Exercise, Build Muscle with Simple Pushups

Most people don't realize that you can build muscle without using any fancy gym equipment -- in fact, simple bodyweight exercises like pushups can be effectively used to build muscle up.

Frankly, it's easy to underestimate just how effective pushups can be at building your chest and arms. Pushups might appear plain and boring on the surface: down up, down up, down up -- that's it. And that's true to an extent. But many people outside of fitness enthusiasts are only familiar with the standard pushups that they learned in their high school gym classes.

There is a wide variety of pushups that you can perform to focus on different muscle groups, but we're going to concentrate on five types in this article. These will not be the best five for all people, but they will make you aware of the variety available in basic bodyweight exercises.

Military pushups: military pushups are similar to standard pushups, except that you move your hands underneath your shoulders and tuck your elbows tightly to your side. This variation works the triceps more than the chest.

Diamond pushups: Diamond pushups, also referred to as "heart to heart" pushups, require you to place your index fingers and thumbs together in the shape of a diamond during your push up workout. While diamond push ups tend to work your triceps more than your chest muscles, the benefits of modifying your hand placement during pushups, even if only a tiny bit, are undeniable.

Fly pushups: adding another layer to wide pushups, fly pushups require you to begin the pushup with your hands a normal width apart at the top position. When lowering your body to the ground, you should slide your right hand out roughly 12 inches, and then slide it back to normal width on the up rep. On the next repetition, you would perform this motion with your left hand. Hint: place your hand on a towel, piece of cardboard, or similar item to assist with the slide, or "hop" your hands in and out.

Incline pushups: Incline pushups are the exact opposite of decline pushups -- instead of placing your feet higher than your head, your head should be higher than your feet for this exercise. Any sturdy surface that will allow you to perform the pushups unencumbered can be used. Incline pushups work your lower pectoral muscles.

Stacked pushups: with stacked pushups, one arm is spread wide to the side as in wide pushups, and the other is tucked in tight like military pushups. After 5 repetitions, the hand positions are switched.

Here is a more detailed listing of styles you can consider to achieve muscle weight gain: wide, fly, diamond, military, fist, yogi, decline, incline, stacked, deep, prison cell, and inchworm pushups.

To get the most out of your pushup workouts, remember to add some weight once the pushups begin to get easy. You don't want to push out 50 easy reps. Rather, struggle with 20 or 30. Also be sure to add variety by varying your hand position for each of the above types of pushups.

Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper body and exercise, build muscle at the same time. If you keep it interesting by mixing up your hand positions and trying a few different styles of pushups you can increase the effectiveness of your at-home exercising and relieve the boredom!