staple for a reason. It delivers a myriad of benefits from mastering your own body to getting stronger to adding lean muscle. Let’s cover them all.

Functional Strength

Yes, functional training has been a trend in recent years. To specifically define what makes an exercise “functional” is a bit of headache, but there is a certain beauty and practicality in being able to move your own body around, just like with the push-up, running, or jumping. Mastering bodyweight movements and building coordination is a quality every human should strive for.

What is clear is that the pull-up can improve your overall strength and is transferable to many other activities and exercises, such as climbing, gymnastics, or even wrestling. Being stronger at the pull-up is being stronger at life, with improved grip strength and stronger back, arm, and core muscles.

Building Muscle

The pull-up shows up in so many resistance training plans because of its efficient ability to build size. It is one of the best, if not the best, muscle-builders for the back.(1) It is also a tremendous exercise for upper arm and forearm size. Moreover, it spares your lower back and legs from participating in the movement, which can be great if you’re injured or want to avoid excessive training volume in these body parts.

You can focus more on your pulling muscles, which improves your mind-muscle connection and provides quality volume to the target muscles. This will give you the best chance of building a well-developed back.(2)(3)

Better Grip

Grip strength can be easily overlooked, but is actually invaluable. Most exercises, even for the lower body, use your hands. The pull-up can improve your grip because you are required to lift your entire body and connect yourself to the bar.

This will directly be transferable to other pulling exercises and deadlift variations, but strong forearms and grip will also stabilize your wrists during pressing exercises such as the bench press, and can improve overall wrist, elbow, and shoulder joint health.(4) Grip strength is also linked to longevity and general health, which is a hefty bonus.(5)

How to Do the Pull-Up

The pull-up might be a bodyweight exercise, there is still technique involved if you want to master it and reap all its benefits.

• Set yourself in position by hanging from a bar with your arms completely extended using a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip and your hands pronated (palms facing away from you).
• Pull your shoulder blades back, raise your chest, and engage your core to prevent yourself from swaying.
• Pull yourself toward the bar by flexing your elbows and squeezing your back until your chin is over the bar. If you’re a taller lifter or have long limbs, you might need to stop sooner if your back and arms fully contract before that point.
• Exhale and hold the contraction for one second while keeping your chest arched and your body tensed.
• Lower slowly by extending your arms in a controlled fashion to prevent as much swaying as possible.
• Once you’re at a dead-hang, you’ve completed a pull-up. Repeat for the desired amount of repetitions.

Pull-Up Variations

The task ahead is daunting, but the challenge of the pull-up is worthy and you shouldn’t be intimidated by it. If you struggle with the movement, there are some variations that will help you towards your first good rep.

Negative Pull-Up

With this variation, you’re only doing the eccentric (lowering) part of the lift. To perform it, simply stand on a box, grab the bar and jump into the top position. Then slowly lower yourself in four to five seconds.

This is an excellent variation if you struggle with pull-ups, want to build pull-up strength, or cannot perform one strict repetition. You’ll be able to do these because muscles are stronger during the eccentric part of a lift.(6) This way, you can accumulate pull-up volume and practice the lift as well as gain strength in the desired muscles, even if you can’t perform a full range of motion pull-up.

Band-Assisted Pull-Up

A resistance band will “lighten” your body weight so the exercise requires less strength. This is a better variation to get better at pull-ups than the machine assisted pull-up, because the band incorporates some components of total-body stability and coordination.

Loop a durable resistance band around the bar and let it hang down. Put your feet in it, keeping your legs straight and your body tense. Now start pulling. The feeling and overall technique is very close to the unassisted bodyweight pull-up, so it will have plenty of direct carryover.

Inverted Row

This goes by many different names — horizontal row, bodyweight row, Australian pull-up — but it’s a relatively easier version of the pull-up because now you’re pulling horizontally and you’re moving a lower percentage of your body weight. It’s a perfect variation to master before trying pull-ups, as it recruits and trains the same muscles.

Set yourself under a fixed bar and grab it using a pronated (palms down) grip. Flex your core and legs so that your body is tense and in a straight line. Now, pull your chest to the bar. The inverted row is efficient because you can easily scale it down or up.

If it’s too tough, set the bar higher which improves your leverage and decreases the body weight being pulled. If it’s not challenging enough, reduce the bar height, and eventually elevate your feet to make the lift even harder. When you feel confident enough, the pull-up will be awaiting you.

Pull-Up Form Tips

If you want to really nail down your pull-up game, pay attention to these form tips. Proper technique is essential to prevent injuries and progress faster.

Brace Your Whole Body

You might think of the pull-up as only a back and arms movement, but that’s not the case if you want maximum efficiency. Studies have shown that the abs, for instance, are heavily involved in the pull-up.(7) Why is that? Your core — composed of your abs, lower back, and some hip muscles — as well as your legs have to work extra hard to stabilize your body.

During the pull-up, take a deep breath in and flex your abs as much as you can to prevent excessive swinging, which would otherwise alter the efficiency and mechanics of the lift. To recruit your core even more, straighten your legs and hold them together. If you still have trouble preventing swaying, take a few seconds between each rep to reset yourself and ensure picture perfect form.

Keep Your Chest Up

When the lift becomes difficult, it’s tempting to round your upper back and use the assistance of more muscles. The problem is that it internally rotates your shoulders (making them roll forward) and places the shoulder joint in a precarious position.

You have to keep your chest up and your back slightly arched if you want to avoid injuries and train the target muscles correctly. Keep in mind that it will always be better to do fewer repetitions with better form. Doing your pull correctly will ensure you use your lats as efficiently as possible.

Use a Full Range of Motion

If you’re doing half-reps, you’re not “really” doing pull-ups. Yes, pull-ups are a challenging exercise, but cutting the range of motion short is not a valid strategy to get better at them. By reducing the length of pull, you never work the hardest part of the movement and you reduce time under tension, resulting in poorer muscle gains and strength development.(8)

Sure, you really want to nail this exercise, but you’ll be better off practicing the alternatives with proper form, like negative pull-ups or band-assisted pull-ups, rather than performing half-repetitions and getting half results. Practice perfect technique, use the variations, and you’ll master the pull-up soon enough.

Programming the Pull-Up

The pull-up is a versatile exercise that can be suited to beginners and experienced lifters alike, for a variety of goals. All along your lifting journey, the pull-up is a valuable exercise no matter what your goal is. If you’re stronger, you can even add weight to your pull-ups to keep reaping the strength and size benefits of the exercise.

• For Strength: Perform three to five sets of three to five reps.
• For Muscle Growth: Do three to four sets of eight to 12 reps.
• For Muscular Endurance and Conditioning: Perform two to three sets of 15 to 20 reps.
• For Strength-Skill (Technique): Do eight to 12 sets of one to three reps using short rest periods and avoiding muscular failure.

Pull-ups, like many bodyweight exercises, are a skill dictated by your muscles as well as your nervous system. Remember that perfect technique should always be respected if you want to progress efficiently. Avoid reaching muscular failure while learning the lift. This will prevent excessive fatigue from negatively affecting your technique.

Don’t Pull the Plug on Pull-Ups

The pull-up is too valuable of an exercise to skip just because it’s challenging to learn. Set aside your anxiety, follow the advice laid out above, and start working towards your first pull-up. By the time you’re able to bang a few good reps, your fitness and physique will have drastically improved.

References

1. Hewit, Jennifer. (2018). A Comparison of Muscle Activation during the Pull-up and Three Alternative Pulling Exercises. Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports. 5. 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.05.555669.
2. Calatayud J, Vinstrup J, Jakobsen MD, Sundstrup E, Brandt M, Jay K, Colado JC, Andersen LL. Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2016 Mar;116(3):527-33. doi: 10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7. Epub 2015 Dec 23. PMID: 26700744.
3. Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, Grgic J, Delcastillo K, Belliard R, Alto A. Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Jan;51(1):94-103. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764. PMID: 30153194; PMCID: PMC6303131.
4. Coombes BK, Bisset L, Vicenzino B. Management of Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy: One Size Does Not Fit All. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2015 Nov;45(11):938-49. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2015.5841. Epub 2015 Sep 17. PMID: 26381484.
5. Bohannon RW. Grip Strength: An Indispensable Biomarker For Older Adults. Clin Interv Aging. 2019;14:1681-1691 https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S194543
6. Hody S, Croisier JL, Bury T, Rogister B, Leprince P. Eccentric Muscle Contractions: Risks and Benefits. Front Physiol. 2019 May 3;10:536. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00536. PMID: 31130877; PMCID: PMC6510035.
7. Hewit, Jennifer. (2018). A Comparison of Muscle Activation during the Pull-up and Three Alternative Pulling Exercises. Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports. 5. 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.05.555669.
8. Burd NA, Andrews RJ, West DW, Little JP, Cochran AJ, Hector AJ, Cashaback JG, Gibala MJ, Potvin JR, Baker SK, Phillips SM. Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. J Physiol. 2012 Jan 15;590(2):351-62. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200. Epub 2011 Nov 21. PMID: 22106173; PMCID: PMC3285070.

Featured Image: MilanMarkovic78 / Shutterstock

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When it comes to training your back, pull-ups aren’t your only option. The inverted row — sometimes jokingly called the Australian pull-up because your body is “down under” the bar — targets your back, shoulders, and biceps.

The inverted row is highly effective because it provides benefits to beginners and experienced lifters alike, improving pulling strength, back muscle size, and whole-body stability and coordination. Here’s how to perform a perfect inverted row, along with everything you need to know about this powerful and overlooked exercise.

• How to Do the Inverted Row
• Inverted Row Mistakes to Avoid
• Benefits of the Inverted Row
• Muscles Worked by the Inverted Row
• Who Should Do the Inverted Row
• How to Program the Inverted Row
• Inverted Row Variations
• Inverted Row Alternatives
• Frequently Asked Questions

Simple and Effective Inverted Row Demonstration

Call it an inverted row, a bodyweight row, an Australian pull-up, or even the light-hearted but derogatory “fat man pull-up.” Whatever term you use, the movement is the same. Take a look at the straightforward technique and then continue learning.

How to Do the Inverted Row

The inverted row is a relatively less challenging bodyweight back exercise compared to the classic pull-up because you’re lifting a lower percentage of your body weight. This makes it a perfect exercise for newcomers. Nevertheless, improper execution will lead to poor muscle recruitment and minimal benefits, so pay attention to good form.

Step 1 — Get Into Position

Lie on the ground in a rack or Smith machine and reach your arms toward the ceiling. Note the spot slightly above your fingertips, and set a barbell in the rack at that height. Return to a lying position with your chest under the bar, and take slightly wider than shoulder-width, palms-down grip.

Keep your legs straight and your heels on the ground. Maintain a stiff core and hips to keep your body in a straight line.

Form tip: Because the resistance comes from leveraging your bodyweight, you can easily scale the exercise to suit your strength level. The steeper your body angle, the easier the exercise will be. The more horizontal your body is, the more challenging it will be. However, your back should not be able to rest on the ground in the stretched position. Instead, if necessary, elevate your feet on a bench or step to increase the difficulty.

Step 2 — Pull Your Chest to the Bar

Flex your abs, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and pull yourself up until your torso touches the bar. It should make contact near your lower chest. Think about driving your chest “up” through the bar toward the ceiling.

Do not let your elbows flare out too much on your sides. Keep them relatively close to your body to improve the recruitment of your lats (back muscles). In the top position, don’t bend your legs or let your glutes hang down.

Form tip: If your chest cannot reach the bar, adjust the height and reposition to reduce the difficulty. Achieving a full range of motion is critical for building strength, stimulating muscle growth, and improving shoulder and upper back joint health.

Step 3 — Stay Tight As You Lower

Keep your entire body tense and keep your shoulder blades squeezed together as you slowly straighten your arms. When you’ve reached full lockout, your back and shoulders should still be slightly off the ground.

Pivot your body on your heels, don’t bend your legs during the exercise. Let your back, shoulder, and arm muscles do the work of lifting and lowering.

