Decline Pushups Guide – Benefits, Variations, Tips

The pushup is one of the most versatile bodyweight exercise, with tons of variations you can do. All of these variations have their own unique benefits. So what can decline push ups do for you?

What are Decline Pushups?

The decline push up is a variation of the regular push up where your feet are placed at an elevated position. This places your body in a declined position. Hence, the name of the exercise. Don’t mix them up with incline push ups.

What Muscles do Incline Push ups work?

Despite common belief that push ups are a chest exercise, they are in fact full body exercises. This is because the movement recruits most of the muscles of the body, either directly for pushing or indirectly in order to stabilize the joints throughout the body. The main muscles used are:

• Chest muscles- Pectoralis major and minor function to move the upper arm from the side of the body to the front during the movement. Serratus anterior assists in stretching the arm forwards.
• Triceps muscles- Triceps brachii functions to extend the arm at the elbow.
• Shoulder muscles- The deltoid muscles assist with movements at the shoulder joint.
• Core muscles- The abdominal and gluteal muscles function to keep the body in a straight position.

All of the other muscles from the back and biceps muscles to the leg muscles play a minor role as stabilizers. Learn how to use pushups to build muscle here.

How to do Decline Push ups?

1. Place your hands, shoulder width apart, just in front of an elevated surface.
2. Lift your feet, one at a time, onto the elevated surface.
3. Tighten your abs and glutes in order to straighten your body.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your chest to just above the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Extend your arms at the elbows in order to lift your chest back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips to use Proper Form on Decline Push ups

1. Hand Placement

If your hands are too far forwards or too far back it will put more strain on your shoulders during the exercise. Too wide hand placement will make the exercise harder and limit the range of motion. Too narrow hand placement will also make the exercise harder.

The most efficient and safest position to place your hands, for balanced muscle development, is shoulder width apart and underneath shoulder level. Experiment with your exercise set up to find the safest distance from the elevated surface to place your hands to ensure this occurs.

If your wrists hurt during pushups then you can use a pushup bar to keep them in a more neutral position.

2. Don’t Flare your Elbows

If your elbows are flared too far out to the side, this puts a lot of pressure on the shoulder joint. The closer your elbows are to your body, the safer the decline push up is on the shoulder joint.

However, this is not the most efficient position for the movement, because in this position the majority of pushing comes from the weaker triceps muscles. A good rule of thumb is to position your elbows so that your upper arm forms a 45⁰ angle with your body.

3. Pull your Shoulders back

If you allow your shoulders to roll forwards during the exercise, then the shoulder muscles will be forced to perform most of the movement. Not only is this unsafe, but it is also inefficient and will make decline push ups much harder.

Pull your shoulders backwards and retract your scapulae when you are performing any pushup variation.

4. Keep your Body Straight

If you allow your hips to sag when performing decline push ups, then the movement will become very inefficient. Not only is this harder to perform, but it also puts a lot of pressure on your lower back.

Make sure to engage your abdominal and gluteal muscles in order to elevate your hips and keep your body in a straight position.

Remember your your head is a part of your body and the entire thing needs to be in a straight position. So keep your neck in a neutral position to maintain a straight spine.

5. Elevation

The higher you place your feet, the harder decline push ups become. The lower you place your feet, the easier it becomes. Keep this in mind when performing decline push ups in your workouts.

Benefits of Decline Push ups

1. Decline Push ups are Great for Advanced Lifters

Decline push ups are much harder to perform than regular push ups. This is because of the change in the body position. Where a regular pushup requires you to lift roughly 65% of your bodyweight, a decline pushup with an elevation of 2 feet or 60cm requires you to lift 75%.

This is a significant increase in the amount of weight you have to lift. Additionally, the change in position recruits particular muscles to a greater extent than regular push ups. These factors make decline push ups an excellent variation for more advanced trainees.

