Best Push Day Exercises: Lifts & Workout Splits

A push exercise is a energy coaching routine focusing on the muscle groups concerned in pushing issues away out of your torso.

You practice these muscle groups by doing “push workout routines.”

Usually, push day workout routines are press variations, such because the flat, incline, and close-grip bench press, overhead press, and shoulder press.

On this article, you’ll be taught precisely what a push day exercise routine is, which muscle groups you practice in a push day exercise, why push exercises are useful, one of the best push workout routines to incorporate in your exercises, an instance push exercise plan, and extra. 

What Is A Push Day Exercise?

A push day exercise trains the primary upper body muscle groups concerned in pushing issues away out of your torso. Usually, they emphasize compound pushing workout routines, together with the flat and incline barbell bench press and overhead press.

Additionally they often embrace a couple of isolation exercises to focus on the elements of your pushing muscle groups that compound push workout routines don’t practice nicely, such because the dumbbell facet lateral elevate, overhead triceps extension, and triceps pushdown.

Push exercise plans are usually a part of “push pull legs split,” which is a technique of organizing your coaching that dedicates particular days to workout routines that concentrate on both pushing, pulling, or coaching your decrease physique.

Muscle groups Labored in a Push Day Exercise

What Are the Advantages of Push Day Exercises?

1. Time Effectivity: Push day routines practice your chest, shoulders, and triceps in a single session, eliminating the necessity for separate exercises for every muscle group and making it splendid for these with restricted time.
2. Greater-quality coaching: Whenever you practice one muscle group per exercise, its efficiency decreases because the exercise progresses. To compensate, it’s a must to use lighter weights or do fewer reps, which isn’t splendid for muscle and energy achieve. Push day exercises keep away from this problem by distributing the trouble throughout a number of muscle groups.
3. Much less Soreness: Because you’re not overdoing it with anybody muscle group, most find they’re much less sore from push day exercises and might recover sooner, making it simpler to keep up coaching depth throughout the week with out one session negatively affecting the following.

The 14 Greatest Push Day Workout routines

1. Barbell Bench Press

The barbell bench press is among the single finest push day workout routines for constructing virtually each main muscle in your higher physique, significantly your pecs, triceps, and deltoids. That is why virtually all well-designed push day exercises revolve round heavy benching. 

How one can:

1. Lie on a flat bench and place your toes flat on the ground. 
2. Pull your shoulder blades collectively and down, and with out lifting your butt or shoulders off the bench, barely arch your again. 
3. Seize the bar with a barely wider than shoulder-width grip and unrack the barbell.
4. Decrease the barbell to your chest, retaining your elbows tucked 6-to-8 inches out of your sides.
5. Press the bar again to the beginning place.

2. Incline Barbell Bench Press

The incline barbell bench press trains your chest, triceps, and shoulders, however it’s additionally probably the greatest push workout routines for coaching your “upper chest.” Together with it in your push day exercises ensures you construct proportionate chest mass—“filling out” your complete pecs. 

How one can:

1. Lie on a bench angled at 30-to-45 levels and plant your toes on the ground. 
2. Pull your shoulder blades collectively and down, and with out lifting your butt or shoulders off the bench, barely arch your again. 
3. Seize the bar with a barely wider than shoulder-width grip and unrack the barbell.
4. Decrease the barbell to your higher chest, retaining your elbows tucked 6-to-8 inches out of your sides.
5. Press the bar again to the beginning place.

3. Dumbbell Bench Press

The dumbbell bench press trains your pushing muscle groups equally to the barbell bench press. The distinction is the dumbbell variation means that you can use a higher vary of movement, which is beneficial for muscle progress.

How one can:

1. Whereas sitting on a flat bench, maintain a dumbbell in every hand and relaxation them in your thighs. 
2. Lie again and convey the dumbbells up so that you’re holding them on both facet of your chest by giving them a nudge along with your thighs.
3. Press the dumbbells over your chest till your arms are straight and your elbows are locked. 
4. Decrease the dumbbells to the beginning place.

4. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

The incline dumbbell bench press trains your chest (and significantly your “higher chest”), triceps, and shoulders in an identical option to the barbell variation. Nonetheless, the incline dumbbell bench press means that you can use a higher vary of movement and stretch your chest muscle groups barely greater than the barbell bench press, which benefits muscle progress. 

How one can:

1. Whereas mendacity on a bench angled at 30-to-45 levels, maintain a dumbbell in every hand and relaxation them in your thighs. 
2. Lie again, hoisting the dumbbells up so that you’re holding them on both facet of your chest by giving them a nudge along with your thighs.
3. Press the dumbbells over your higher chest till your arms are straight and your elbows are locked.
4. Decrease the dumbbells to the beginning place.

5. Dip

The dip is a improbable push day train as a result of it trains your whole upper-body pushing muscle groups on the identical time. What’s extra, if you happen to use a dip belt, it means that you can use heavy weights safely, which is necessary for gaining muscle and energy.

How one can:

1. In the event you’re utilizing a dip belt, wrap the chain round your waist, add the specified quantity of weight to the chain, and fasten the carabiner.
2. Seize each handles of a dip station, then press your self up by straightening your arms and gently leaping off the bottom so your arms are straight and supporting your complete physique weight. 
3. Bend your knees to maintain your toes from touching the bottom, then decrease your physique by bending your elbows till your higher arms are roughly parallel to the ground.
4. Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.

6. Shut-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press trains your chest (and your higher chest in particular), shoulders, and triceps, making it an excellent push day train.

How one can:

1. Lie on a flat bench and place your toes flat on the ground. 
2. Pull your shoulder blades collectively and down, and with out lifting your butt or shoulders off the bench, barely arch your again. 
3. Grip the barbell with a shoulder-width grip or barely narrower and unrack the barbell.
4. Decrease the barbell to your decrease chest, retaining your elbows tucked 2-to-4 inches out of your sides.
5. Press the bar again to the beginning place.

7. Standing Overhead Press

Along with bettering upper-body energy and shoulder, triceps, and higher chest measurement, the overhead press develops your whole-body steadiness and coordination.

How one can:

1. Set a barbell in a rack on the identical top as your higher chest. 
2. Grip the bar with a shoulder-width grip and your palms dealing with away from you.
3. Unrack the barbell, step backward, and plant your toes simply outdoors of shoulder width.
4. Push the bar towards the ceiling till your arms are straight.
5. Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.

8. Seated Overhead Press

The seated overhead press trains your shoulders, triceps, and higher chest just like the standing variation. Nonetheless, as a result of the seated overhead press doesn’t require as a lot full-body coordination, you possibly can raise heavier weights and progress sooner, which is mostly higher for muscle progress.

How one can:

1. Arrange an upright bench in a squat rack or use a seated barbell overhead press station.
2. Set a barbell within the rack at about shoulder top when standing.
3. Sit down and grip the bar with a shoulder-width grip and your palms dealing with away from you.
4. Unrack the barbell and decrease it to your collarbone.
5. Press the bar towards the ceiling and return to the beginning place.

9. Shoulder Press

The primary advantage of the shoulder press is that it means that you can practice via an extended vary of movement than barbell overhead press variations, which is mostly useful for muscle progress. 

How one can:

1. Sit on an upright bench and maintain a dumbbell in every hand, resting them in your thighs. 
2. Hoist the dumbbells up so that you’re holding them simply above your shoulders along with your palms dealing with away from you.
3. Press the dumbbells towards the ceiling till your arms are straight.
4. Decrease the dumbbells and return to the beginning place.

10. Arnold Press

The Arnold press emphasizes your facet delts greater than different overhead urgent variations, making it a wonderful pushing motion for balanced shoulder improvement. 