Form tip: Maintain a stiff posture and an engaged core for maximum benefits. Ensure total-body tension and do not relax during the eccentric (descent or lowering phase).

Inverted Row Mistakes to Avoid

Just because the inverted row is a bodyweight exercise doesn’t mean you get a free pass to butcher basic technique. Good form matters as much with bodyweight exercises as with free weight movements. Review these frequent mistakes to make sure you’re not doing them.

Losing Posture

The main muscles of the inverted row are the back and the arms, but the whole body is involved in the lift. If your glutes start dropping down and you lose tension and posture, the mechanics of the exercise will change and you will reap less benefits. Your body should form a straight line from your ankles to your shoulder joints.

 

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There’s one acceptable exception to the “straight line” rule: To significantly improve your leverage and make the exercise easier, you can bend your legs and plant your feet flat on the floor. However, you should still keep a straight line from your knees to your shoulders while maintaining tension in glutes, core, and shoulder blades.

Avoid it: Push your heels into the ground to tense your legs and contract your glutes. Imagine having a string attaching your hip bones to the ceiling.

Rowing Too High

In the top position of each repetition, the bar should touch the lower part of your chest. If you’re positioned incorrectly and pull too high, with the bar hitting your upper chest or neck, you turn the exercise into a type of face pull variation.

This is a mistake because it decreases activation of your bigger lat muscles and increases recruitment of your rear deltoids (shoulders) and upper back. A higher pulling position also causes your elbows to flare out to the sides, which can increase strain on your shoulder joint, especially if you lack shoulder mobility.

Avoid it: Prior to beginning your set, when setting up the bar position, be sure your lower chest or upper abs are lined up under the bar. This helps to put you in a good pulling position before the movement even begins.

Pulling with “Broken” Wrists

When any exercise becomes difficult, because of fatigue or excessive weight, the body will naturally try to recruit additional muscles to come to the rescue. This can happen with the inverted row if your arms are much stronger than your back, when your wrists bend during the movement.

Pulling with bent or “broken” wrists will shift more stress to your arms and can cause joint pain and discomfort. It also excessively fatigues your gripping strength which will limit the amount of back work you can achieve.

Avoid it: Keep a neutral wrist position at all times, from the stretched position to the top contraction. Think about pulling with your elbows instead of pulling with your hands. If you have wrist pain, use a neutral grip by placing a football bar (sometimes known as a Swiss bar) in the rack instead of a straight barbell or by switching from a barbell to suspension straps (like a TRX).

Benefits of the Inverted Row

The simplest exercises can sometimes be overlooked, but they are often the ones that can provide major benefits. The inverted row can provide several benefits in terms of strength, muscle mass, and core stability.

More Muscle

Just like the pull-up, the inverted row is a fantastic exercise for building muscle mass in the back, arms, and forearms using just your bodyweight. In fact, it can recruit more lat and upper back muscle than a traditional barbell row (1) The inverted row makes it easy to accumulate volume (repetitions and/or sets) to stimulate muscle growth in your target muscles. (2)

Pulling Strength

Bodyweight movements have a reputation of being less effective for building strength because you can’t move extremely heavy weights but, if you’re a beginning lifter, it can prove very efficient. (3) As a multi-joint exercise, the inverted row is indeed an ideal choice for building pulling strength. (4)

The inverted row demands whole-body coordination and power. Like many bodyweight movements, you can eventually add resistance, like a weighted vest, to provide basic progressive overload. This will challenge the back, biceps, and grip strength of any experienced lifter.

Less Lower Back Stress

Rowing exercises usually involve the lower back to maintain proper posture and provide stability, but this can often be a limiting factor, especially for lifters with pre-existing lower back problems.

The inverted row creates very little spinal load because your spine isn’t put under any significant strain. As such, if you’re having back pain, it is an ideal option for a rowing movement with nearly zero stress on your lower back. Moreover, it also engages your core, which has been linked to less lower back pain and a better core and spinal health. (5)(6)

Muscles Worked by the Inverted Row

A properly done inverted row can be one of the most efficient back exercises in your arsenal. It recruits multiple muscles in your back without straining the often overused lower back like many alternative movements. As a pulling exercise, the inverted row also recruits several support muscles.

Latissimus Dorsi

The lats are the biggest and strongest back muscles. They go from your hip bone and lower spine to your humerus (arm bone) and are heavily involved in moving your arm through a variety of motions. Because they cover so much of your torso, the lats also contribute to spinal stability and trunk movements. They are the main target of the inverted row.

Upper Back

This includes your trapezius, rhomboids and posterior deltoids — all involved in scapular (shoulder blade) motion and joint health. These muscles work similarly to move the shoulder blades in several ways, assist in pulling motions, and contribute to stabilizing the scapulae during pressing movements.

Biceps

Of course, we all know the biceps. On the front of the upper arm, it is the biggest arm muscle and goes from the radius (forearm bone) to the scapula. The biceps are recruited to perform the inverted row, but other relatively smaller muscles will help the biceps flex (bend) your arm.

The pronated (palm down) grip used during the inverted row actually puts an emphasis on the brachialis, the strongest arm flexor muscle. (7) It is actually located just under the biceps, and can help your biceps appear larger because a well-developed brachialis will “push” it higher.

Forearms

Your forearms will be trained by nearly every back exercise because your grip transfers force from the weight toward the target muscle. Several muscles work throughout your forearms, but the forearm flexors on the palm-side of your lower arm are responsible for your grip and will be taxed the most. The brachioradialis, the biggest muscle on the opposite side of your forearm, will also assist in flexing your upper arm.

Core

In order to maintain proper posture and be more efficient during this exercise, you’ll have to engage your whole core. All of your abs (rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis), your erector spinae (spinal muscles), and some hip muscles are recruited synergistically. Your abs are the anterior core muscles running on the front of your torso while the erectors are along your back (beginning at the lower back, they run up to your neck).

Your core muscles do not move through a range of motion during the inverted row, but are contracted isometrically to maintain a strong, stable, and safe body position.

Who Should Do the Inverted Row

The inverted row is versatile and demands bare minimum equipment —any bar or beam that can support your weight. Lifters with a variety of goals and abilities can incorporate this exercise into their routine.

Beginners

The inverted row is an ideal pulling exercise for beginners starting to master their own body’s resistance. The exercise can be scaled in an instant to your strength level by either raising the bar or bending your legs to make it easier, or placing your feet on a bench or adding a weighted vest on — or both — to make it harder.

As pull-ups are significantly harder for inexperienced lifters without a base of strength, the bodyweight row is a great first step to increase pulling strength, general fitness, and whole-body tension.

Physique Enthusiasts

Be it a bodybuilder or someone that just wants to pack on some size, many lifters overlook the inverted row as a muscle-building exercise. Despite being a bodyweight exercise, it can be more efficient than some other rowing exercises, especially for targeting your lats and strengthening your upper back. It also has the benefit of being low-stress on your lower back, so you won’t interfere with recovery from low-back intensive exercises like squats or deadlifts.

General Fitness Advocates

Whether you’re a CrossFit enthusiast, sports athlete, or a Regular Joe that wants to improve their functional fitness, the inverted row is a multi-function exercise for developing several physical qualities. You can program it to improve strength, muscle size, muscular endurance, whole-body stability and coordination. You can even build cardiorespiratory capacities by tossing it into a circuit workout to improve your fitness as a whole.

How to Program the Inverted Row

Bodyweight movements are very versatile in programing, and the range of repetitions can vary considerably depending on your goals and strength level. If you’re a newer lifter, focus on only performing high-quality repetitions and treat it exactly like any other resistance exercise — no cheating on your form to squeeze out extra reps. A more experienced lifter can add external load or use a high training volume to make the movement more challenging.

Unweighted, Low Repetition

When you are at the early phase of training and still developing fundamental strength, coordination, and body awareness, your goal is to improve your form and build a general base. You cannot do too many repetitions because you lack the strength to do it without your form breaking down. Three to five sets of four to six repetitions is a good range to stick with.

You can also use a “total reps goal” approach instead of specific sets and reps. Aim for a modest number, roughly 20 repetitions, and complete them in as many sets of quality repetitions as needed. It could take 15 sets or it could be four. Over time, aim to reach the target in fewer total sets.

Unweighted, High Repetition

If you’re a strong lifter, you can use bodyweight training for high repetitions to build muscle while sparing your joints from excessive loading stress. (8) Aim for two to three sets of at least 15 repetitions to failure while keeping a good form. This will provide a great pump and will challenge more your core and postural muscles because of the longer set duration.

Weighted, Medium Repetition

If you can add external resistance to the lift using a weighted vest, a backpack, or a pair of chains draped across your torso, you can treat this exercise like any other resistance training movement and hit it hard and (relatively) heavy. The traditional bodybuilding scheme of three to four sets of eight to 12 repetitions will be your best bet to promote hypertrophy and provide a challenging time under tension.

Inverted Row Variations

Once you’ve mastered the basic movement, you can very easily switch the focus of the exercise to accommodate your goals or individual needs. Here are some simple tweaks to provide variation to your inverted rows.

Supinated Inverted Row

Using a palms-up grip is a simple change if you want to experience more biceps growth, because the arm muscles will be in optimal alignment. As such, most lifters will also be stronger and will be able to bang out more repetitions or use more weight.

This is similar to using chin-ups in place of pull-ups. The adjusted hand position changes muscle recruitment and emphasizes the biceps and forearms over the muscles of the back.

Neutral Grip Inverted Row

The neutral grip, or hammer grip, can be a welcome relief for lifters with achy shoulders, elbows, or wrists. The stress on these joints is drastically reduced because brachialis and brachioradialis recruitment is increased. As an added bonus, building these muscles will help you build a set of classic Popeye arms.

To perform it, use a football bar (or Swiss bar) instead of a straight barbell. If your gym doesn’t have one, you can use a neutral-grip “V-bar” attachment from the pulldown station and set yourself up parallel to the barbell. Suspension straps, like a TRX or gymnastic rings, would also be effective.

Ring Row

Using any suspension straps like a TRX or a pair of gymnastic rings is the most versatile and joint-friendly row option. You can use whatever grip you want: palm-down, neutral, or palm-up. You can even add a natural twisting motion by rotating your hands during each repetition. Begin pulling with a palm-down grip and rotate to neutral or palm-up as you approach the top position.

The main benefit is that the ring’s instability will challenge your core and your shoulders. This variation is the hardest, but the required stabilization will greatly improve your core and shoulder health and stability, which transfers to overall athleticism and power in other upper body exercises.

Inverted Row Alternatives

Variety is the spice of life, and of muscle growth. (9) If you’re ready to switch things up or if you don’t have a spot to perform the inverted row, you’re covered with these effective alternatives.

Seal Row

The seal row is the free weight equivalent of the inverted row. Lie prone (face down) on an elevated flat bench and grab a pair of dumbbells or a barbell — there even are specially designed stations for this exercise with easy to grab weights. Pull the weights from the stretched position beneath the bench toward your chest, as if performing an upside down inverted row.

Because your body is fully supported, cheating with momentum is very difficult. It also nearly eliminates any strain on the lower back, like the inverted row. With this variation, there’s no need for total-body stabilization, so you can solely focus on using your pulling muscles and develop a great mind-muscle connection.

Pull-Up

They say the pull-up is the king of upper-body bodyweight exercises, and for good reason. It’s a tremendous back-builder. When you’re comfortable with inverted rows, get started with this vertical bodyweight exercise.

Like the inverted row, the pull-up will target more of your lats than your upper back. You can use the same grip variations and set/rep programming schemes as the inverted row.

Bent-Over Barbell Row

The standard barbell row might be an upper body pulling exercise in its purest form. Grab a barbell, bend forward and gather tension in your whole body, and start rowing heaps of iron.

This exercise will demand superior whole-body engagement, particularly your glutes and hamstrings to counterbalance the load. If you want to improve your pulling strength, back muscle size, and total body stability, get familiar with this classic movement.

FAQs

Are inverted rows and pull-ups the same thing?

