Different Kinds of Push Ups – Push Up Variations

Different Kinds of Push Ups

Recently I’ve been going on about bodyweight exercises, and how when done properly they can burn a serious amount of fat. You will have noticed that a lot of my bodyweight workouts use the push up.

There’s very good reason for this…..

The push up is an extremely effective exercise. That being said, it’s not exactly the most fun of exercises.

So how can you vary the type of push up you do? Well simple really – and the best thing is you can do these different kinds of push ups, anywhere, any time.

Today I’m going to 10 different kinds of push ups. So I’m going to start with the standard push up:

Standard Push Up

Standard Push Up

When someone mentions push ups, this is the push that normally comes to mind. Make sure you place your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart – don’t lower your head to wards to the floor, it’s your chest you should be lowering.

Decline Push Ups

Decline Push Up

Place your feet on an elevated surface – they don’t have to be as high as the chair I’m using in the video. The perform a push up like you normally would. This is a great progression if you are finding the standard push up easy or boring.

Incline Push Up

Incline Push Up

If however your finding the standard push up a little to hard, place your hand on an elevated surface for an incline push up. Try use something slightly wider than the chair I used. I was almost performing a close grip push up – but ya get the idea!

Spiderman Push up

Spider Man Push Up

If we really want to get technical – the above example of the Spiderman Push up is actually a static version. If you want to experiment a little more then instead of doing the push up in a stationary position, start crawling while still doing the same movement – now that’s a proper ‘Spiderman’ push up! – Remember both movements of the elbows and knees should be done in a smooth motion.

Rotational Push Up

Rotational Push Up

Admittedly the posture in the lower picture is exactly how it should be, I’m putting a little too much strain on the shoulder. So when you’re doing the rotational push up try not to bring your top arm back to much.

Towel-Assisted Push Up

Towel-Assisted Push Up

This is an example of an isometric exercise. Rap the towel round your back and hold the ends of the towel with your hands. Push up against the towel like I have done above, the towel (if done properly) should stop you from reaching a full push. You can do 5 seconds on 5 seconds off, or if you want to make it harder try 5 seconds on 1 second off. NOTE – in the video when I ‘relax’, I’m not actually relaxing. I’m actually holding the lower point of the push up for 5 seconds. You can completely relax or you can do what I did. Again more variations of the same push up.

Wide Grip Push Up

Wide Grip Push Up

Pretty self-explanatory this one. Place your hands wider than you would for a standard push up and bend your elbows.

Diamond Push Up

Diamond Push Up

Look carefully at the way I have placed my hands. Put your two index fingers together and your two thumbs together.

Bodyweight Shoulder Push Up

Bodyweight Shoulder Push Up

I’ll admit…I was going to do this exercise outside on the chair – but I weren’t to sure how far I would go before the chair gave way! So I opted for the couch inside. Get yourself into a decline push up position, now bring your hands as close as you can to the surface you have your feet on and bend your elbows as you start to lower yourself down. NOTE: In the video I probably could have moved my hands a little closer – but that said it still worked the shoulders pretty well.

Push Up With Clap

Clapping Push Up

This one’s a variation of the plyometric push up. When the plyometric push involves a simple push off the ground this push involves clapping before you place your hands back down on the floor.

I quite enjoyed making this video, even though it did take a ridiculous amount of stop and starts to get it the way I wanted it.

I will be doing some more videos in the near future, so if your one of my subscribers then look out for my emails – if your not make sure you enter your email address in the right hand side of this page!

Until Next Time,

Take Care,

Chris