How one can:

1. Sit on an upright bench and maintain a dumbbell in every hand, resting them in your thighs.
2. Hoist the dumbbells up so that you’re holding them simply in entrance of your shoulders along with your palms dealing with you.
3. Press the dumbbells straight overhead whereas rotating your wrists till your arms are straight and your palms are dealing with away from you.
4. Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.

11. Triceps Pushdown

The triceps pushdown is particularly good for focusing on the lengthy head of the triceps, particularly if you happen to maintain your elbows barely behind your torso. It additionally trains the triceps via a full vary of movement, which is good for muscle progress. 

How one can:

1. Set the pulley on a cable machine to barely above head top and connect the rope and straight bar deal with.
2. Stand upright or lean barely ahead (you possibly can undertake a staggered stance if it helps you steadiness), seize one finish of the deal with in every hand, and push it downward by straightening your elbows. 
3. As soon as your arms are straight and at your sides, reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.

12. Overhead Triceps Extension

The overhead triceps extension trains the complete triceps (particularly the lengthy head) when fully stretched, which maximizes progress.

How one can:

1. Sit up on a bench. 
2. Grip one finish of a dumbbell utilizing each palms and raise it overhead so your arms are straight. Your palms ought to be flat in opposition to the tip of the dumbbell and dealing with the ceiling. 
3. Decrease the load till it’s behind your head by bending your elbows, then straighten your arms and return to the beginning place.

13. Mendacity Triceps Extension (“Skullcrusher”)

14. Dumbbell Facet Lateral Elevate

The dumbbell side lateral raise isolates the lateral (facet) head of the deltoids, which is necessary if you would like your shoulders to have full, proportionate improvement.

How one can:

1. Rise up straight with a dumbbell in every hand. 
2. Elevate the dumbbells out to your sides till your higher arms are parallel to the ground.
3. Reverse the motion and return to the beginning place.

The Greatest Push Day Exercise Routine

In case you have extra time to coach, do each push exercises every week, separated by at the least two days. For instance, you might do Push Day Exercise #1 on Monday, relaxation or do a leg or pull day on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which do Push Day Exercise #2 on Thursday.

Push Day Exercise #1

Push Day Exercise #2

3 Ideas for Extra Productive Push Exercises

1.   Finish each set 1-to-3 reps shy of muscle failure.

As I clarify in my health books for men and women, to maximise your outcomes, it’s essential to take a lot of the units in your push exercises to inside a rep or two of failure.

Ask your self on the finish of every set, “If I needed to, what number of extra reps might I’ve gotten with good type?” If the reply is greater than two, improve the load or reps to make your subsequent set tougher.

2.  When you hit the highest of your rep vary for a set, transfer up in weight. 

Comply with this pattern of attempting so as to add reps or weight to each train in each exercise.

3. Take the proper dietary supplements. 

• Protein powder: Protein powder provides your physique with the vitamins wanted to construct muscle tissue and get better from exercises.
• Creatine: Creatine boosts muscle and energy achieve, improves anaerobic endurance, and reduces muscle harm and soreness out of your exercises. 
• Pre-workout: A high-quality pre-workout enhances power, temper, and focus, will increase energy and endurance, and reduces fatigue.

(In the event you’d like much more particular recommendation about which dietary supplements you must take to achieve your well being and health targets, take the Legion Supplement Finder Quiz, and in lower than a minute, you’ll know precisely what dietary supplements are best for you. Click here to check it out.)

Push Day Exercise FAQs

FAQ #1: What workout routines are in push day?

FAQ #2: What number of workout routines ought to I do on push day?

As a rule of thumb, beginners (these with lower than one 12 months of coaching expertise) ought to do 3 units of 3-to-4 push workout routines as soon as weekly.

Extra superior weightlifters (these with greater than a 12 months of coaching expertise) ought to intention to coach every main muscle group concerned in pushing actions (pecs, shoulder, and triceps) with 15-to-20 weekly units unfold over 2-to-3 exercises. 

FAQ #3: What ought to I do first in push day?