No. Despite both being bodyweight pulling exercises, they are different. One is a vertical movement pattern while the other works horizontally. This means that muscle recruitment will be similar, but not exactly be the same. The inverted row will recruit more of your upper back, for instance.

Pull-ups are also harder, because your body is completely hanging in the air and you’re required to lift proportionally more of your body weight. The inverted row has your feet supported on the ground and angled, which means that you’re lifting a lower percentage of your body weight.

As a bodyweight movement, when should I do the inverted row?

There are no clear rules because it will depend on your specific goals and strength levels. If you want to develop your strength or technique, include them at the start of your workout. If you’re using them to build muscle mass, they can be performed later in session, after your muscles are fatigued from other exercises.

If you really want to speed up your strength and technique gains as a newer lifter, you can also use the grease the groove technique. Perform a single set of a few high-quality repetitions, several times throughout the day (for instance, you can do it at home under a sturdy table), waiting at least 30 minutes between each set. This training method will develop your strength, coordination, and skill so that you quickly become very good at the exercise.

Get Back to Bodyweight Training

The inverted row is a highly effective addition to any training program, whether you’re just getting started in the gym or if you’re well-experienced. While the pull-up has a much more widely known reputation as being “the” bodyweight back-training exercise, the inverted row deserves plenty of attention and can deliver plenty of results. It shouldn’t be treated as an introductory exercise that’s forgotten once you build some strength. It’s definitely time to get on the ground and start pulling.

References

1. Fenwick CM, Brown SH, McGill SM. Comparison of different rowing exercises: trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine motion, load, and stiffness. J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Mar;23(2):350-8. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181942019. PMID: 19197209.
2. Brigatto FA, Lima LEM, Germano MD, Aoki MS, Braz TV, Lopes CR. High Resistance-Training Volume Enhances Muscle Thickness in Resistance-Trained Men. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Jan 1;36(1):22-30. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003413. PMID: 31868813.
3. Lipecki, Krzysztof & Rutowicz, Bartosz. (2015). The Impact Of Ten Weeks Of Bodyweight Training On The Level Of Physical Fitness And Selected Parameters Of Body Composition In Women Aged 21-23 Years. Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism. 22. 10.1515/pjst-2015-0014.
4. Brandão, Lucas & Painelli, Vitor & Lasevicius, Thiago & Silva-Batista, Carla & Brendon, Helderson & Schoenfeld, Brad & Aihara, Andre & Cardoso, Fabiano & Peres, Bergson & Teixeira, Emerson. (2020). Varying the Order of Combinations of Single- and Multi-Joint Exercises Differentially Affects Resistance Training Adaptations. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 34. 1. 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003550.
5. Joan Aguilera-Castells, Bernat Buscà, Azahara Fort-Vanmeerhaeghe, Alicia M. Montalvo & Javier Peña (2020) Muscle activation in suspension training: a systematic review, Sports Biomechanics, 19:1, 55-75, DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2018.1472293
6. Kumar T, Kumar S, Nezamuddin M, Sharma VP. Efficacy of core muscle strengthening exercise in chronic low back pain patients. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2015;28(4):699-707. doi: 10.3233/BMR-140572. PMID: 25467999.
7. Kleiber, T., Kunz, L., & Disselhorst-Klug, C. (2015). Muscular coordination of biceps brachii and brachioradialis in elbow flexion with respect to hand position. Frontiers in physiology, 6, 215. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2015.00215
8. Schoenfeld BJ, Peterson MD, Ogborn D, Contreras B, Sonmez GT. Effects of Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy in Well-Trained Men. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Oct;29(10):2954-63. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000958. PMID: 25853914.
9. Baz-Valle E, Schoenfeld BJ, Torres-Unda J, Santos-Concejero J, Balsalobre-Fernández C. The effects of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PLoS One. 2019 Dec 27;14(12):e0226989. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226989. PMID: 31881066; PMCID: PMC6934277.

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When performed regularly, the simple push-up and its variations will help you build bigger pecs, triceps, and shoulders, improve your relative strength, and it can even transfer over to boosting your bench and overhead press numbers.

Here are 10 push-up variations to try if you’re ready to give bodyweight training a fair shake. You will never look at push-ups the same way again.

Best Push-Up Variations

• Chaos Push-Up
• Decline Push-Up
• Incline Plyo Push-Up
• Clapping Push-Up
• Spiderman Push-Up
• Slider Push-Up
• Suspension Strap Single-Arm Push-Up
• Band-Resisted Push-Up
• Archer Push-Up
• Yoga Push-Up

Chaos Push-Up

This challenging variation takes the standard bodyweight push-up up a notch by using a resistance band in a quite unusual way. By performing a push-up with your hands on the band instead of the floor, the highly unstable element fires up all of your shoulder and core stabilizer muscles.

The band gives you instant feedback when using anything less than perfect form. You’re forced to move at a slower speed to maintain control, and the increased time under tension does wonders for adding muscle.

When to Use it

When regular push-ups are easy and you’ve advanced to doing push-ups for seemingly endless reps, the chaos push-up will snap you out of this funk. The increased time under tension makes it great for adding muscle and it’s a great alternative exercise for dumbbell bench presses. The instability of the chaos push-up is excellent for additional rotator cuff strength if you’re coming back from a shoulder injury.

How to Do it

Loop a heavy-duty resistance band around safety pins on the squat rack, at roughly waist height. Light to moderate bands may not be able to support your body weight. The higher the band is placed and the higher your body angle, the easier the exercise will be.

Place your hands on the band in a shoulder-width grip and hold tight with stiff arms. Bring your legs behind you and allow the band to support your weight, while engaging your glutes and core. Bend your arms and slowly lower yourself into a push-up. Press yourself up, pause briefly at the top to reset and stabilize before repeating.

Decline Push-Up

The decline push-up is one of the most common variations of the classic push-up. It’s fantastic for adding muscle because it’s relatively low stress on the joints, requires minimal equipment to perform, and can be trained for very high reps which benefits size and strength.

This movement shifts the focus to the upper chest and anterior deltoid, similar to an incline bench press, for better overall muscle development of the chest and shoulders.

When to Use it

Your chest is a relatively large muscle with multiple sections, or heads, so it pays to train with your arms at a variety of angles relative to your torso. (1) Perform the decline push-up in any workout in place of your standard push-up, particularly if your workout lacks angled chest exercises or if your shoulders are bothering you from other pressing exercises.

How to Do it

Place your toes on a box, step, or flat bench and position your hands underneath your shoulders. Engage your core to keep your spine neutral, neither sagging nor excessively arched. Lower yourself into a push-up until your chest is just above the floor and your elbows are angled roughly 45-degrees from your sides. Pause briefly at the bottom and push back to the starting position. Reset your body position at lockout and repeat.

Incline Plyo Push-Up

The incline plyo push-up allows you to generate upper body power with less compressive stress on the joints than similar free weight movements.

The incline plyo push-up is an excellent regression (less challenging variation) from the clapping push-up because you press less of your body weight due to the inclined position. This can allow you to squeak a few more reps and apply more explosive force.

When to Use it

Use sets of six to 10 reps with this powerful variation as a “primer” at the start of a heavy bench press workout to recruit more muscle and ignite your CNS. (2) If you’re having difficulty with plyo push-ups from the floor, this is a good way to introduce explosive movements while building strength, speed, and power.

How to Do it

Place your hands on a stable platform like a secured bench or box, a set of steps, or a Smith machine bar. Keep your arms straight as you lean forward and position your feet back, keeping a straight line through your body. Bend your arms and lower yourself rapidly toward the bench before explosively pushing yourself up and allowing your hands to leave the bench.

As you land, slightly bend your elbows and “catch” yourself on the way down to better absorb the force. Descend smoothly into the next repetition.

Clapping Push-Up

The clapping push-up is performed with maximum force. On each repetition, your hands will leave the ground and you will quickly clap them together to display power, coordination, and control.

Power exercises like the clapping push-up train the fast-twitch muscle fibers of the body, which are capable of more growth than slow-twitch fibers. (3) This exercise is a progression of the incline plyo push-up and should only be performed when you’ve mastered the incline movement.

When to Use It

As the first exercise of the workout, before heavy lifting, perform sets of six to eight reps. This will build explosive strength and help to improve your performance with other pressing exercises following in the workout, such as the overhead press and bench press.

How to Do it

Lie on the floor in a good push-up position with your hands under your shoulders, your legs straight, and your spine neutral. Bend your arms and lower yourself into a push-up position with your elbows at a roughly 45-degree angle. Before your chest touches the floor, press explosively and let your hands leave the floor. Quickly clap your hands together and get them back to the floor to catch yourself. Reset your body before the next repetition or, if you’re advanced, immediately transition into the next rep.

Spiderman Push-Up

The Spiderman push-up is an advanced variation that requires your upper body and lower body to work together with coordination, strength, and stability.

This push-up variation will increase your chest’s time under tension at the peak of your push-up contraction, which will challenge your strength and improve the hypertrophy stimulus. It also tests and challenges your core stability and hip mobility, making it an excellent “bang for the buck” movement.

When to Use It

The Spiderman push-up is excellent to insert into a conditioning workout or fat loss circuit because it trains many muscles with one movement and improves your upper body, core, and hip flexor strength. Make sure to do equal reps on both legs.

How to Do it

Assume your regular push-up position on the ground with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower your chest toward the ground while simultaneously pulling your right knee toward your right forearm. Don’t allow your torso to rotate excessively to accommodate your rising leg

Pause briefly in the bottom while your chest hovers near the ground before reversing the process and bringing your foot back to the starting position while pushing yourself back up. Repeat the next repetition with the left leg. Alternate legs with each repetition. To cue the overall movement, imagine you’re a web-slinging superhero climbing the outside of a building.

Slider Push-Up

For the slider push-up, you’re using a simple slider device to reach one arm forward as you perform a traditional bent-arm push-up with the opposite arm. This variation recruits more of the serratus anterior (outer chest muscle which controls the shoulder blades), while also increasing muscular tension on your chest and triceps.

If you have shoulder mobility issues, stay within a range of motion you can control by limiting how far you reach forward. The slider push-up challenges your shoulder stabilization and may improve shoulder health over time.

When to Use It

The slider push-up is a great exercise to eventually build up to a one-arm push-up because most of the work is done by one arm while the other is providing support. For maximum focus and strength, perform this exercise near the beginning of any workout, before fatiguing your chest and triceps with other exercises.

How to Do it

Kneel on the ground and put an exercise slider or furniture slider under each hand. Rotate your shoulders to put your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in a stacked position. Straighten your legs and stabilize your entire body in a front plank position. Engage your glutes and keep a tight core.

Lower into a push-up by bending one arm while keeping the opposite arm straight as it extends forward. After reaching the lowest comfortable position, pull the forward hand back while pressing the bent arm to lockout. Alternate sides with each repetition.

Suspension Strap Single-Arm Push-Up

This variation uses suspension straps, like gymnastic rings or TRX cables, to adjust your body angle which changes the intensity of the push-up. The straps also add an element of instability, which means you’re training core strength as well as upper body and lower body stabilizers.(4)

This exercise will help strengthen imbalances between sides and give you instant feedback if there is anything amiss with your pressing technique since it requires total focus and control.

When to Use It

Unilateral (single-arm) presses are great for strengthening imbalances between sides, since most people naturally have one slightly more developed or slightly stronger arm. If you find one arm lagging behind the other during the bench press or overhead press, this is an effective way to target each side on its own.

How to Do it

Loop the handles together and grip the strap over your shoulder with one hand. Adjust your intensity by moving your feet closer to the anchor point (harder) or further away (easier). Slowly lower yourself while keeping your shoulders square to the floor. Don’t rotate or shift to favor either side. While learning the movement, control the range of motion and don’t let your elbow go too far past your torso. Press back, reset, and repeat. Perform all reps on one side before switching.

Band-Resisted Push-Up

Bodyweight push-ups will never truly go out of style, and sometimes you just want to add resistance to this classic exercise. Putting weight plates on your back is okay, but it can get awkward to keep them in place as you move. This is where a looped resistance band comes in.

