For Bigger Arms and Chest...PUSH UP!

The push up… the bread and butter, the originator, the egg before the chicken. It’s an exercise that is easily over looked! It involves your core, delts, tris, and chest and you don’t even need a machine. I remember before I knew what a bench press was I was doing push ups. I give some credit to this simple movement for my strength on any pressing movement, be it pressing it off my chest or overhead. But with any exercise, you need to increase its intensity and progress it in ways to keep those muscles growing. In the video above, I show two different progressions you can throw into either arm day, chest day, or even shoulder day. The first movement is a close grip push up (to put more emphasis my tricep) but I weight the first 10 reps with a 45lb plate.  Then, take the plate off and basically burn out with 10 more reps, just body weight… your triceps will be screaming! Quick tip: the plate should sit right above the tailbone on your erectors; focus and try to keep that core tight and have the “drawing in maneuver”, the act of bringing your belly button towards your back, as if you were doing a plank). The second movement is called a “plyo push-up”.  This is a great exercise for your chest and front delts.   It’s all about explosion and power off the ground onto a higher level. Think about trying to spring load your triceps when you’re on the ground and try to expode and produce as much force as possible, getting as high as you can and landing on the higher level in a wider grip push up. Quick tip: the space between the boxes needs to be just a little bit wider than shoulder width.  If you’re using steps, it’s easy to regress it—if you don’t have steps or bench and need to regress it, you can do the exact same thing without them, just add a clap after you explode off the ground; having the boxes just helps you have a target to gauge and land upon. Send me a tweet if you try these out or let me know your favorite type of push up variation is: @DANIMAL_Beast   Danny Quach is a graduate of the University of Georgia where he majored in Health Promotion and Behavior.  He’s a powerlifter at heart and has done it for over six years.  He just competed in his first bodybuilding show in Summer of 2011.  For powerlifting, he holds some Georgia records.  In his first bodybuilding competition, he placed 2^nd in Novice in INBF Southern States.  His favorite past-time? Throwing girls around and catching them.