Lie on the ground with your hands placed flat next to your chest. Your hands should be about shoulder-width apart. Push yourself up by straightening your arms and keeping your back stiff. Look forward as you perform this exercise. This exercise will build and firm your shoulders, arms, and chest.
From the same position as the Regular Push-Up, place your hands about six to twelve inches away from your chest. Your hands should be greater than shoulder-width apart. The slight change of the arm distance changes the focus of what muscle are exercised so that you are now building the chest more than your arms and shoulders.
From the same position as the Regular Push-Up (this page), place your hands under your chest about 1–2 inches away from each other. Spread your legs in order to help with balance. This exercise will concentrate more on the triceps of the arm than the chest.
Get into a pike pushup position as shown. Lower yourself to the position as shown in the second photo, as if you were a plane dive bombing. Straighten your arms in order to finish as shown. Repeat in reverse order to return to the first pose.
Using pieces of equipment like the TRX is beneficial to the core and challenges you more than the typical calisthenics exercise. Add some TRX Atomic Push-Ups to your push-up repetitions in this workout if you have this piece of gear, created by Navy SEALs.
TRX Atomic Push-Ups: Place your feet into foot straps and get into the push-up position. Bring your knees up toward your stomach, straighten your legs, and do a push-up. Repeat this knees up/push-up cycle for multiple reps. This is a tougher progression of the regular push-up for those who have a TRX or want a bigger challenge when doing push-ups.
Former Navy SEAL, Randy Hetrick, created the TRX to address the need of his fellow SEALS to stay mission fit without a gym while on deployments. I spoke with Randy recently at a fitness conference and we both remarked at how at 40+ years old, both of our backs are stronger now than they ever were in our twenties when we were in the SEAL teams! We both credit this to the TRX added to our workout programs. Images should be read clock-wise.
Grab the pull-up bar with your hands placed about shoulder-width apart and your palms facing away from you. Pull yourself upward until your chin is over the bar and complete the exercise by slowly moving to the hanging position.
Grab the pull-up bar with your hands placed about 2–3 inches apart and your palms facing you. Pull yourself upward until your chin is over the bar and complete the exercise by slowly moving to the hanging position.
Keep your hands in and do not go wider than your shoulders as you can develop elbow tendonitis similar to that of tennis elbow.
To add some variety to your Pull-Ups, try changing grips during the workout to include both wide and close grip Pull-Ups. Simply change your grip to close grip by having your hands touch during your repetitions. Place your hands wider than your shoulders to get a wider grip Pull-Up.
Grab the bars with your hands and put all of your weight on your arms and shoulders. (Do not do this exercise with added weight if you are a beginner, or if you have had a previous shoulder injury.) To complete the exercise, bring yourself down so that your elbows form a 90-degree angle (no less of an angle) and return to the up position.
This progression is not as tough as the regular Parallel Bar Dips, but when outside and not near a set of bars, the bench dip on a picnic table is a great method to work the shoulders and triceps.
Pull-ups and dips are crucial in your training because they will help you pull yourself up and over climbing obstacles when faced with a wall, rope, or ladder climb.
Lie on your back on a bench. Keep your legs bent with both feet flat on the floor on both sides of the bench. Extend your arms upward, grab the bar or dumbbells slightly wider than shoulder-width, and slowly lower the bar to your chest. The bar should hit just below the nipples on your sternum. Extend your arms again to a locked position and repeat several times.
Using a pull-down machine, grab the bar, sit down, and pull the bar to your collarbones. Keep the bar in front of you (performing Pull-Downs with the bar behind your neck can be dangerous to your neck and shoulders). Change grips on the pull-up bar as you are able (wide, regular, close, and reverse).
Bend over and support your lower back by placing your hand and knee on the bench as shown. Pull the dumbbell to your chest area as if you were starting a lawn mower.