The band’s ascending resistance will make the exercise more difficult toward the top of the push-up, which maximizes your muscles’ peak contraction.

When to Use It

The band provides the majority of resistance in the upper end of the range of motion, which will help build triceps lockout strength and muscle gains for your chest and triceps. Do this when you want to add variety to your training, build some chest muscle, and put some pep back into your bench press without joint stress from a barbell.

How to Do it

Loop a resistance band around your upper back and put the ends of the band snugly under your hands. Place your hands underneath your shoulders and rise onto your toes in a front plank position. Keep a straight line through your core and squeeze your glutes. Slowly lower yourself down until your chest is nearly touching the floor. Think about driving your hands through the floor as you press back up and fight resistance to the starting position.

Archer Push-Up

This exercise has you performing a push-up with primarily one arm while the other arm provides support, similar to a slider push-up. The wide grip and long range of motion make this one of the more advanced push-up variations.

By alternating side to side, you allow each arm to do its own share of the work. This unique training angle also works the chest differently from most exercises, which can stimulate more muscle growth.

When to Use It

If your goal is to be able to do one-arm push-ups, archer push-ups can play a big role in getting you there. It can be used as a “gateway” movement to build the pressing strength and total-body stability needed to achieve a clean one-arm push-up.

How to Do it

Get on the ground with your toes planted and your hands set well-beyond shoulder-width. Your wrists and elbows may be more comfortable when your fingers point “out” toward the side walls instead of forward. Maintain a stiff body position through your core.

“Pull” your right chest down toward your right hand by bending your right elbow. Keep your left arm straight as your body approaches the ground. Press through your bent arm to return to the starting position and repeat to the opposite side. Alternate sides with each repetition, and perform an even amount of work on each side.

Yoga Push-Up

This unique exercise is one part push-up and one part “downward dog” yoga pose. It trains strength, mobility, and flexibility in your pressing muscles, core, upper back, lower back, hips, and lower body.

Your pecs and triceps get significant time under tension and a change of pressing angle similar to a decline push-up. The “downward dog”-like position helps to improve strength and mobility in the thoracic spine (upper back), hips, and hamstrings.

When to Use It

The yoga push-up is ideal when you’ve finally decided to perform some of the mobility work that often gets forgotten. It works well as a time-efficient warm-up before any workout, especially sessions that will involve chest pressing or shoulder training because it addresses the upper and lower back.

How to Do it

Start in a regular push-up position, on your toes and hands, with your body straight from head to heel. Descend into a standard push-up with your elbows roughly 45-degrees away from your torso. When your chest is slightly above the floor, press up while pushing your hips back at an upward angle. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings as your torso and legs form an upside down “V” shape.

Keep your shoulders relaxed and pushed away from your ears. Reverse the entire movement to transition back into the starting push-up position and repeat for reps.

Muscles Worked by the Push-Up

Most push-up movements primarily work the chest, with support from the shoulders and triceps, while the abdominals and lower back work to keep a strong core.

However, specific variations can emphasize the upper chest, focus more on core strength, or build shoulder and upper back mobility.

Pectorals

Your chest muscles are front and center with the push-up. Your pecs are largely responsible for arm adduction (bringing your arms closer to your centerline) which occurs when you push your body away from the floor.

Triceps

Once your elbows break 90-degrees as you press upwards, your triceps take over significantly to extend your elbows and lockout your arms. Performing any push-up with a relatively close-grip (your hands closer than shoulder-width) will also increase triceps activation. (5)

Anterior Deltoids

The shoulder muscle has three individual heads, each responsible for moving your arm in a different plane relative to your body. The anterior deltoid on the front of the shoulder works to “raise” your upper arm in front of your body. It assists your chest and triceps when pushing your body away from the ground.

Core

If your spine doesn’t stay neutral during the push-up, it all counts for naught because you’ll compromise joint health, safety, and efficiency. The anterior and posterior core — your abs and lower back — keep your torso rigid so your chest and triceps can apply maximum force. Single-arm movements like the slider push-up and single-leg movements like the Spiderman push-up require more core activation to counterbalance a reduced base of support.

Push-Up Form Tips

The most common technique flaw in the push-up is a loss of core stability. This results in an ugly-looking push-up which strains the lower back and increases the risk of injury. Your best bet is to engage your abs and glutes, and stop the movement if you find yourself losing spinal position.

Although there is nothing necessarily wrong with having your hands wider than shoulder-width apart when performing the basic push-up, be sure to keep your elbows angled near 45-degrees from your torso for most push-up movements. When your hands are placed wide, it’s more work on the shoulders (and shoulder joints) and less involvement from the chest and triceps.

The cardinal sin of almost all push-ups is reaching your head down to meet the floor. This is high risk on your cervical spine and neck, and it short-changes the effective range of motion for your target muscles. You can prevent this error by tucking your chin to your chest, pulling your head back to make a “double-chin”, and staring directly at the floor.

Push Yourself with New Exercises

Too many lifters write off the push-up as being “an easy exercise.” They underestimate its value because of the general lack of load and apparent simplicity of the movement. But as any of these variations showcase, a few tweaks here and there will take the bodyweight push-up to the next level by adding extra movement, changing the angle of work, or throwing stability requirements to the mix. Tackle some of these exercises and the push-up will never seem so “easy” again.

References

1. Rodríguez-Ridao, D., Antequera-Vique, J. A., Martín-Fuentes, I., & Muyor, J. M. (2020). Effect of Five Bench Inclinations on the Electromyographic Activity of the Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoid, and Triceps Brachii during the Bench Press Exercise. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(19), 7339. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197339
2. Sale D. G. (1988). Neural adaptation to resistance training. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 20(5 Suppl), S135–S145. https://doi.org/10.1249/00005768-198810001-00009
3. D’Antona, G., Lanfranconi, F., Pellegrino, M. A., Brocca, L., Adami, R., Rossi, R., Moro, G., Miotti, D., Canepari, M., & Bottinelli, R. (2006). Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres in male body builders. The Journal of physiology, 570(Pt 3), 611–627. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2005.101642
4. Borreani, S., Calatayud, J., Colado, J. C., Moya-Nájera, D., Triplett, N. T., & Martin, F. (2015). Muscle activation during push-ups performed under stable and unstable conditions. Journal of exercise science and fitness, 13(2), 94–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesf.2015.07.002
5. Kim, Y. S., Kim, D. Y., & Ha, M. S. (2016). Effect of the push-up exercise at different palmar width on muscle activities. Journal of physical therapy science, 28(2), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1589/jpts.28.446

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The push-up is one of the most fundamental bodyweight exercises, accessible to anyone, anywhere. Its usefulness as a test of upper body strength and core stability make it a mainstay for physical fitness assessments. Unfortunately, lifters sometimes regard the exercise as being “too basic” and not challenging enough.

Here’s a refresher on why the classic push-up should be part of your training plan, whether you’re new to fitness or a lifelong lifter.

• How to Do the Push-Up
• Push-Up Mistakes to Avoid
• Benefits of the Push-Up
• Muscles Worked by the Push-Up
• Who Should Do the Push-Up
• How to Program the Push-Up
• Push-Up Variations
• Push-Up Alternatives
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Push-Up

The goal of a push-up is to lower yourself down towards the floor, graze the ground, and then push back up. Keep in mind the phrase “light as a feather, stiff as a board,” from the levitating game from classic kids’ sleepovers or classic ’90s teenage witch movies.

For an efficient push-up, your whole body has to work together. It’s not just “a chest exercise.” All of the muscles — from your head to your toes — are going to work to keep your body in a powerful and stable position. When all of your muscles are working together, you’ll be at your strongest and the movement will be at its most efficient.

Step 1 — Begin in a Tall Plank Position

Get on the ground and support your body with your hands and the balls of your feet. Keep your arms and legs straight. Set your hands directly under your shoulders, just about shoulder-width apart. You may need to be a little wider depending on your frame and arm length.

Squeeze your glutes and tuck your hips toward your belly button. This will help keep your core from sagging. Keep your ribs and hips in alignment. It’s okay if your back ends up slightly rounded, because that’s more stable than having a sagging core.

Form Tip: For increased upper back stability and a stronger shoulder position, pull your shoulders toward your feet, away from your ears. For so many exercises, it’s important to lock your shoulders into place. Drilling this habit with the push-up is one effective way to learn a strong pressing posture.

Step 2 — Pull Yourself to the Ground

Don’t just drop into the bottom position. Think about pulling yourself down toward the ground. You want to be in total control of your movement. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lower yourself toward the floor. Maintain a “stiff as a board” plank position from your torso through your legs.

As your body descends, aim your elbows at roughly 45-degrees between your feet and shoulders. Feel muscular tension increasing in your chest, shoulders, and triceps as you approach the bottom position. Lower yourself as far as your mobility allows, with the goal of touching the floor.

Form Tip: Don’t allow your elbows to flare out as you lower yourself because it can increase stress on your shoulder joints. You may need to adjust your hand position to allow proper elbow tracking. If your fingers are pointed towards each other, your elbows will be more likely to flair. Position your hands with your fingers pointed straight ahead or slightly outward.

Step 3 — Press to Return to the Top Position

Once you graze the ground with your chest, or reach your lowest possible depth, push through your hands and feet to bring your body away from the ground. Keep your legs straight, but use the muscular tension stored head-to-toe to make your body “light as a feather.”

Apply steady force until your arms are fully locked and you’ve returned to the starting position. Pause briefly in the tall plank position and re-engage your core before beginning the next repetition.

Form Tip: You can change the tempo (rep speed) to adjust the difficulty of the exercise. Moving at a slower pace will increase the total time under tension and increase muscle recruitment, which can increase the muscle-building stimulus. (1)(2)

Push-Up Mistakes to Avoid

There are many different mistakes that can happen in a push-up because the movement involves coordinating your entire body from head to toe. However, the most common mistakes usually occur at your arms and in your core. Here’s what to watch out for.

Elbows Flaring Out

One frequent mistake is allowing your elbows to flare out during the exercise. For better results with less joint stress, be sure to keep your elbows at about 45-degrees. Don’t allow them to point sideways toward the walls.

Your elbow position can vary slightly depending on your individual arm length and leverages, but letting your elbows spread out toward your shoulders shifts more strain to your shoulder and elbow joints.

Avoid It: When you set up to begin the exercise, lock your shoulders into place by “un-shrugging” and pulling them away from your ears. When your elbows flare, it can drive your shoulders up toward your ears. By securing strong shoulders, your shoulders help to keep your elbows in position. Also be aware of maintaining this strong shoulder position as you begin pushing from the bottom of the movement.

Sagging Core

Another major mistake is your core sagging down toward the floor. Instead of falling out of core alignment, keep your rib cage and hips stacked evenly. This is the same fully engaged position you need during many standing exercises, like the overhead press.

When your core sags down and breaks the stable plank position, it’s an indicator that you’re not holding tension in your core. With this unstable position, the rest of the movement will be out of alignment. It also puts unwanted pressure on your spine, which can potentially lead to injury.

Avoid it: Many people have been told too many times that their butts are “too high in the air” while doing planks, so they try to compensate and the opposite occurs — they end up sagging to the ground.

It would be more effective to have your butt “too high” while you are gaining strength with the movement, rather than have your core sag down and compromise spinal stability. Tuck your pelvis and rib cage toward your belly button, as if doing a basic crunch. Hold this strong core position as you focus on lowering your body as one unit. 

Benefits of the Push-Up

Push-ups have several benefits including general muscular strength, muscular endurance, core stability, and longevity. Here’s a closer look at why you should work on this simple and effective bodyweight movement. 

Upper Body Strength

Push-ups are one of the most complete upper body, bodyweight exercises you can do. Without needing any training equipment whatsoever, you can challenge your chest, shoulder, and triceps muscles, as well as your core and hips.

Your legs, and even your back muscles, are also recruited as stabilizers to control your body’s movement during the exercise.

Versatility

Push-ups can build muscular size, endurance, or general strength. Each goal may involve different volumes (sets and reps) or intensity techniques, but the push-up is a quick and effective option to train for nearly any goal without any training equipment.

