What push-up form is best for the chest?

Author: Arlene Kris  |  Last update: Thursday, September 11, 2025

WIDE PUSH-UP The wide push-up is excellent for targeting your chest muscles. Be sure to avoid taking your hands out too wide, and keep your elbows pointing back to protect your shoulders.

Which pushup is best for the upper chest?

The best push-up for the chest is the wide grip push-up. This type of push-up targets the chest muscles more than other types, as it requires you to spread your arms wider than you would for a standard push-up.

Can I build a chest with just pushups?

Yes, push-ups can get you a chiseled chest. More on what muscles push-ups work.

What is the best form for chest press?

Hold your upper arms perpendicular to your body and your forearms perpendicular to the floor. Slowly press the weights upward until your elbows are almost straight. You'll feel tension across your upper chest. When you're doing the chest press, be careful not to lock your elbows or push with your feet.

How many pushups a day to build chest?

How many push-ups should you do a day? There's no magic number of push-ups you should do per day. Try working your way up to 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 repetitions to strengthen your upper body. If building bigger chest muscles is your goal, doing more push-ups might seem ideal.

Your chest needs these exercises

What pushup form is best for chest growth?

The wide push-up is excellent for targeting your chest muscles. Be sure to avoid taking your hands out too wide, and keep your elbows pointing back to protect your shoulders. How to do it: Start with hands slightly past shoulder-width, a bit farther apart than a standard push-up position.

Which press is best for chest?

The incline press is ideal for targeting the upper chest and anterior deltoids, making it essential for those looking to build a balanced and sculpted chest.

Should you chest press fast or slow?

A research review from 2015 found that a fairly wide range of rep durations (1-8 seconds) can be used to maximise muscle growth, but training at very slow speeds (longer than 10 seconds per rep) can actually reduce the effectiveness of the exercise and is not the best way to achieve hypertrophy or muscle growth.

Is 100 pushups a day good?

Doing 100 push-ups a day can be an impactful element of your overall strength-building and -maintaining routine. And you don't need to be at a gym to do them. “It's a quick and efficient way to strengthen some upper body muscles,” Rad says. “It is a bodyweight move that can be done virtually anywhere.”

How long does it take to get pecs?

The time it takes to build pecs depends on things like how hard you train, what you eat, and how consistent you are. If you follow a good training program and do things right, you can start seeing serious changes in a couple months. To see huge results in muscle size, it can take several months.

What pushup is best for chest fat?

For the middle chest, you want the arms to be oriented at a 90 degree angle to the chest, and the Classic Pushup is the perfect bodyweight exercise for this. For the lower chest, the arms should be at about a 45 degree angle to the chest, and the Incline Pushup places them in this position.

How do you bulk up your chest?

Single-arm Dumbbell Press

This is one of the best dumbbell chest exercises that will improve your stabilization strength. Your chest muscles are the main muscle group that is required to perform the single-arm dumbbell press. In addition, this workout targets your triceps, shoulder stabilizers, and your core.

What is the single best exercise for chest?

Some of the best exercises to do on chest day for maximum growth potential are:
  • Barbell Bench Press.
  • Horizontal Cable Crossover.
  • Low to High Cable Crossover.
  • High to Low Cable Crossover.
  • Incline Bench Press.
  • Weighted Dip.

Which exercise has the most chest activation?

The Results

After crunching the numbers and data, researchers found that out of the nine exercises tested, the pectoralis major was activated the most during the barbell bench press. Therefore, data-wise, all of the other exercises were statistically compared to that exercise and reported as a percentage of that value.

Are dips good for the chest?

Are Dips Good For Chest? Chest dips are an effective bodyweight exercise that targets both of the main muscles of the chest - the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor – which give the chest size, mass, and strength.

Which pushup is best for upper chest?

If we're looking at bodyweight exercises, a decline push-up position would train upper chest muscles, while incline push-ups would train lower chest. The incline bench press places the arms at the correct angle to hit the upper chest, but it has some limitations.

Can I build chest with pushups only?

But even if you can't access any of that gear when you're at home, you can still blast your chest aggressively, building strength and stimulating muscle growth. Why? Because you can still do pushups. The classic pushup remains one of the best ways to hit your chest at home—or anywhere, period.

How many pushups to build muscle?

White defines that as 10 to 20 push-ups if your max is 25 reps, 2 sets of 10 to 20 if your max is between 25 and 50 reps, and 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 if your max is above 50 push-ups. “If you're doing many sets and hitting a high volume, I would try to do them every other day,” he advises.

Previous article
What should you not do when lifting a lot?
Next article
What is the best remover for a dark spot?