20 Awesome Push Up Variations.  Stay Fit While the Gym’s Closed

20 Awesome Push Up Variations. Stay Fit While the Gym’s Closed

Using push up variations can allow you to work the upper body from many different angles.

With gyms closed and people looking for ways to stay strong and in shape, having some solid body-weight exercise variations in your arsenal can be invaluable.

The Push Up

The push up is a staple upper body exercise.

Dating back thousands of years, it’s been used to build upper body strength and endurance for warriors and athletes.

Today, it continues to be used by the military as a measure of upper body strength and endurance (and punishment).

There are countless ways to perform the push up, and variety is a good thing. While most variations work the chest, shoulders and triceps, we can do so in ways that challenge the whole body, including the core.

Disclaimers: 1. Talk to your doctor before doing any type of exercise program. 2. This article contains affiliate links.

Ok, glad that’s out of the way… let’s move on.

Using Push ups to keep your gym gains

In the absence of a gym, you may be left with nothing but your own body weight and whatever you have in your house. Use this time as an opportunity to work on new strengths.

If you’re trying to hold onto (or build) strength and muscle, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

  • Use explosive exercises like Depth push ups, plyometric pushups and jumping push ups. This will stimulate the fast twitch muscle fibers, which are the largest and most powerful.
  • Use deficit push ups to get a deep stretch of the chest and shoulders and work through a full range of motion.
  • Use BFR Bands to stimulate additional muscle gains. Use science to your advantage! Check out my article on BFR to learn more.
  • The same principles would apply to lower body exercises. Use explosive movements like high jumps, bounding and box jumps.

20 Push up Variations

#1-5 Hand Placement

Simply changing your hand placement can have a dramatic effect on how the push up movement works the upper body. Here we’ll use the standard push up, close grip, wide grip, fingers out, and reverse.

Remember to try and keep your body in a straight line, from head to foot. Slouching or arching your back is a sign that there’s a break in the chain, usually indicating a weak core.

#6 Banded Push ups

Resistance Bands are cheap and extremely versatile. Get yourself a few of varying resistance and you’ll be able to do a lot more from home. Here’s a Solid Set of Bands at a pretty good price from Amazon. (updating this regularly as bands have been selling out recently because of the quarantine.)

You can vary your hand placement with bands as well. Do standard push ups, wide grip push ups and close grip. Use heavier bands for more resistance.

#7 Sphinx Push ups

Sphinx push ups force the triceps muscle to do most of the work. These can be tough if your triceps strength isn’t up to par.

One way I like to do these to challenge myself: Do sphinx push ups to failure, then remain in the plank position (you’re already there) for 30 seconds to a minute.

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#8 Slide Board Push Ups

Slide board push ups are one of my favorite push up variations. They really force one arm to take on most of the pressing responsibility, while the other arm is outstretched, forcing the core to work hard to stabilize the body.

You can use a towel on any smooth surface, like the floor. In the video, I’m using Core Sliders, as the floor mats in my home gym are not smooth.

These just feel awesome to do. You have to focus on pressing back up and stabilizing your body all in one movement. It’s a challenging movement for sure.

#9 Deficit Push ups

Deficit push ups are another favorite of mine. They are a unique variation, as they allow you to go beyond the normal range of motion you’d use in a bench press or regular push up. You should feel a good, deep stretch of the chest and shoulders at the bottom portion of the movement.

#10 True Push ups

Number 10 is an extension of number 9. True push ups are the same as deficit push ups, except you also elevate your feet on a platform, usually at the same height as your hands. This will be harder, as you’ll be pushing more of your body weight back up. It’s basically a push up with a deeper range of motion.

I’m using 45lb plates in the videos, but you can use whatever you have around your home. Books, Dumbells… be creative!

#11 Depth Push ups

Depth push ups are an explosive push up variation. Starting with both hands elevated on a platform, you’ll drop down and control your descent briefly before exploding back up.

Depth push ups utilize the stretch-shortening cycle (plyometrics). The rapid generation of force stimulates the fast twitch muscle fibers, which are the largest and most capable of growth. This type of movement teaches the body to generate force quickly, increasing power.

Be careful with these. I’d recommend not trying to go to failure to avoid injury, in particular of the wrists. In general, with explosive movements, you want to do as many reps as you can feel powerful for. When you slow down, end the set.

