The best press up alternative exercises for a defined chest
Want to build a bigger, stronger and defined chest? Of course you do. Use this expert guide to the best press up alternative exercises so you can start to build the more athletic physique you want, any time and anywhere, with no kit needed, says New Body Plan’s Joe Warner
The humble press-up or push-up is often assumed to be “too easy” by many gym-goers. So it gets overlooked as not worthy of inclusion in their fat-loss plan or muscle-building programme. That’s a big mistake. Why? Because if you want to build a big chest, the best press up exercises should play a major part in your upper body training sessions.
Done properly, press-ups are a very challenging and rewarding exercise. They can be done anywhere at anytime. That makes them a fantastic go-to move when you’re short of time, kit and space. And as well as working your chest, they also hit your triceps, shoulders and six-pack abs. What’s not to like?
And there are a number of great variations that mean you’ll never run out of simple moves that sculpt pecs to be proud of. Here are some of the best press-up variations, as well as some expert performance and progression tips, so you can build a bigger and stronger upper body – starting today!
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The best press up exercises: part 1
1 Press-up
The classic press-up is a great way to improve muscular endurance in your pecs, front shoulders and triceps. And it’s a fantastic exercise to work these muscles to full failure to encourage muscle size growth. A good way to do this is to perform a set of quality press-ups to failure after every set of barbell bench presses, dumbbell bench presses or incline dumbbell bench presses.
For example, do your set of eight to 10 bench press reps. Then immediately move to the floor and do a set of press-ups to failure. That means you literally can not do one more single rep. This will work all those muscle fibres in your chest that don’t get worked during your heavy bench press work to build more muscle size, strength and endurance.
How to do a press-up
• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest down towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
Get better at press-ups!
Far too many people think the press-up is an exercise that is beneath them. They instead favour barbell bench presses, standing cable flyes, cable crossovers and other weighted moves to build up their chests.
But the humble press-up is a tried-and-tested upper-body muscle builder. And the beauty is that it can be done anywhere, anytime. Get the gains you want by not rushing your reps. Take your time to lower and lift your torso up and down. Try a 4010 tempo. That’s a four-second lowering phase, a zero-second pause at the bottom, a one-second pressing phase, then a zero-second pause at the top. That will get your muscles better at controlling each movement.
Or try a 3110 tempo that introduces a one-second pause at the bottom of each rep. All of a sudden you’ll make this ‘easy’ and ‘boring’ bodyweight exercise a legitimate muscle-building move!
2 Diamond press-up
Want bigger arms? This is the move for you! Why? Because this best press up exercise places far greater emphasis on your triceps than your chest. So it’ll pack on size on your upper arms. Really want to make the most of this move? Focus on squeezing your triceps at the top of the pressing part of each rep. Then think about how your triceps are contracting when you lower your torso towards the floor. Always use a slow and controlled tempo. The more you can focus on a muscle moving during an exercise, the greater the rewards!
How to do a diamond press-up
• Start in the press-up position but with your hands together so that your thumbs and index fingers form a diamond.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest down towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
Get better at diamond press-ups!
Like many of the best press up exercises in this list, this one is a lot harder than it looks. So many people try it then give up quickly because they can’t do many full-range reps. Want to get stronger at this move? Do just do the lowering part of the move, keeping the tempo slow to make your muscles work harder. Then kneel back up to return to the start. Or simply lower yourself down in the diamond position. Then take your hands back to normal width to push back to the start.
3 Wide-arm press-up
Placing your hands wider apart increases the focus on your chest and lessens the involvement of both the triceps and the shoulders. It’s important to perform the move safely. How? By lowering your torso to the ground slowly and under full control. Doing so will reduce the risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of the move. You want to feel a good stretch across your chest as you move closer to the ground.
How to do a wide-arm press-up
• Start in the press-up position but with your hands about double shoulder-width apart.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest down towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
Get better at wide-arm press-ups!
You need to ensure that your head and neck stay tight and in line. Allowing your head to hang can cause your shoulders and upper back to round. That is poor form and makes this best press up exercise far less effective. This often happens as you get close to failure. So instead of going until you can’t do another single rep, stop once you notice your form suffering. Then rest on your knees for a count of ten, then do another set of reps. At failure a second time rest again. Then do one final set to build better strength in your chest without risking injury.
