If you elevate your hand placement and peroform incline pushups, you'll emphasize the lower chest fibers. If you place your hands on the floor and perform regular pushups, you'll work the middle and lower fibers of your chest.
For lower chest, you can do incline push-ups or chest dips (lean forward, legs in front of you).
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.
While regular flat or incline bench presses deliver a solid chest workout, the decline version uniquely targets the lower pectoral muscles.
For many guys, the lower pecs are the most difficult area of the chest to fully develop. In most cases, this has less to do with the exercises they're performing and more to do with HOW they're performing those movements.
Position a barbell on a rack at a low angle, and assume a push-up position with your hands on the bar and your lower body oriented at a downward angle toward the ground. Because of the angle of the arm, the incline pushup is going to hit the lower chest preferentially.
The upper chest is typically one of the toughest areas of the upper body to develop. There are various reasons for this, and like most things, there are ways to work around it. Here are five reasons why your upper chest is lagging in comparison to the rest of the chest region.
For example, chest dips are good for emphasizing the lower portion of the pectorals, leading to more balanced development. But, tricep dips are also beneficial because the movement allows you to overload the triceps with greater resistance.
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.”
While diamond push-ups mainly work your triceps, muscles of your upper back and shoulders deserve honorable mention. “Diamond push-ups strengthen the deltoid and trapezius muscles, which also stabilize the movement,” says Erik.
The Plance Push Up is arguably the most challenging variation on this list. Basically, it is like a regular push up – except with your feet completely in the air the entire time! That's right, you are supporting the weight of your body with just your hands.
Triceps and biceps: The decline press-up works the triceps predominantly over the biceps, however both muscles work during the entirety of the rep. Back and core: To keep the body stable and rigid, the back and core muscles work to prevent arching of the spine or dipping of the hips.
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.
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.
The Incline Pushup angles your body upward, but angles your arms downward into that 45 degree angle to allow you to target your lower chest fibers.
Completing 100 Push Ups a day can lead to increased muscle mass and upper body strength, specifically in the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core. It can also improve endurance and cardiovascular health.
The Spiderman Push-up targets the chest, triceps, rectus abdominis, obliques, and shoulders. You can also expect to feel engagement through your hip flexors and thighs, specifically the quadriceps.
The short answer to the question is yes, but training your lower chest isn't as straightforward as targeting other muscles, like your biceps. You won't find one exercise that directly isolates that exact area of the muscle group, like curls do for your arms.
Pectus carinatum is a chest wall problem where the front of the chest sticks out more than it should. It happens when the ribs and breastbone (sternum) grow outward more than usual. The condition mostly affects boys and usually gets worse during adolescence, especially during growth spurts and the teen years.