#12 Hindu Push ups

I learned these many years ago when I was at an MMA seminar. It was led by Matt Fury (author of Combat Conditioning.) These push ups hit the shoulders really good, and the triceps as well. They also give you a good lower back and hamstring stretch (notice the yoga-like positions).

#13 Med Ball Push ups

Here, you’ll have one hand on a med ball (or other platform), and the other on the ground. This elevates one side of the body, forcing the core to work harder to stabilize the body.

#14 Superman Push ups

These are deceivingly challenging. Superman Push ups really force the core to work hard to stabilize your body. The position is similar to the extended position using an ab wheel, with your arms outstretched in front of you.

#15 Explosive Push ups

Also known as clapping push ups, although you really don’t need to clap. Simply push up as explosively as possible. I prefer to keep my hands ready to land vs clapping or touching my chest. This is to avoid landing wrong and injuring a wrist. When you’re fatigued, you may not come up as fast as you anticipate.

Similar to other explosive movements, these will work the fast twitch muscle fibers and are excellent at improving rate of force production (power).

#16 Jumping Push ups

These are an extension of number 15. However, now you’ll explode your entire body off of the ground on each rep. This can take a little coordination, but is a fun one once you get the hang of it.

#17 Fingertip push ups

Ok, if you’re feeling brave.. here’s a challenging one for you. Perform the standard push up on your fingers. Doing them on your fingers actually puts less stress on the wrist, as it is not in flexion. Martial artists have been using these for a long time. Be careful, you may have to build up to doing several reps of these.

#18 Prison Push ups

I spent a lot of years working in a prison, and I used to watch the inmates work out on the yard all the time. As I’m sure you know, they stay in pretty good shape. This is one variation they use a lot. After each set (4 push ups), try standing up and jogging in place for 10 seconds. Then repeat for a set period of time. (Inmates do it for hours).

#19 Shoulder Taps

Shoulder taps start with a standard push up. At the top of the movement, put one hand on the opposite shoulder for a second, then return to the push up. The brief time at the top with one arm extended forces the core to keep the body in position. This can be tougher than it looks.

#20 Chest Elevated Push ups

I saved these for last because they’re best done as a finisher (or a warm-up). They look easy, and they are… for a while. Try doing 100 reps unbroken (without pausing). It’s a good way to get some low impact volume in at the end, and to get a good upper body pump going.

If you have a barbell, put it at knee level and actively squeeze the bar inwards throughout the entire movement. It’s actually a rarely utilized but really beneficial finisher to use.

Workout Ideas

There are endless ways to make up body weight workouts at home. In general though, keep a few principles in mind:

  • Start with a good warm up, including some regular push ups
  • Use explosive exercises first. You want to have your full energy for the most demanding movements.
  • Don’t go to failure on explosive movements. Save that for the other exercises.
  • Make it interesting. Pick 4 or 5 variations and see how many you can do in 10 minutes, for example.
  • Incorporate push up variations with other exercises, like pull ups, squats, abs or even sprints.

BFR Bands

BFR (blood flow restriction) bands are a well researched, inexpensive implement you can use along with body weight exercises to increase muscle. I highly recommend getting a pair to get the most out of your higher-rep training. Look them up yourself if you like. I also have a whole article on them.

German 50 Push up workout

This is just one example of many of a push up workout, but it’s one I like, and it uses some of the variations we learned about in this article. It’s 10 reps of 5 push up variations using different hand placements, and Supermans. Pretty tough to do multiple unbroken sets of this.

If you want to see all the push up variations in one video, I’ll leave that here too.

Conclusion

I hope this article was helpful. These are just 20 of probably hundreds of variations of the push up. If you’re stuck at home, or traveling in a hotel room.. these can be a great way to get an effective workout in.

If you don’t have access to the gym for a while, use the time as an opportunity. Work on some weaknesses, learn some new exercises.. Improve yourself. Work with what you’ve got.

As always, I hope this article helps you get a little closer to that best version of you!

Mike (Supastrong)
Mike (Supastrong)

Bioforce Certified Conditioning Coach and personal trainer. I’ve run boot camps and served as the wellness coordinator for a fortune 500 company. Currently a Federal Agent in San Diego, CA, and an Infantryman in the Army Reserve.