The best press up exercises: part 2
4 Side-to-side press-up
This best press up exercise variation is a great way of increasing the difficulty of the basic move. It makes the muscles of your chest, shoulders and triceps work hard to support, manage and move your bodyweight up and down, and from left to right. And your core muscles need to be fully engaged to keep your torso level for the duration of each rep.
How to do a side-to-side press-up
• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest down towards the floor.
• As you go down move your torso towards your left so your head is in front of your left hand.
• Keeping your chest as close to the floor as possible, move your torso over and across so your head is in front of your right hand.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start, moving your torso back to the middle as you do.
Get better at side-to-side press-ups!
This is a hard exercise. So it can be tempting to rush each rep to get the set finished as quickly as possible. But you need to resist that temptation if you want to effectively work the target muscles. When doing these reps, as with all exercises, it’s best to focus on quality reps than quantity. Try to add an extra rep or two per set every time you do this move. But keeping reps slow and controlled is the first priority to increase muscular time under tension and minimise injury risk.
5 Spider-man press-up
This heroic variation is not just about the chest, shoulders and triceps. Why? Because bringing one knee in at a time to meet your elbow requires your upper and lower abs to be fully engaged to draw your knee in then back out again. It also activates the deep stabilising muscles of your core to keep your whole body stable for every rep. It’s a really hard move, but mastering it will benefit you in terms of better performance and a better physique.
How to do a spider-man press-up
• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest down towards the floor.
• As you go down draw one knee in towards your elbow.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start, straightening your leg back as you do, then repeat with your other knee and then alternating each rep.
Get better at Spider-man press-ups!
The first thing you can do to perform this move more efficiently and effectively is to engage your core before starting a set. Do this by pulling in your belly button to tense your entire abs and deep core region. Start with a strong and stable braced midsection – and focusing on keeping it tensed. This will allow you to fully draw your knee in towards your chest whilst keeping your press-up form perfect to maximise your results.
The best press up exercises: part 3
6 Dive-bomb press-up
The very nature of this move means that for the duration of each rep there are a lot of different muscles fully engaged and under tension. And that can only be a good thing when you want bigger, stronger and more defined muscles. The down-and-forwards then up-and-backwards movement also makes your chest, shoulders, triceps and core all work in different and more challenging ways to the standard press-up move.
How to do a dive-bomb press-up
• Start with your hands flat on the floor with your feet flat so that your body forms a v-shape.
• Brace your core then lower your head and chest down towards your hands, moving your torso and head forward in a smooth arc as your head approaches the ground.
• Keep moving your upper body forward in a smooth arc until your eyes are looking forward and your chest is up.
• From there, raise your hips up to return to the start position.
Get better at dive-bomb press-ups!
Don’t get overly-concerned about completing too many reps per set. Instead think about the muscles working at each point of the rep to build a stronger mind-to-muscle connection. That will help you train more efficiently in every session. The nature of this movement means some areas will be far more difficult than others. The most likely sticking points being where your shoulders or triceps are fatigued whilst your chest is still strong. If so, do this variation to failure. Then go straight into regular or wide press-ups to keep working the chest muscles with a slow and controlled tempo.
7 Fingertip press-up
This best press up exercise variation is more about your finger and wrist strength than upper-body muscle strength. That makes it best suited to people who want or need stronger fingers and wrists, such as MMA fighters, climbers and gymnasts. If that’s not you, but you’re still up for a really big challenge, then give them a go. But don’t get disheartened when you try and almost certainly fail. As with anything worthwhile, it takes time and effort to get good at this move. So perform a couple of reps, adding one or two reps per session progressively over the coming weeks and months to build finger strength slowly without risking injury.
How to do a fingertip press-up
• Start with your hands underneath your shoulders but with just your fingertips in contact with the ground.
• Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
• Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest down towards the floor.
• Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
• Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
Get better at fingertip press-ups!
It’s worth experimenting with different finger positions when doing this best press up exercise. We are all anatomically different, so some people find the exercise easier with fingers spread. Others prefer to have their fingers quite close. Some prefer somewhere in the middle. It all depends on finger length, size of hands, arm length and many other factors. If you’ve mastered one way, then try another. There are so many ways to adapt and progress an exercise. So never be afraid to use your imagination and experiment. Maybe one day you’ll be able to do a dive-bomb press-up on your fingertips!
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