Relative Strength

The push-up is an efficient way to build, maintain, or monitor relative strength — being “strong for your size” or having a high degree of functional strength. Because it requires you to lift your bodyweight, the push-up can help to ensure or monitor relative strength gains as you build muscle. This may also be one reason why push-up capacity has been associated with general cardiovascular health. (3)

Muscles Worked by the Push-Up

Push-ups are most commonly known for working the pectoralis muscles (your chest), but push-ups work several other muscles throughout the body.

Pectoralis Major and Pec Minor

The pec major is the primary “chest muscle” and it is responsible for pulling the arms toward the body’s centerline. The is composed of two separate heads — the sternocostal and the clavicular — which work together during most movements.

The pectoralis minor is a supportive, stabilizing muscle located beneath the pec major. It plays a role in joint stability and is heavily recruited as the shoulder blades move during the exercise. The pec muscles are stretched as you descend toward the ground and they strongly contract as you push up from the floor.

Serratus

The serratus are found alongside your ribs, sometimes considered “armpit muscles” because they run near your underarm. This stabilizer muscle aids in keeping your shoulders and scapula in a strong, locked-in position as your arms press and extend during push-ups. They are significantly recruited as your approach lockout at the top of each repetition.

Triceps Brachii

Your triceps are made of three separate heads — the lateral, the long, and the medial. Because the triceps are responsible for straightening your arms at the elbow joint, they are recruited during all pressing exercises, including the push-up.

The triceps are more significantly activated if you perform a relatively close-grip push-up, as opposed to using a shoulder-width or greater hand position, which recruits more pec muscle. (4)

Anterior Deltoid

These muscles are found on the front of your shoulders. The anterior deltoids help to control arm movement in front of your body. During push-ups, the muscles lengthen as they aid in controlling your descent. They contract when you apply force to the top of the movement. 

Abdominals

Your abdominals, running along the front of your torso, act as a brace and provide upper body strength and support in conjunction with your hips and lower back. The abs are recruited to maintain a stable and efficient total-body pressing position. They are not put through any significant range of motion during push-ups. They work statically, holding one position from start to finish.

Who Should Do the Push-Up

Push-ups are for everyone — from bodybuilders and strength athletes to the general population who just want to be able to lift their kids. The simplicity and versatility of the push-up make it an useful exercise for the majority of people in the gym.

Bodybuilders and Physique-Focused Lifters

While the push-up may not offer relatively heavy loads, unless you add a weighted vest or other external resistance, its convenience and practicality make it an effective choice for supersets during a chest workout — immediately performing a set of push-ups after a set of dumbbell flyes, for example.

This is a simple way to increase total training volume and intensity during a workout, which can lead to improved muscle growth.

Strength Athletes

Lifters who continuously move heavy loads with barbell or dumbbell exercises can achieve comparable strength-building benefits from push-ups performed with added resistance. (5)(6) This allows load-focused lifters to increase their strength while reducing wear and tear on their shoulders and elbows from repetitive exercises.

General Trainees

Because push-ups are a fundamental bodyweight exercise, they are an excellent way to build functional, real-world strength with quick, efficient training. (7) The ability to perform push-ups anywhere there’s room on the ground (any room of the house, for example) makes it an ideal exercise for people who find it difficult to schedule consistent gym time.

How to Program the Push-Up

The beauty of bodyweight movements is that the range of volume (sets and reps) and intensity can be very broad. The volume and intensity depends on your goals and ability.  If you are more advanced, you can either do more volume or you can make the push-up more challenging. If you’re still learning the movement, focus on racking up quality repetitions instead of pushing your limits.

Unweighted, Low Repetition

When you’re first learning the push-up and establishing basic strength in the movement, you don’t need to do a ton of repetitions because your form will start to break down from fatigue. Three to four sets of four to six reps is a good place to start.

You’ll benefit from performing a few solid repetitions with perfect technique to create good movement patterns, and slowly increasing the volume.

Unweighted, High Repetition

High-repetition training can be an effective way to build muscle without putting your joints under any significant load. (8) Once you’ve mastered push-up technique, aiming to reach muscular fatigue for two to three sets of 25 or more repetitions can be a unique muscle-building stimulus for the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

In this high-rep range, your abdominals are also significantly challenged from holding the static support position for the duration of each set.

Weighted, Moderate Repetition

Advanced lifters, in particular, can benefit from adding resistance with a weighted vest, loaded backpack, or other alternative, and performing three to four sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. This is a time-tested approach, similar to traditional weight training, which challenges the muscles with significant time under tension to promote muscle growth.

Push-Up Variations

The beauty of push-ups is the incredibly long list of variations, which make push-ups suitable for just about everyone. Understanding the ability to regress, progress, or just have other options available will help you be able to learn push-ups or incorporate them into your existing program.

Incline Push-Up

Incline push-ups allow you to do a full range of motion push-up using a “decreased” body weight because you shift the leverage.

While incline push-ups are a regression (easier version) of the standard push-up, it can still be progressed by gradually lowering the height you use. You can start by leaning on a wall at a very high, nearly upright, angle and slowly progress your way to the floor.

At home, you can use sturdy countertops, couches, or stairs to adjust your incline over time. At the gym, using a flat bench is a simple solution. A Smith machine is also an excellent way to make the exercise incrementally more challenging as you slowly move the bar down the rack toward the floor.

Negative Push-Up

Negative push-ups are another effective favorite because, not only are they great for beginners, but they can also provide a fantastic challenge for more advanced lifters.

A “negative push-up,” simply means that you only focus on performing a slow, controlled descent (eccentric, or negative, phase) without trying to press yourself up to the starting position. You can “cheat” yourself back to the top by kneeling and resetting between each rep.

Advanced lifters, however, can add a regular-speed press to the top position or perform a press using the same slow tempo for an increased challenge.

Negative push-ups help to learn control of the movement, they help to work on core stability and strength. Take at least five seconds to complete the negative phase of the repetition. The longer it takes, the harder it will be, which in turn helps to build upper body strength. When using a slower slow speed, simply focus on using proper form with full core engagement and stability.

Single-Leg Push-Up

If you want to make push-ups more challenging without throwing weights on your back, just remove a limb from your base of support. By keeping one leg raised in the air throughout the exercise, you’re focusing your core to engage even more drastically to stabilize your entire body through your hips and working leg. Alternate the raised leg with each set to ensure balanced strength development.

Once you’ve mastered single-leg push-ups, keep both legs on the ground and work on single-arm push-ups — arguably one of the most advanced bodyweight exercises. If/when the time comes that single-arm push-ups aren’t tough, it’s time for single-arm/single-leg push-ups. Really. Lift your right arm and left foot off the ground, perform reps, then switch sides.

Push-Up Alternatives

Some lifters still might not be ready for push-ups. Maybe they live where there’s no ground to press from. Who knows? Let’s talk about alternative exercises that work muscles similarly to a push-up.

Dips

Dips are right at the top of the list with push-ups, as far as bodyweight chest exercises go. In comparison to push-ups, dips are typically harder because you can’t push through the floor with your legs. It’s also a slightly more “vertical” body position, making you lift a higher percentage of your bodyweight. To make dips more accessible to a broader range of the population, the exercise often needs to be modified. 

Bench dips, using a flat bench or sturdy chair, let you brace your legs similar to performing incline push-ups. It will help to decrease the amount of your body weight being used, but the altered body angle will emphasize your triceps more than your chest.

Performing dips with resistance bands is a very effective way to reduce the percentage of body weight you lift during the movement, allowing you to progress gradually. Dips do require a higher degree of upper back mobility and shoulder joint stability, so take your time progressing the movement and always work within a controlled range of motion.

Dumbbell Chest Press

The dumbbell chest press is a free weight alternative to the push-up. This basic exercise challenges all of the same muscles — chest, shoulders, and triceps — with the straightforward progression of added weight.

The exercise is adaptable and can be performed on a flat, incline, or decline bench. Dumbbells also allow the wrists to rotate freely, which can adjust hand position for altered muscle recruitment or increased comfort on the wrists and elbows.

You can even do dumbbell presses while lying on the floor to limit the range of motion, reduce shoulder strain, and increase triceps recruitment.

Bench Press

The big, basic, barbell bench press might be the most popular upper body exercise around. It’s a very effective alternative to the push-up and allows the use of potentially heavy weights.

This staple exercise can be adapted, like the dumbbell variation, with multiple angles and adjusted ranges of motion (like lying on the floor instead of a bench).

Many people jump to the barbell bench press as one of the first exercises they perform in the gym. But if they’ve ever practices push-ups at home, they’ve prepared themselves for the bench press without even realizing it.

FAQs

Why are push-ups so hard?

Push-ups challenge the whole body and require coordination and strength from head to toe — from your upper back and neck across your torso through your legs and into the ground.

Push-ups are hard for many people because it requires lifting your body weight off of the floor using the direct strength of your chest and arms, which are often undertrained, especially in beginners. With time, practice, and inevitable strength gains, the exercise can start to feel easier, more controlled, and much more natural.

Can I do push-ups every day?

The simple answer is: Yes. The more complicated answer is: Yes, but… don’t forget to listen to your body and rest your muscles as needed. When you’re just starting to learn how to do push-ups, performing five to 10 reps a day can help to build good patterns.

You can even do very low-rep sets multiple times throughout the day to benefit from “greasing the groove,” or building strength and technique with high frequency training.

However you need to make sure that you don’t train every day with high intensity and you don’t train to muscular failure. You need to rest the muscles and allow them to recover so that you don’t overtrain.

Get Pushin’ with the Push-Up

Everyone can do push-ups, anywhere, anytime. From young lifters to competitive athletes to elderly adults, push-ups can help to keep your training plan convenient and accessible so your body stays strong. You’re never too strong, too experienced, or too new to hit the deck and gimme 20. Or 10. Or even five perfect reps.

References

1. Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. K., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
2. Hsu, Hsiu-Hao & Chou, You-Li & Huang, Yen-Po & Huang, Ming-Jer & Lou, Shu-Zon & Pei, Paul & Chou, Hsi. (2011). Effect of Push-up Speed on Upper Extremity Training until Fatigue. Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering. 31. 10.5405/jmbe.844. 
3. Yang J, Christophi CA, Farioli A, et al. Association Between Push-up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(2):e188341. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.8341
4. Kim, Y. S., Kim, D. Y., & Ha, M. S. (2016). Effect of the push-up exercise at different palmar width on muscle activities. Journal of physical therapy science, 28(2), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1589/jpts.28.446
5. Calatayud, J., Borreani, S., Colado, J. C., Martin, F., Tella, V., & Andersen, L. L. (2015). Bench press and push-up at comparable levels of muscle activity results in similar strength gains. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 29(1), 246–253. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000589
6. Kotarsky, C. J., Christensen, B. K., Miller, J. S., & Hackney, K. J. (2018). Effect of Progressive Calisthenic Push-up Training on Muscle Strength and Thickness. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 32(3), 651–659. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000002345
7. Harrison, Jeffrey. (2010). Bodyweight Training: A Return To Basics. Strength & Conditioning Journal. 32. 52-55. 10.1519/SSC.0b013e3181d5575c. 
8. Schoenfeld, B. J., Peterson, M. D., Ogborn, D., Contreras, B., & Sonmez, G. T. (2015). Effects of Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy in Well-Trained Men. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 29(10), 2954–2963. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000958

Featured Image: Roman Chazov / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Push-Up — Benefits, Variations, and More appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This battle-tested exercise is unique since it delivers a stronger back and abs for huge carryover to almost every other major lift. Plus, bigger muscles in the back, shoulders, and arms will improve any physique. All while using only your bodyweight. You don’t need a gym to find plenty of gains.

• How to Do the Pull-Up 
• Pull-Up Mistakes to Avoid
• Benefits of the Pull-Up
• Muscles Worked by the Pull-Up
• Who Should Do the Pull-Up
• How to Program the Pull-Up
• Pull-Up Variations
• Pull-Up Alternatives
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Pull-Up

Pull-ups are a great addition to any strength program. The simple movement of lifting yourself up to a bar will provide a great range of benefits that assist in general strength, posture, and core stability.

