Pumps and variants

Posted on: 01/01/2025

Who hasn't done a push-up challenge in their youth to test their strength and compare themselves with others? It's true that this exercise makes it easy to assess your level of fitness. In fact, it's one of the tests you need to pass to join the army.

Rarely practised in the gym, or only used as a warm-up or to finish off a workout, push-ups are an essential part of any home training program, even if you don't have any equipment. But should they be underestimated? No! They're actually very effective for building upper-body strength, and some variations can be very tough.

Here's everything you need to know about push-ups, how to do them properly and experience-based training tips.

Which muscles are involved in push-ups ?

Push-ups performed on the floor will work your entire torso. Firstly, the chest, with the pectoralis major and minor, the shoulders - especially the anterior deltoids (front of the shoulder) - and also the triceps at the back of the arm.

To properly engage the pectorals, your elbows shouldn't be too close to the body, ideally at 45 degrees - or more - to the torso. The triceps is the main motor that helps you perform a pump, and its participation is accentuated by bringing your hands closer together (triceps pumps or diamond pumps). The shoulders work in all positions. The abdominal and lower back muscles also play a part in stabilizing the movement, as you spend the entire series in plank position.

You could say that push-ups are an indirect sheathing exercise, since they involve the entire abdominal girdle as well as the spinal erectors that keep your back rigid in a plank position. With push-ups, you'll be toning your chest, shoulders and arms, as well as your torso and abdomen, in no time !

How to do push-ups properly ?

Here's the right technique for doing push-ups with perfect form:

1 - Starting position on the ground, hands shoulder-width apart, body straight and rigid, legs straight and head in a neutral position.

2 - On an inhalation, slowly lower the chest to the floor, without touching it or just a few centimetres away, drawing out the chest but without arching the lower back.

3 - Pause - or not - and return to the starting position while exhaling.

4 - Repeat the movement for the number of repetitions in your series.

What are the benefits of push-ups ?

Why add push-ups to your strength training? Here are some good reasons to do this bodybuilding exercise:

1 - A good warm-up exercise.

Push-ups help prepare your body for more intense chest exercises. They're also a good finishing exercise to do at the end of a chest workout.

2 - An effective exercise for building muscle and strength.

Push-ups help you gain muscle quickly, especially when you're just starting out, and also strength, as you need to keep your torso on your toes and arms. What's more, the position strengthens and girdles your body. However, for steady progress and to avoid stagnation, you need to apply the principle of progressive overload. Once you've completed a certain number of sets with lots of reps at bodyweight, you need to make the push-ups more difficult. This can be done by adding ballast (backpack or weighted vest), changing the work angle (elevated push-ups), increasing the number of repetitions and/or reducing the pause time between sets (30 seconds). It's up to you to play with these parameters to make the exercise more challenging.

3 - An exercise that's good for your posture.

If you often sit for work, adding push-ups to your routine can help counter the damaging effects of this position and improve posture. Provided you use the right technique and also strengthen your upper back.

4 - A gentle exercise for the joints.

Most push-up variations are low-impact and help you recruit your upper-body muscles, without overtaxing your joints, tendons and ligaments. It's a functional, everyday exercise that works the chest, shoulders, triceps, back and core.

How many push-ups should you be able to do ?

Now that you know the correct technique for performing a push-up, to determine how many push-ups you're capable of doing, you need to perform the exercise to failure. How do you do this? Do as many push-ups as you can in one go, and stop your set as soon as you get stuck or if your form deteriorates too much.

If you're between 17 and 19 years old, you should be able to do between 19 and 34 push-ups in a row, according to the work by Doctor Lawrence A. Golding (1). 4 to 10 is considered bad, and 47 to 56 good.

But your final score is irrelevant to muscle gain, apart from giving you an idea of your fitness level. Indeed, push-ups can help assess cardiovascular health in addition to measuring endurance and strength. According to a 10-year study (2) of middle-aged firefighters, men who could do 40 or more push-ups a day were 96% less likely to have heart problems than those who could only do 10 or fewer.

When it comes to bodybuilding, remember that the most important thing is to make progress from one session to the next. To achieve this, you need to train 2-3 times a week and match your nutrition to your goal. A realistic goal should be to reach 100 push-ups in a single training session. That's not bad at all.

Can you do push-ups every day ?

It's possible, but counterproductive. You need to let your pecs recover between workouts. Doing push-ups every day can hinder recovery and quickly cause you to stagnate, especially if you push all your sets to muscular failure.

What's more, there's a definite risk of muscle imbalance. Doing this exercise alone, without doing an antagonistic movement (such as strengthening the back), can create an imbalance between the front and back of the torso, and between the upper and lower body. Remember, you need to build up your entire body!

What are the best pump variants ?

1 - Pumps inclined towards the wall.

Push-ups against the wall or a high support, useful for reducing the difficulty when you're just starting out or if you're overweight.

2 - Push-ups on knees.

Knees on the ground make the exercise easier, as you move less mass with each movement. This is a good tip if you're not yet able to do conventional push-ups.

3 - Diamond pumps.

To train the triceps and inner pectoral muscles. Your hands should be under your chest, touching at the index fingers and thumbs. This forms a "diamond" shape. Keep your elbows close to your body.

4 - Elevated foot pumps.

To train the upper pectoral muscles. Use a stable support and incline at about 30 degrees. More inclination puts more strain on the shoulders.

5 - Single-arm pump.

A difficult and technical strength exercise, where all the weight rests on one arm. Be sure to warm up before testing.

6 - Spiderman push-up pump.

Also used to train the obliques of the abdominal muscles.

7 - Dive Bomber push-up pumps.

A difficult, technical exercise. A push-up variant that combines a stretching movement and abdominal contraction, with the added benefits of push-ups. Works the whole body in a single exercise.

8 - Handstand Push-Up.

A balance exercise in headstand position, and a gymnastic move that's often part of Crossfit WODs. With your arms outstretched, you lower your head to the ground and then raise yourself back up. This exercise is particularly effective on the shoulders and triceps, and helps to gain core strength.

Sources :

1 - Y's Way to Physical Fitness: The Complete Guide to Fitness Testing and Instruction (3rd Edition) by Lawrence Golding and Clayton Myers.

2 - https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2724778