The Best, and Easiest Way to do More Pull Ups

The Best, and Easiest Way to do More Pull Ups

If there’s one body weight exercise that is the staple for upper body strength, it’s the pull up. Many otherwise strong and fit looking men and women struggle just to do a few solid reps.

If you’re struggling to get your numbers up, then this article is for you. I have the simplest and most effective methods for increasing pull ups that have worked for myself and for many others. It isn’t fancy. It isn’t complicated. But, it works. And that’s all that matters.

If you can’t do a single pull up, I recommend starting out using Pull up resistance bands, and spending some time focusing on getting stronger before you start trying to boost your numbers.

What won’t work

I always like to start off with the common mistakes people make when trying to achieve a goal. In this case, the biggest mistake I see (and have made myself) is trying to do way too much volume.

Following someone else’s 200 pull ups per day method isn’t going to work for you if you can only get a few solid reps. Even if you can do 10 right now. It just isn’t necessary to kill yourself with hundreds of reps!

Check out these two simple methods, then read on to see how you can use them together to boost your pull up numbers dramatically.

Greasing the Groove

“Greasing the Groove” is a term coined by Pavel Tsatsouline, the legendary Russian Trainer. It means performing a movement often, without going to failure or using heavy resistance. The purpose is to reinforce the movement pattern.

The human body is an amazing machine. It is always seeking efficiency: The ability to perform tasks using the least amount of energy. If we repeat something often, we reinforce the neuromuscular efficiency of that movement.

Repetition teaches the nervous system to more efficiently recruit muscle fibers to perform the movement.

**If you don’t have access to a gym, get a Doorway Pull up Bar and do them from home!

How to “Grease the Groove.”

improve pull ups

To use this method, simply perform a set of one or two pull ups periodically throughout the day, keeping a count of how many total reps you’re doing. Start with a low number like 10 or 20 each day and slowly increase that number over time.

Using this method, you shouldn’t be going for max reps or pushing the envelope at all. You simply perform a couple reps, and then go on about your business.

The Once a Day Max Rep Set

A few years ago, while preparing for a military training, I had a goal of being able to do 20 pull ups. At the time I was able to get 8-10.

I researched several methods and took advice from a lot of people. I tried using pyramids and my numbers actually suffered. Every approach I used involved high volume. I was doing hundreds of pull ups, but I still couldn’t get more than 10 in one set.

Then I ran into a trainer who really changed my perspective on the whole problem. He told me to just do one set every day of as many reps as possible, then leave it alone. Fast forward about 6 weeks from that day, and vuola! I got 21 pull ups!

How to use the once a day max rep method

This is probably the easiest method possible. And while I know people love fancy programs and schemes, all that matters at the end of the day is what works. And this works.

Simply perform one set of max reps of pull ups each day. It’s tempting to want to do more, but don’t. We have it ingrained in us that more is better. But this is a myth in a lot of ways, and training smarter is a real thing.

You can expect that your numbers will go up and down periodically. Don’t be discouraged, as there will be an upward trend if you just continue the process.

easy way to boost pull ups
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Combine the methods

Now that you understand these methods, let me give you a template I’ve used to get really big improvements in pull ups. You can simply alternate between the two methods, taking one day per week off completely.

If you work out, just perform your pull ups at the beginning of the workout and then go about your training as you usually do.

pull up program

Conclusion

Most people want to be able to do more pull ups. It’s always impressive to watch someone jump up and bang out 20 solid reps on the bar. And that can be you!

To recap, we discussed:

  • Greasing the Groove: repeating a movement often to reinforce movement patterns. This means not going to failure, but doing a few reps repeatedly throughout the day.
  • Neuromuscular efficiency: The nervous system learns to perform a movement more efficiently, recruiting more muscle fibers faster, using the least amount of energy.
  • Once a Day method: Performing one set of max reps each day.

Follow these methods for 6 weeks, and let me know how much your numbers improved!

Until next time, thanks for being here, and I hope this article helps you get a little bit closer to that best version of you.

*Note: This article contains affiliate links. Any item purchases comes at no additional cost to you, and is considered a quality product by us.

Mike (Supastrong)
Mike (Supastrong)

Bioforce Certified Conditioning Coach and personal trainer. I’ve run boot camps and served as the wellness coordinator for a fortune 500 company. Currently a Federal Agent in San Diego, CA, and an Infantryman in the Army Reserve.