2. Decline Push ups Target Upper Chest

Because decline pushups make your upper arms move in a more upwards and overhead direction, it recruits more of the upper chest muscle fibers. This makes it a great variation to build up your upper chest.

3. Decline Push ups are Great for Shoulders

The primary direction of movement during decline pushups is in an overhead manner. This requires the use of the deltoid muscles. As a result, decline pushups are also great for developing your shoulders.

4. It’s Easy to Progress on Decline Push ups

An elevation of 1 foot or 30 cm requires you to lift 70% of your bodyweight, whereas an elevation of 2 feet or 60cm requires you to lift 75% of your bodyweight. This indicates that you can vary the intensity of the exercise by simply varying how high you place your feet.

This change in feet position makes it relatively easy to advance and make the exercise more challenging in order to continue muscle growth through progressive overload.

5. You can do Decline Push ups Anywhere

You can perform decline pushups anywhere as long as you find a place to put your feet. This can be a bench in the gym or a wall, chair, table or staircase at home or in the office.

Disadvantages of Decline Push ups

1. Not an Ideal Exercise for Beginners

Because the decline pushup requires you to lift a significantly higher proportion of your total bodyweight, it is not suitable for beginners who may not have the upper body strength to do the exercise. It would be safer and easier for them to build their strength on easier pushup variations.

2. Harder on the Core

Because of the declined position, there is a greater tendency for your hip to sag during the exercise. This places a greater amount of stress on your core muscles to keep your body in a straight position.

3. Less Lower Chest Stimulation

Because of the generally overhead direction of movement of decline pushups, it recruits less of the lower chest muscles. Therefore, it is not ideal if the focus of your workouts is to build your lower chest.

4. Less Safe on Shoulders

The overhead direction of movement during decline pushups places more stress on the shoulder joint and shoulder muscles. Therefore, it is especially important to use proper form on the exercise to prevent any injuries from occuring.

Decline Push up Variations

Apply these simple modifications to your decline pushups to add variety and a new level of muscle stimulation to your workouts.

1. Place your Hands Wider

Place your hands a bit wider than shoulder width apart in order to isolate the chest muscles and reduce the amount of triceps being used in the movement.

2. Make a Diamond

Bring your hands close together and form a diamond or a triangle shape with your thumbs and index fingers. This variation will target more of the triceps muscles. Learn more about diamond pushups here.

3. Use 1 Leg

Lift one leg into the air during the exercise in order to make it more unstable and increase the amount of core work being done.

4. Do it Slowly

Lower your chest slowly and pause for a few seconds in order to maximize the eccentric and isometric phases of the exercise and get more muscle growth out of your decline pushups.

Should You do Decline Push ups?

Whether or not you include decline push ups in your workouts is entirely up to your personal goals and your level of training experience. A complete beginner who cannot perform a pushup yet shouldn’t include them in their workouts.

However, a more advanced trainee who can easily do pushups and is seeking a new challenge as well as chest growth can easily benefit from decline pushups. Test out decline pushups in this great home chest workout.

References:

Cogley, Robert M ; Archambault, Teasha A ; Fibeger, Jon F ; Koverman, Mandy M ; et al . Comparison of Muscle Activation using Various Hand Positions during the Pushup Exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research ; Champaign  Volume 19, No. 3,  (Aug 2005): 628-33. DOI: 10.1519 / 00124278-200508000-00024

Youdas, James W; Budach, Brian D; Ellerbusch, Jay V; Stucky, Craig M; Wait, Kevin R; Hollman, John H Comparison of Muscle-Activation Patterns During the Conventional Push-Up and Perfect· Pushup™ Exercises, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: December 2010 – Volume 24 – Issue 12 – p 3352-3362 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181cc23b0

Ebben, W., Wurm, B., VanderZanden, T., Spadavecchia, M., Durocher, J., Bickham, C. and Petushek, E., 2011. Kinetic Analysis of Several Variations of Push-Ups. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(10), pp.2891-2894.