Push-Ups- How To Use Them To Build Muscle (4 Science-Based Tips)

The pushup is one of the best bodyweight exercises for the upper body. And not only is the push up extremely convenient to incorporate, but for untrained individuals at least, it’s been shown in the literature to provide size and strength gains that are comparable to that of the barbell bench. Simply meaning that pushups and the right pushup variations are an effective exercise you should definitely be incorporating into either your bodyweight workout routine or to compliment your existing weightlifting workouts. But, it’s vital that you do so correctly in order to maximize the effectiveness of this exercise. And in this video, I’ll show you the best way to do pushups and the proper way to do pushups to build muscle.

The first thing you want to do is choose the right variations. There’s pushups for chest, pushups for shoulders, pushups for triceps, and more. Typically, with regards to pushups for a bigger chest, people opt for the wide grip pushup with the elbows flared to best hit the chest. But, research actually shows that a narrow grip pushup (diamond pushups) best activates both the chest and the triceps with the shoulder-width pushup being an effective option as well. Thus, these are two great options to incorporate and progress overtime. Pushups for triceps can be achieved by doing them on a medicine ball or an unstable surface and are thus good variations to incorporate if you wanted to prioritize the triceps more.

More important than the variation you choose however is pushup progressions. You need to ensure you’re progressing your pushups overtime if you want to build muscle. This can be done with banded pushups, adding weight, slowing the tempo, doing more reps, pause pushups, and more.

Next, you need to ensure you’re exerting enough effort during your pushup sets. Research shows that similar muscle growth can be achieved with low load movements like the pushup and high load movements like the bench press. But, the catch is that your low load movements (e.g. pushups) need to be taken close to or to failure. This ensures that your muscle fibers are adequately stimulated and that your muscles have enough stimulus for growth.

Lastly, you need to implement your pushup workout correctly into your current routine. If you perform bodyweight workouts, then pick 3-4 pushup variations and progress these overtime. If you perform weights workouts, then pick 1-2 pushup variations and perform them as finishing movements towards the end of your workouts. And lastly, if for some reason you don’t have access to a gym on chest day, then you can do pushups as a suitable alternative.

If you want to see the best results then it’s vital that you not only choose the right exercises and variations, but that you also implement and progress them correctly within your routine. And this is exactly what my Built With Science programs do. They’re designed to be an all-in-one evidence-based program that optimizes all your training variables AND nutrition such that you’re able to progress as quickly as possible.

To get started, simply take my starting-point analysis tool further below to find which program is best for you:
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STUDIES:
Pushups vs bench press muscle growth & strength:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Pushup variations comparison:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Low load vs high load:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...