Step 1 — Hang From a Bar

Start hanging from a straight bar with your core stabilized to prevent your body from swaying. Set your hands so they’re a smidge wider than shoulder-width using a pronated (overhand or palms down) grip. To maintain balance and coordination, you can cross one foot over the other at your ankles.

Form Tip: When stabilizing your core, imagine someone is about to punch you in the stomach. The initial flinch of tightening your stomach will place you in an effective bracing position.

Step 2 — Pull Your Chest Towards the Bar

Take a breath before beginning to pull yourself towards the bar. Pull your shoulder blades together to recruit your upper back muscles. Maintain that squeeze while bending your elbows to raise your body. Exhale throughout the movement. Lean back very slightly on the way up.

When your neck is near the bar, you’ve completed the concentric (pulling) portion of the rep. In the top position, your torso should be angled slightly backwards with your elbows near your ribs.

Form Tip: To improve muscle coordination and muscle fiber recruitment, pause at the top for one or two seconds.

Step 3 — Lower Under Control

Start the eccentric (lowering) portion of the rep by extending your elbows to lower your body. Breathe in and keep your core engaged. Do not swing to create momentum between each rep. Keep your legs hanging directly down.

Form Tip:To improve the quality of each rep and prevent any swaying, lower yourself over two seconds and pause at the bottom before beginning the next rep.

Pull-Up Mistakes to Avoid

The pull-up is a basic bodyweight exercise, but there are several common technique errors to avoid in order to build strength and muscle while reducing joint strain.

Not Using a Full Range of Motion

The half-rep pull-up is an all too common issue seen in many gyms. Some lifters smash out rep after rep while only descending halfway down before rushing straight back to the top. When it comes to maximizing strength and muscle gains, these half-reps are counterproductive.

The shortened range of motion reduces the muscle’s time under tension, which can reduce muscle growth and strength development.

Avoid it: Leave your ego at the door and focus on quality reps over quantity. Lower yourself into a fully stretched position before re-engaging your muscles to lift yourself back up.

Excessive Swinging

Stabilizing the body is crucial for minimizing stress on the shoulder joint. If you are trying to build strength and muscle, using an excessive amount of swinging is not going to help and may make things worse in the long run.

CrossFit training has popularized “kipping pull-ups”, a specific exercise variation which has the trainee deliberately swing the lower body back and forth throughout each rep. This generates momentum which helps to perform high-rep sets and turns the back-building pull-up into a full-body exercise. Kipping is a specific technique used for a specific purpose. It’s also a deliberately learned skill, it’s not meant to be an accidental way to perform basic pull-ups.

Avoid it: Focus on the core-engaging cue explained in step one of the setup. While hanging and before pulling, flex your stomach as if you were about to be punched in the gut. Maintain this ab tension throughout each rep.

Benefits of the Pull-Up

The pull-up is a second-to-none vertical pulling exercise. When performed correctly, it can emphasize the development of strength and muscle across the entire upper body, support overall posture, and help general shoulder and upper back mobility.

Getting Bigger and Stronger

Because so many muscles are involved in the exercise, the pull-up delivers a serious bang for your buck. This one movement builds muscle through the entire back, shoulders, and arms. Even the abs get a solid workout. It is also a very easy exercise to progressively overload (make more challenging, often with added weight), which makes the exercise ideal for building strength.

Carries Over to Multiple Exercises

The pull-up recruits and builds muscles which play key roles in many other lifts. Strengthening these support muscles translates to improvement in other exercises. For example, strengthening the lats, upper back, and middle back can carryover to the bench press where you need to retract your shoulder blades into the bench to create stability and control when pressing a heavy weight.

Better Grip Strength

While there are specific exercises to build a stronger grip, simply performing the pull-up strengthens your forearms and grip without additional wear and tear that may occur from more grip-focused exercises like the deadlift. Because you’re hanging from the bar supporting your bodyweight during each set, your grip strength is being consistently trained from the first rep to the last.

Muscles Worked by Pull-Up

The pull-up is a compound movement, meaning it involves multiple joints and recruits multiple muscle groups at once. Here’s a breakdown of the muscles worked by the pull-up.

Latissimus Dorsi

The lats are the largest back muscle, attaching at the upper arm and along the spine near the lower back. They serve two primary functions. First, they bring the arm closer to the body from out to the side. Second, they bring the arm closer to the body from out in front. This is why the lats are heavily activated when your arms begin overhead and pull down and in to raise your body during a pull-up.

Upper Back

The upper back (generally including the rear deltoid of the shoulder, the trapezius, and the rhomboids) functions to control movement of the scapulae (shoulder blades) and to support the shoulder joints under muscular stress, particularly in the bottom portion of the pull-up.

Trapezius

While sections of the traps fall into the “upper back” category, the trapezius is a large muscle on its own and serves a big role during pull-ups. The middle portion of the traps help to pull your shoulders back while extending your elbows behind you while also stabilizing your shoulders when you move your arms.Your lower traps are crucial to many other lifts and are highly activated during pull-ups. (1)

Biceps Brachii

The biceps are composed of two heads: a long head commonly referred to as the “outer” and a short head referred to as the “inner.” Both muscle heads originate at the scapulae and insert on the radius bone of the forearm. The biceps play a relatively smaller, but important, role during pull-ups to complete the top part of the movement. They are more significantly activated and play a larger role in the chin-up variation.

Lower Back

The muscles of the lower back, or lumbar spine, have been shown to be recruited during pull-ups even though they aren’t moved through a significant range of motion. Because these muscles control your torso bending at the hips, they work during the exercise to maintain a stable core position and keep a straight line from your shoulders to your knees or feet.

Rectus Abdominis

The abs are surprisingly worked to a very significant degree during pull-ups. While most lifters are more familiar with the abs’ role in flexing your torso in a curled position, they’re highly activated to maintain a stiff, solid torso. Similar to the lower back, the abs work to prevent bending at the hips.

Who Should Do the Pull-Up

Training for Bodyweight Strength

Many bodyweight training-focused lifters consider the pull-up to be an essential test of strength. Because strength is a skill, if you want to improve your pull-up numbers, you need to get better at the exercise itself. This skill comes from repeated efforts, rep after rep.

Training for Muscle

To increase muscularity, the pull-up should be a recurring movement in your workouts. The activation of multiple muscles combined with a long range of motion provide a muscle-building stimulus that very few upper body exercises can match.

How to Program the Pull-Up

The pull-up can be programmed with a variety of sets, reps, and tempo schemes. The exercise is ideally performed at the beginning of your workout. This will make sure your body has the energy required to perform this comprehensive movement without sacrificing your technique or increasing injury risk.

Weighted, Low Repetition

To maximize basic strength in the pull-up, completing four to six sets in the three to six rep range is the place to start. Use a weight that leaves you with at least two reps left “in the tank” to avoid reaching muscular failure. A rest period of three to five minutes between each set will ensure you lift with maximum effort.

However, to ensure proper technique, you should only add weight once you can comfortably handle moderate to high-rep sets using your bodyweight.

Unweighted, Moderate Repetition

To ensure growth in the working muscles, three to four sets in the six to 12 rep range will increase overall training volume, which is beneficial for building muscle. (2) The multiple sets and reps also allow you to improve your pull-up technique.

Modified Cluster Sets

Some lifters, especially beginners, may not be able to perform pull-ups for multiple sets of multiple reps. Even performing one or two reps may be challenging. This is where cluster sets are beneficial. Cluster sets allow a lifter to perform multiple low-rep “mini-sets” (or clusters) with a heavy weight while avoiding excessive muscular fatigue. You can apply the same technique to bodyweight pull-ups.

This modified cluster set method will have three sets of three reps in one cluster (if you can currently perform four or five reps with good form). Perform three reps, rest for 15 to 30 seconds, perform another three reps, rest for 15 to 30 seconds, and perform a final group of three reps. That entire series is one set. Take two minutes rest before repeating two more sets.

Because three sets of three cluster reps is comparable to performing nine reps in a single set. This will allow you to get stronger, maximize the recruitment of high-threshold muscle fibers (specialized muscle fibers which improve power output), and increase total working volume which can lead to more muscle.

Note: If you cannot perform three reps with good technique, you can use the cluster set method while performing one or two reps per cluster.

Pull-Up Variations

The basic pull-up is staple in many experienced lifters’ routines, but simple variations can be used for specific goals. Even after you’ve mastered the pull-up, you can implement some of these variations into your training.

Negative Pull-Ups

To perform negative pull-ups, you will need to stand on a box or bench under a pull-up bar. Take hold of the bar with a basic shoulder-width grip and jump up to get your chin above the bar.

Take at least five seconds to lower yourself into the stretched position. Once fully stretched, put your feet on the box again, return to the top position, and repeat until you hit your target rep range.

Chin-Up

One of the most basic pull-up variations is simply reversing your grip. By grabbing the bar with a supinated (underhand or palm-up) grip, you more directly recruit the biceps.

This makes the exercise fit very well into a specific arm workout or it can add “extra” arm training to your back workout.

Wide-Grip Pull-Up

The wide-grip pull-up requires grabbing the bar several inches wider than shoulder-width. Pull yourself up as high as possible and lower yourself under complete control.

The different grip changes the arm position overhead, which changes the range of motion and puts the lats, upper back, and biceps under a different angle of stretch, which creates a unique training stimulus.

Pull-Up Alternatives

You might not be ready to complete a full set of pull-ups, which is no big deal because we all start somewhere. The first priority is understanding the prime movers involved in the pull-up and how to strengthen them. The muscles most activated in the pull-up are the lats, mid and lower traps, biceps, and your core. (3) The following exercises will help you build strength in these important muscle groups.

Scapula Pull-Ups

Scapula pull-ups can help strengthen your grip and lower traps which both play a large role in performing the full pull-up effectively.

Start by hanging from the bar with a shoulder-width grip. Keep your shoulders “shrugged” down away from your ears. Without bending at your elbows, pull your scapulae downwards while pulling your body up. It’s a very short but impactful range of motion. Hold for a slight pause at the top and lower yourself slowly by allowing your scapula to “open up” until you are at a full stretch.

To progress, start by increasing the amount of reps done in each set until you can handle 12 to 15. Once mastered, this exercise can be used within your general warm-up sequence before full pull-ups.

Kneeling Lat Pulldowns

The kneeling lat pulldown will help strengthen the lats, core, and biceps. Use a cable machine, kneeling on the ground while mimicking the exact same starting position as you would for the pull-up.

Keep yourself upright with your glutes flexed to provide stability and increase core activation. Every muscle must remain tight from the ground up.

To progress, you can introduce one and one-half reps — one full rep includes pulling all the way down, releasing the weight halfway up, pulling down again, and releasing to a full stretch. This is a great technique that can be used to emphasize the tension placed on the muscles from both the start of the pull-up and the end of the pull-up.

Inverted Row

The inverted row will help to strengthen the pulling strength of your lats, core, and arms while also emphasizing the mid-traps and upper back. A Smith machine is perfect for this exercise since you can easily adjust the height of the bar while also being in a stable, fixed position.

To progress, lower the height of the bar to adjust leverage and increase the challenge. Eventually you can elevate your feet to put your entire body into a more horizontal position.

Banded Pull-Ups

The banded pull-up is a great way to improve your muscle coordination from a neurological standpoint since strength is a skill built on repetition. (4) The banded pull-up is going to allow you to better prepare yourself to perform the concentric (pulling) portion of the movement since the bands will assist your strength in the bottom position.

Attach a resistance band to the top of a bar and get yourself into position with the band supporting your body, either with bent knees or keeping your legs straight.

To progress, make your way up resistance bands offering less resistance until you are ready to perform your pull-ups with full bodyweight.

FAQs

Can I get a six-pack from doing pull-ups?

No single exercise can give you a six-pack. That can only be achieved through a reduction in body fat, fat loss-focused training, and a calorie-controlled nutrition plan.

