Used in the physical development of every culture around the world from ancient times to today the push up is a timeless exercise which can be used to build strength and endurance across your chest, anterior shoulder, triceps and trunk stabilisers! Most people are familiar with the classic version of this exercise (demonstrated below) and with a bit of practice are soon capable of performing multiple full-depth repetitions.
Ok, so where can you go next?
Once the classic push up is mastered most people attempt to progress by simply shooting for more and more reps. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, being able to perform 50+ push ups is an impressive feat of strength endurance but it is not the only way to progress your push up training and beyond a point it will not help you get any stronger! The aim of this article is to demonstrate 5 simple modifications you can use to instantly increase the difficulty of this great exercise without making wholesale changes to technique (such as in the hindu push up series or one arm push up series).
Variation 1 - Slow Eccentric Tempo
One of the simplest adjustments you can make is to slow down the eccentric portion of the movement (lowering). This forces your muscles to work harder, for longer, in weaker biomechanical positions. The net result, you develop greater levels of strength throughout the entire range of motion. Anywhere from three to thirty seconds can pose a decent new challenge!
Variation 2 – Pause/Explode
Once you are comfortable performing numerous slow eccentric push ups you can increase the difficulty further with some more manipulation of training tempo. In the pause/explode method, you stop at the bottom position of the movement and hold for a pre-set period of time (4+ seconds works well) before exploding upwards with enough force to get yourself airborne. This combination helps you to:
- Build strength in the weaker portion of the movement
- Dissipate stored elastic energy in the connective tissues
- Generate maximal concentric force in minimum time to get airborne
When performing this variation you must ensure you land smoothly and absorb the impact forces correctly across your wrist, elbow and shoulder joints to avoid jarring these areas. Keep exercise volume low to start as you condition your muscles and connective tissues to this movement!
Variation 3 – Decline Push Up
Manipulating tempo is one way to increase the difficulty of a push-up. Another is to adjust the leverage of the movement through different hand, grip and body positions. A very simple way to accomplish this is to elevate your feet off the ground. This shifts more of your bodyweight onto your chest and shoulders causing a corresponding increase in the difficulty of the movement. You can of course play around with slow eccentric and pause/explode training tempos when using the decline push up.
Variation 4 - Narrow Knuckle Grip
In this example I am using a narrow hand position with a knuckle grip (fists closed) to increase the strength demands on my tricep muscles. Once more, you can play around with tempo variations using this setup.
Variation 5 – Pseudo-Planche Push Up
Another way to alter the leverage of the movement is to shift your bodyweight forwards so that your hand position shifts down towards your lower chest (instead of directly underneath your shoulders). This is the first stage in the journey to a full planche, an incredibly impressive feat of strength. Again, you can play around with slow eccentric tempos using this technique but I would not recommend going airborne with explosive concentric contractions….you will more than likely hurt yourself!
N.B. This position can be quite demanding on the shoulder and wrist so ease into it and keep the reps low to begin with. Using a knuckle grip (closed fist) helps alleviate some of the strain on the wrists.
Conclusions
Beyond a certain point adding additional reps to an exercise you can already perform competently is not going to help you get much stronger. I prefer and recommend you begin to implement harder and harder variations into your training (on its own or in conjunction with some higher rep work). When using weights this is an easy task, simply add more weight to the bar, however with bodyweight exercise you have to be a bit more thoughtful in your approach. By manipulating variables such as training tempo and body position as outlined in this article you can continue to develop your strength and performance above and beyond what can be obtained using the classic push-up variation. The same principle holds true for most other bodyweight exercises which I will demonstrate in future blog posts and newsletters.