I’m a huge fan of doing push ups in my workouts…
They help to build up the chest, increase strength in all your pressing exercises (i.e. bench press, shoulder press, etc.), and they also help to strengthen your core from balancing and holding your body in position.
However, as you get more advanced in your training and master basic push ups, they can get kinda boring. So that’s why I sometimes like to include different push up variations to keep things challenging and interesting.
In the video below I go over some advanced push up variations that you can try in your next workout.
Click PLAY To Watch The Video
After you give them a try, leave me a comment below and let me know how they work for you…
19 Comments
Dominic
Hey Lee,
Those variations look challenging but very effective. Unfortunately i’m not up to the level to perform those movements quite yet. However, I do enjoy incline and decline pushups, as well as the upside down push up for the shoulders.
Currently at the moment I am in a mini gaining phase. I have been training my legs for explosion because I am 5’11 but I want to dunk a basketball. My intense leg training has facilitated gains on my upper body. I have gained weight but actually also some height on my vertical. I have made tremendous progress thanks to you. I have gained weight and supplemented at least 10g daily of glutamine and have seen gains and recovery quickly before my eyes. Soon I will have a membership at Lifetime Fitness as well!
Sincerely,
Dominic
Dan W
Thanx Lee,very helpful
Will incorporate in my next work out.
God bless,
Dan Wickramasinghe
Rutger Vondeling
looks nice, im going to try this at home first, then will try at the gym when i know how to do them correctly.
George
Thanks Lee,
Should incorporate these push ups at the end of the workout of chest for an example, and how much to do? Or better on a cardio and abs day without weight lifting?
Patrik
Very nice Vid 🙂 Love your bodyweight type workouts!! 🙂
leehayward
Dominic,
To help improve your vertical you should check out this blog post:
https://leehayward.com/blog/100-rep-squat-workout/
leehayward
It really depends on your strength level…
If you are strong enough you can add this in as a chest exercise with your chest workout.
Start off with a couple sets of 10-15 reps of regular push ups to warm up. Then do sets of 10 reps of these advanced push ups. And you don’t have to do all of these variations if you don’t want to, maybe just start off with 1 or 2 of them at a time and switch it up with each workout.
David N Ackert
Just received your personnel workout plan for myself and have started on it. I have always done pushups for my warmup. After my surgery I could only do one pushup off the back of my couch, then down to the futon top bar then the futon bottom bar and now I am doing 50 regular pushups from the floor every day. I tried this new version from your video and oh my God is it harder then regular pushups. They are the ones I will now use in my warmups on chest and shoulder days.
Thanks
Dave
Minnesota
leehayward
Cool, but you should still start with a set or two of regular push ups as a warm up before doing these more advanced explosive push up variations.
brian
Touching both hands to the chest were real hard. Those were some cool variations of the exercise. It’s amazing how you can take a simple exercise and make it that much more difficult. I’m glad you made that video though because I love pushups but stopped doing them so much because I was doing sets of 70-80 reps and just felt like I was wasting my energy because they were getting to be too easy, but doing these will make it more challenging without having to do such high reps. Thanks Lee
-Brian
Jules S
These are great, if anyone wants to see Really Advanced push ups, Watch P90X 2 – Chest, Back, and Balance. Or P90X One On One Upper Body Balance/Chest, Back and Balls. And One to build your push up skills could be Chest and Back – P90X, they are really great, and very very unique. Airborne clap pushups, hard.
Dwight
Wow Lee amazing…… good job budy Thanks
leehayward
For building chest strength I’d say the touch the chest variation is the best. You have to be able to generate a lot of fast explosive power in order to lift off the ground high enough to touch the chest and then bring your hands back down.
This kind of training will build strength that will carry over into all your pressing moves.
Ahmed Birairi
Very Great powerful stuff.
Thanks.
Hardgainer
What physical condition do you need to be to do the advanced push up workout? Obviously, someone who doesn’t exercise won’t want to jump into it. But can someone who does moderate exercise benefit from it?
Your routine seems to be spot on and I am going to check out a copy of your video workout. Which video would you recommend I start off with?
Per
I remember several years ago when a friend of mine was tricked (by our bible school priest actually) into trying “clap behind the back”-pushups and cracked his chin on the curch-floor. Good times!
I guess that could be a next step though once these get too easy.
Aaron B - MusicForMuscles.com
Hey Lee,
Loving the pushup variations. I’m curious as to what you think of the idea of doing pushups everyday, or 4-5 times a week, with it being a bodyweight exercise, for someone looking to really shred and pump up the chest and arms?
Tyson
Hey Lee,
I recognized the last one from my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training and it really is a great exercise for building explosive strength and coordination. Another great pushup is the plyometric or jump clap like the clap push up but you bring your feet off the ground in the same movement. I find it’s also great for small guys like me who workout at a home gym and show all the bigger guys who go to the large gyms that it’s not where you workout but what you do that builds strength and physique.
Thanks for all the awesome knowledge you give us.
Tyson R.
Mike(Team NRG Fitness)
Awesome variations Lee, I like using Ballistic press ups in my workouts and with my Advanced Clients, your showing some great alternative press ups.
Will be giving these a try and incorporating into workouts, great advice as always Lee