With that being said, pull-ups may help with improving the final look of your abs because they are heavily recruited during the exercise, as explained in the muscles-worked section. Pull-ups are an awesome and overlooked exercise for training your abs. You can expect a more prominent set of abs once you do get lean enough.

When can I start performing weighted pull-ups?

The exact timeframe can vary from individual to individual since some people are capable of performing pull-ups in a very short time. However, once you can accomplish three to four sets of 12 reps using your bodyweight, you’ve likely built the technique, coordination, and strength to tackle low-rep weighted pull-ups.

How many times per week should I perform pull-ups?

For building strength and muscle, and taking into consideration the recovery ability of the involved muscle groups, performing this exercise twice per week will be the best place to start. (5) Make sure to give yourself at least two or three days rest between workouts.

For the purpose of getting more technique practice and perfecting this movement, you can implement bodyweight pull-ups as a part of your general warm-up for upper body workouts or even for workouts where a back-focused exercise like the deadlift may be performed. The aim for this technique training would be not to fatigue your back muscles, but to mobilize and activate the associated muscles that are going to be used in those workouts..

References

1. Youdas JW, Amundson CL, Cicero KS, Hahn JJ, Harezlak DT, Hollman JH. Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Dec;24(12):3404-14. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181f1598c. PMID: 21068680.
2. Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, et al. Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019;51(1):94-103. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764
3. Hewit, Jennifer. (2018). A Comparison of Muscle Activation during the Pull-up and Three Alternative Pulling Exercises. Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports. 5. 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.05.555669.
4. Ochi, E., Maruo, M., Tsuchiya, Y., Ishii, N., Miura, K., & Sasaki, K. (2018). Higher Training Frequency Is Important for Gaining Muscular Strength Under Volume-Matched Training. Frontiers in physiology, 9, 744. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00744
5. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 46(11), 1689–1697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8

Featured Image: UfaBizPhoto / Shutterstock

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Bodyweight training is convenient, can be done anywhere, and can be easily modified to fit nearly any fitness goal. Let’s stop ignoring bodyweight workouts and formulate an effective plan for any goal with modifications, intensity techniques, and detailed explanations of execution.

The Best Bodyweight Workouts

• For More Muscle
• For Strength
• For Conditioning
• For Beginners

Bodyweight Workout for More Muscle

To build muscle, you need to overload the muscle with the right amount of stress so it will respond by getting bigger and stronger. Utilizing bodyweight exercises to accomplish this will take some creativity, but it’s absolutely possible.

One of the few “compromises” made with bodyweight training is that it can be more difficult to directly target certain muscle groups (particularly smaller muscles like the arms and shoulders). Fortunately, these muscles are sufficiently worked by focusing on larger exercises combined with specially adjusted movement to emphasize the smaller muscles.

Focus on modifying certain bodyweight movements to make them more challenging. Using strict form and slowing down each movement so you feel every inch of the motion is essential to reap the most benefit.

The Bodyweight Bodybuilding Workout

The following workout can be done three times per week on non-consecutive days. For example, you can train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. You can also simply replace one or two of your traditional gym workouts with one or two bodyweight workouts.

Start slow and deliberate, and perfect your form on each exercise before making them more challenging.

Bulgarian Split Squat

• How to Do It: Place on foot behind you onto a bench or chair. Lower your body straight down until your rear knee is almost touching the floor. To make it more challenging, lower down all the way, drive up halfway, then lower down all the way again, and finally press all the way up. That is one rep.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest Time: 30 seconds between sides.

Feet-Elevated Push-Up

• How to Do It: Begin in a push-up position with your hands and toes on the ground. Place your feet onto a bench, chair, or step behind you. Keeping your body straight, slowly lower your chest to the floor, pause at the bottom, and then press powerfully to rise up. To make it tougher, either have a partner place a weight plate on your back or place a band around your upper back while grasping each end with your hands on the floor.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Inverted Row

• How to Do It: Lie on the floor facing up under a stationary bar set around hip height (or a sturdy table). Grasp the bar with an overhand grip a little wider than shoulder-width. Keep your body straight and your heels on the floor. Pull your chest to the bar and then return to the bottom position without resting on the floor. For more of a challenge, place your heels on a bench or chair to shift leverage and increase the load on your upper body.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Lying Leg Curl

• How to Do It: Lie on the floor with your heels on an exercise ball or a pair of furniture sliders. A towel on a hardwood or tile floor can also work. Put your arms out to your sides for added stability. Curl your lower legs toward you by pulling with your heels. Bring your hips up and keep a straight line from your upper back to your knees. Contract your hamstrings at the top position and slowly lower back down.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Triangle Push-Up

• How to Do It: Begin in a full push-up position with your hands and toes on the ground with your hands a bit inside of shoulder-width. With a rigid body, lower yourself down to the floor and then press up slowly and under control. For more of a challenge, place your feet on an elevated box or bench to shift more bodyweight towards your upper body.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest Time: 30 seconds between sets.

Inverted Biceps Curl

• How to Do It: Lie face up on the floor under a sturdy hip-height bar as if you were to perform an inverted row. Grasp the bar with an underhand grip about shoulder-width apart. Pull your body up and focus on bending mainly at your elbows, allowing your arms to perform a classic curling motion. Squeeze at the top and then return towards the floor.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15
• Rest Time: 30 seconds between sets.

Bodyweight Workout for Strength

Strength can take many forms and bodyweight training is surprisingly effective for developing power. What’s the difference between pure strength and power? Both cultivate strength. However, power is your ability to move a specific load quickly. Think of Olympic weightlifting or throwing a heavy medicine ball.

Manipulating your bodyweight is a natural and effective way to build more strength and power, either on its own or to enhance your current workouts. (1)(2)

The Strong and Powerful Bodyweight Workout

Try the following workout to facilitate more strength. You can also insert it into any traditional training program as an additional workout to add a different element or to get you out of your comfort zone with something new. Execute the exercises with proper technique and controlled explosive force.

Plyo Push-Up

• How to Do It: Assume the traditional push-up position. Lower yourself to the floor in a slow and controlled manner then rapidly reverse direction applying as much power as possible. You should generate enough power to launch your hands off the floor.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 5
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Jump Squat

• How to Do It: Create a solid base by spreading your feet wider than your shoulders. Bend down into a squat position forming an approximate 90-degree angle at your knees. Utilizing your entire body to generate power, jump as high as you can straight up. Cushion your landing by bending legs. Take the time to set up your stance again before the next rep.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 10
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Negative Pull-Up

• How to Do It: Stand under a pull-up bar on a box or bench. Grab the bar with an overhand grip. Jump up to begin with your chin over the bar and your feet off the box or bench. Very slowly lower your body until your arms are fully extended. Get your feet back on the bench and jump up to the starting position for the next rep.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 5
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Depth Jump

• How to Do It: Stand on a box, bench, or step no higher than 18 inches. Step off the edge — do not jump off. Cushion your landing by bending your knees and immediately reverse direction to jump straight up. That is one rep. Walk back on top of the box or step and repeat for reps.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 5-10
• Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

Bodyweight Workout for Conditioning

While bodyweight training can be programmed for many different goals, it’s most commonly associated with circuit-style workouts to build endurance and conditioning. (3)(4)

With anytime, anywhere convenience and the overall simplicity of programming, conditioning workouts using your own body are a perfect combination. Not needing to rotate between different machines or equipment makes bodyweight exercises an ideal choice for circuit workouts.

The Bodyweight Circuit

This workout is done as a circuit — moving from one exercise immediately to the next and the next, for several rounds. However, one of the most important factors is to avoid rushing through the exercises.

Approach each exercise deliberately while using proper form and technique. Once your form starts to deteriorate, terminate the set and move on to the next exercise.

• Push-Up: Perform a full push-up with your hands and toes on the ground with your hands outside of shoulder-width. Keep a straight line throughout your body. Use a full range of motion from the ground to lockout.
• Squat: With your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, squat as low as possible before standing fully upright. Keep your feet flat on the ground throughout each rep.
• Crunch: Lie on the ground facing up with your legs bent and your feet flat. Contract your abs to raise your shoulders slightly off the ground. Keep your tailbone and lower back in contact with the ground.
• Walking Lunge: Take a long step forward, descend into a lunge until your rear knee touches the ground. Stand upright while bringing your rear foot forwards. Alternate sides when stepping forward.
• Triangle Push-Up: Set your hands inside shoulder-width. Perform a basic push-up keeping only your toes and hands on the ground. Lower to the ground and extend to full lockout.
• Jump Squat: Stand with your feet more than shoulder-width apart. Squat until your hips are in line with your knees. Use your arms and entire body to explosively stand up, jumping straight into the air. Bend your legs upon landing and stand upright before beginning the next rep.
• Plank: Begin in a modified push-up position with your toes, elbows, and forearms on the ground. Maintain a rigid body. Tightly contract your abs and glutes for 10 to 15 seconds per set.

How to Do It: Execute proper form for each exercise. Focus on technique, not speed, during each individual movement.

Sets and Reps: 3 to 5 rounds of 10 to 15 reps per exercise.

Rest Time: No rest between exercises, three minutes rest after each round.

Bodyweight Workout for Beginners

Bodyweight training is one of the most fundamental forms of exercise. It’s not only a convenient way of training; it also enables an individual to harness and control their own body and to develop true total-body strength and coordination. It’s one thing to deadlift a significant load but quite another to perform a set of 20 pull-ups.

If you’re a more traditional barbell-focused lifter and want to improve your overall performance, bodyweight training will only enhance your capabilities.

The Beginner’s Bodyweight Workout

This workout is designed to develop the fundamentals of bodyweight training specifically. These foundational movements will serve as a backbone for all other exercises and stimulate an improved neuromuscular connection with each muscle group. This will only help to your advantage in performing different exercises, with bodyweight or free weights.

• Push-Up: Perform a full push-up with your hands and toes on the ground with your hands outside of shoulder width. Keep a straight line throughout your body. Use a full range of motion from the ground to lockout.
• Inverted Row: Set a sturdy bar at hip height and lie on the ground beneath it. Grab the bar with an overhand grip. Maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your toes. Pull your chest towards the bar and lower to full extension.
• Negative Pull-Up: Stand under a pull-up bar on a box or bench. Grab the bar with an overhand grip. Jump up to begin with your chin over the bar and your feet off the box or bench. Slowly lower your body until your arms are fully extended. Get your feet back on the bench and jump up to the starting position for the next rep.
• Triangle Push-Up: Set your hands inside shoulder-width. Perform a basic push-up keeping only your toes and hands on the ground. Lower to the ground and extend to full lockout.
• Squat: With your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, squat as low as possible before standing fully upright. Keep your feet flat on the ground throughout each rep.
• Lunge: Begin with your feet together. Step forward with one foot. Keep your torso upright while lowering your body until your rear knee touches the ground. Stand upright and return to the starting position. Complete all reps on one side before switching legs.
• Crunch: Lie on the ground facing up with your legs bent and feet flat. Contract your abs to raise your shoulders slightly off the ground. Keep your tailbone and lower back in contact with the ground.

How to Do It: Perform each exercise with proper form. Focus on perfecting technique before increasing reps. Be sure to perform each movement with a slow and controlled cadence.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15 for each exercise.

Rest Time: 60 seconds between sets.

How to Warm-Up

Just because you’re not “lifting weights” doesn’t mean you can skip a proper warm-up. Before each bodyweight workout, perform a simple warm-up to increase your core temperature and improve blood flow.

This gets your entire body ready for the work ahead and helps to prevent injuries. Do each warm-up exercise separately and without going to muscular failure.

The Full-Body Bodyweight Warm-Up

• Jumping Jack: Begin standing with your feet together and arms down at your sides. Slightly jump up and land with your feet spread apart while raising both arms sideways above your head. Jump up again and land in the starting position. That series in one rep. Perform two sets of 20 reps.
• Burpee: Begin standing upright. Squat down and place your hands on the ground. Jump your feet back and land on your toes in a push-up position. Perform one push-up. Jump your feet back in near your hands. Jump straight into the air, bending your knees upon landing. That’s one total rep. Perform two sets of 10 reps.
• Lunge: Begin with your feet together. Step forward with one foot. Keep your torso upright while lowering your body until your rear knee touches the ground. Stand upright and return to the starting position. Complete all reps on one side before switching legs. Perform two sets of 10 reps on each leg.

A Return to Bodyweight Training

With the popularity of bodyweight training increasing and its benefits becoming more and more recognized, it has proven to be a significant training method for anyone, no matter their goal.

Most lifters believe they need a fully equipped gym to build muscle, get stronger, or improve conditioning, but the right bodyweight workout can deliver results and add a different element to any fitness workouts.

References

1. Calatayud J, Borreani S, Colado JC, Martin F, Tella V, Andersen LL. Bench press and push-up at comparable levels of muscle activity results in similar strength gains. J Strength Cond Res. 2015 Jan;29(1):246-53. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000589. PMID: 24983847.
2. Tillaar RVD. Comparison of Kinematics and Muscle Activation between Push-up and Bench Press. Sports Med Int Open. 2019;3(3):E74-E81. Published 2019 Sep 5. doi:10.1055/a-1001-2526
3. Archila LR, Bostad W, Joyner MJ, Gibala MJ. Simple Bodyweight Training Improves Cardiorespiratory Fitness with Minimal Time Commitment: A Contemporary Application of the 5BX Approach. Int J Exerc Sci. 2021 Apr 1;14(3):93-100. PMID: 34055156; PMCID: PMC8136567.
4. Martins FM, de Paula Souza A, Nunes PRP, Michelin MA, Murta EFC, Resende EAMR, de Oliveira EP, Orsatti FL. High-intensity body weight training is comparable to combined training in changes in muscle mass, physical performance, inflammatory markers and metabolic health in postmenopausal women at high risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus: A randomized controlled clinical trial. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Jul 1;107:108-115. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.02.016. Epub 2018 Feb 19. PMID: 29471132.

Featured Image: DmitryStock / Shutterstock

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I love research that makes exercise more accessible to everyone. An article published by the American College of Sports Medicine^[1] does just that. Researchers reviewed the literature on high-intensity circuit training and designed a circuit of bodyweight exercises that can be performed anywhere in a little less than eight minutes.

The exercises in the circuit are performed continuously at high intensity for 30 seconds each, with 10 seconds of rest and transition between exercises. The 12 exercises in the circuit are:

1. Jumping Jacks

2. Wall Sit

3. Push-Ups

4. Crunches

5. Step-Ups

6. Squats

7. Dips

8. Planks

9. Running in place

10. Lunges

11. Push-Ups with Rotation

12. Side plank

While this short circuit isn’t going to turn anyone into an elite athlete, it could help break down barriers to exercise for those who won’t make time to get into the gym. It could also be a great option for athletes who travel. Athletes needing even more of a challenge can repeat the circuit multiple times.

High-intensity circuits also depend on the athlete working at high intensity. This is tough for people who are deconditioned or new to exercise. I often read mainstream articles, like this one from the New York Times, that trumpet the fact you can get a complete workout in just a handful of minutes.

I do not believe most of these authors truly understand the demands of working at a very high intensity for 4-7 minutes. It is neither comfortable nor enjoyable, yet they act as if a few minutes of high-intensity work is far preferable to 20 minutes on a treadmill.

I am reminded of a quote from The Princess Bride applied to the phrase ‘high intensity’: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

But for the right audience at the right time, this could be a useful circuit for maintaining your fitness while on vacation or getting started exercising with limited time and budget. Try it out and let us know what you think!

References

1. Brett Klika and Chris Jordan. High-Intensity Circuit Training Using Body Weight: Maximum Results with Minimal Investment. ACSM’S Health & Fitness Journal: May/June 2013 – Volume 17 – Issue 3 – p 8–13. doi: 10.1249/FIT.0b013e31828cb1e8

The post The 8-Minute Bodyweight Circuit: Does It Actually Work? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What if you have a few minutes only, a little time before you get back to work, pick up the kids, go to your next appointment? Do you get in a quick workout in or scroll through the posts on your phone?

The exercises that follow can be done in a quarter of an hour. They are simple and you can do them anywhere. And, at the end of the article, I have shown you how you can adapt them with a friend or training partner to create the Deck of Cards workout and challenge yourself more deeply at the gym. So the following exercises in sequence, no rest in-between, like a circuit, and see how far you get in 15 minutes.

Inchworm

Standing up tall with your legs straight (can have slight bend), bring your fingertips down to the ground and slowly walk your hands forward until you are in a pushup position, complete two pushups (that’s one more than what’s in this demo video), then walk your feet up back to the original position. That’s one rep. Do – 5 Reps.

Squat With Pause

With your feet shoulder-width apart, core engaged, bring your butt back and down until your hips are aligned with your knees. Pause for a three-count and then bring yourself back up to the original position. If this is too easy, then grab a weighted object to hold close to your chest. Do – 15 Reps.

T-Push Up

Start with your hands and feet shoulder-width apart and the crease of your elbow facing forward. Keep your core engaged as you lower yourself until your nose is an inch off of the ground. Push up to the starting position as you rotate your body to one side and extend that hand overhead, forming a T with your torso and arms. Do – 6 Reps (each side).

Squat Jump

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and lower yourself until you are in a quarter squat position, then explosively jump straight in the air. Land with soft feet by lowering right into the quarter-squat position with minimal force. Do – 15 Reps.

Elbow Plank-to-Push Up

Start in a plank position with both elbows/forearms on the ground, then place one hand flat on the ground and push yourself up into the top of a push-up position, pause for a second, then bring yourself back down to the original plank. Repeat this process, alternating the hand you place down on the ground first. Do – 6 Reps (each side).

Side Plank

Start out on your side with your elbow directly under your shoulder and your legs straight. Keep your core engaged as you drive your hip into the air, pause for a three-second count, then return to the starting position. Repeat these steps on your other side. Do – 10 Reps (each side).

Diamond Push Up

Start out at the top of a push-up position with your hands forming a diamond. Lower yourself until your nose is about an inch off the ground, then push yourself back up to the starting position. Do – 15 Reps.

Lunge Jump

Start in a standing position. Take a step forward lowering yourself until your back knee is a couple of inches off the ground. Explosively jump up, landing back in the original position. That’s one. Complete all prescribed reps on one leg before switching to the other. Do – 10 Reps (each side).

The Deck of Cards Workout

You need a training partner, a deck of cards, and you’re ready to challenge yourself more dynamically. It’s really simple to push yourself, get results and have some fun so, you can keep this routine in your back pocket for any time you are stuck for a workout:

1. Pick a bodyweight exercise: you could start with either push-ups or squats.
2. Pick a card.
3. Perform the number of reps that you see on the card with the exercise you choose. Either: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack (11), Queen (12), King (13), or Ace (15).
4. Have your training partner pick a card and do the reps on the card.
5. Go through all the cards in the deck.
6. You can do combos of exercises, too, mixing two or three different exercises.

The post The No Excuse Deck of Cards Bodyweight Workout appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”

– Henry David Thoreau

School is back in session and we are all coming up with our best plans for a new year. Yet middle school coaches and PE teachers are often faced with a lack of resources.

They lack:

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”

– Henry David Thoreau

School is back in session and we are all coming up with our best plans for a new year. Yet middle school coaches and PE teachers are often faced with a lack of resources.

They lack:

• Coaches: The athlete to player ratio is too disproportionate.
• Physical Literacy: Their athletes have not built a well rounded physical foundation.
• Equipment: 80 kids, 2 coaches, an ab wheel, a leg press, a bench press, and a jammer extension—go!
• Time: Allotting for time to dress they are bootstrapped with as little as 25-minutes to train.

To be clear, we are talking about large groups with a low to medium training age. Even amongst older athletes, the majority fall under this classification. Childhood today has replaced running around the neighborhood, climbing trees, and trying to avoid home (where a list of chores always awaited) with videogames, Netflix binges, and parents who are still packing lunch for their 22-year-olds.

Rather than rotating through a broad array of sports and active lifestyles that promote balanced physical development, our kids are more likely to have sat around all day and hyper-specialized in one skillset. Movement imbalances are exacerbated as athletes crank and clunk around on a fragile foundation.

For this reason, even our best athletes are often the most in need of simple, consistent foundational training—a point hammered home by former Los Angeles Lakers Strength and Conditioning Coordinator, Tim DiFrancesco, in the recent ESPN article, “These Kids are Ticking Time Bombs.”

It occurred to me that what youth physical development needed more than anything else is a simple, daily array of foundation building exercises—something that could be implemented every day without taking too much time and that required no equipment.

We often overlook that cleaning up movement patterns and building a strong, safe foundation is the first priority of training. Luckily this priority is accomplished in the same way we’d build greater strength and power.

Our goals are completely symbiotic. And at a broad level, these goals are trainable in large groups, without equipment. We have to go slow before we can go fast. Often weak links in the chain are covered by momentum. These can only be solidified by working slowly through those ranges of motion.That neurological control is powerful for athletes at all levels.

The Daily 6 Exercise Circuit

“If it’s important, do it everyday.”

– Dan Gable

The right exercises done the right way can be scaled up or down to provide essential daily maintenance. I’d recommend starting each day with the below circuit. It is important to note that doing exercises is not enough—we have to execute them the right way. This circuit is all about quality. We are hardwiring good movement patterns.

Here are the rules for each exercise:

1. Execute the exercise with perfect technique. If you can’t do this then we have to modify the exercise to make it easier (typically by limiting the range of motion). Nothing else matters if the technique is bad. Poor form just reinforces bad movement.
2. Stay strict to the tempo. By moving slowly and without momentum the athlete learns to control the full range of motion.

Tempos will be designated with three numbers like this: (5-3-2).

The first number is the lowering or eccentric part of the exercise. In the example given an athlete would lower into the bottom range of motion in a steady controlled manner over the course of five seconds. Inevitably, some students will get to the bottom way too quickly.

Others will be mostly steady but then they’ll speed through a sticking point. Just point it out and explain that this is their body hiding a weakness that will limit them down the road if they don’t fix them now.

The second number is the pause or the isometric part of the exercise. In the example given an athlete would hold steady in the bottom range of motion for three seconds. Be on the lookout for your more mobile athletes to be hanging out loosely by their tendons and ligaments. The body should be tense and hold a perfect model of end range of the selected movement pattern.

The third number is the drive or the concentric part of the exercise. In the example given an athlete would drive to the top of the movement. Typically this is where the major joints come to full extension, like when you stand up at the top of the squat and your knees and hips extend. This can be faster, but there is great value in slowing down the drive phase as well.

Now without further ado, the six exercises are:

• Counterbalance Squat (arms extended straight out in front like Frankenstein)
• Superman
• Split Squat
• Push-Up Position Plank with a very slight bend in the elbows (emphasis on the plank)
• 1-Leg Glute Bridge
• Side Plank

Here is the structure for your Daily 6 Circuit. Each exercise will be done for one rep at the prescribed tempo. Do three rounds resting only for transition or as needed.

• Counterbalance Squat (5-3-3)
• Superman (1-15-1)
• Right Leg Forward Split Squat (2-10-1)
• Left Leg Forward Split Squat (2-10-1)
• Push-Up Position Plank with a slight bend in elbows (2-10-1)
• Right Leg 1-Leg Glute Bridge (1-10-2)
• Left Leg 1-Leg Glute Bridge (1-10-2)
• Side Plank Right (1-10-1)
• Side Plank Left (1-10-1)
• Bonus: Bear crawl—as much as possible bear crawl. I tell the athletes to keep their eyes up ahead, to retract their shoulders, stick out their chests, and most importantly to make sure the right arm moves simultaneously with the left leg and vice versa.

Just Get Them Moving

There is certainly a lot more you could do to train young athletes, but in my experience there isn’t too much good training going on in these kids’ lives. Generally there is no foundation.

Rather than making it complicated, why not do the Daily 6? If you want more to consider, check out my Middle School Block Zero Training Program.

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