Pushups for Arms – 8 Variations for Bigger Arms

So you can’t make it to the gym and you can feel your arms getting smaller by the minute. You don’t need all those heavy barbell curls to build your arms. All you need is your bodyweight. Here are 8 pushups for arms that are sure to make your sleeves pop without any equipment whatsoever.

1. Narrow Pushups

Narrow pushups place your hands closer together, taking most of the stress off your chest in order to stimulate your triceps more. In addition to growing your arms, this variation will also challenge your core stability.

How to do Narrow Pushups for Arms?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your feet close together. Keep your body straight.
3. Place your hands less than shoulder width apart, at chest level.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your chest to just above the floor. Keep your elbows tucked in to your sides.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Squeeze your triceps in order to extend your arms and lift your chest off the floor. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. To use this pushup to build your arms more effectively, try to lower your chest for at least 2 seconds to emphasize the eccentric phase of the triceps contraction.

2. Diamond Pushups

This variation is one of the best pushups for triceps. Because the triceps make up the majority of your arm, it is a great pushup for building your arms. Learn more about diamond pushups here.

How to do Diamond Pushups for Arms?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your feet close together. Keep your body straight.
3. Bring your hands together to form a diamond or triangle shape with your thumbs and index fingers. Keep your hands at chest level.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your chest to just above the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Flex your triceps in order to extend your arms and lift your chest back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. Slowly lower your chest over the course of 2 seconds to emphasize the eccentric phase of the triceps contraction, to use this pushup for arm growth more effectively.

3. Sphinx Pushups

This exercise gets its name from the Egyptian Sphinx, because it puts you in a similar position. It focuses entirely on extending your arms at the elbow, making it by far one of the best pushups for triceps. So if you want to use pushups for arms, you can’t neglect this variation.

How to do Sphinx Pushups for Arms?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your feet close together. Keep your body straight.
3. Get down on your forearms as if you were doing a plank.
4. Your elbows should be below shoulder level.
5. Keep your hand planted firmly on the floor.
6. Flex your triceps to extend your arm at the elbow in order lift your body into a narrow pushup position.
7. Slowly bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your body back into the plank position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. Lower your body slowly and controlled in order to avoid bumping your elbows too hard on the floor. This will also emphasize the eccentric phase of the triceps contraction to stimulate arm growth.

Try it with your hands holding onto an elevated surface to get a full tricep contraction.

4. Regular Pushups

The regular pushup is a great exercise for overall arm growth. It gets a bit more assistance from the chest muscles than the other variations but it is still effective for building your triceps.

How to do a Pushup?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your feet close together. Keep your body straight.
3. Place your arms shoulder width apart, at chest level.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your chest to just above the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Squeeze your chest and triceps muscles in order to extend your arms and return to the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. To really use this pushup to build arms, use your mind-muscle connection to focus on extending your arms at the elbows.

5. Pseudo-Planche Pushups

This pushup borrows from calisthenics. You’ll need to maintain a lot of tension in your triceps and biceps in order to do it, so it’s one of the best pushups for biceps.

How to do Pseudo-Planche Pushups for Arms?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your feet close together. Keep your body straight.
3. Rotate your hands so that they are pointing towards your feet.
4. Place your hands under your chest.
5. Extend your arms at the elbows to lift your body up and forwards.
6. Pause, while maintaining tension in your biceps and triceps in order to hold the position.
7. Slowly bend your arms at the elbows in order to return to the starting position.

Tips: Focus on contracting your biceps as you lower your body to stimulate a lot of growth in your arms.

6. Incline Pushups

For anyone familiar with dips, this movement can put your body in a similar position to work your triceps muscles. With some simple modifications we can make it one of the best pushups for arm growth. Learn more about incline pushups here.

How to do Decline Pushups for Arms?

1. Find an elevated surface.
2. Place your hands close together, less than shoulder width apart.
3. Move your feet backwards and straighten your body.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your chest to just above the elevated surface.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Squeeze your triceps in order to extend your arms at the elbows and raise your chest back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. To further stimulate your triceps and get the most arm growth out of these pushups, try to keep your hands slightly in front of your shoulders when you get to the bottom of the pushup.

Try to immediately follow up this exercise with a set at a higher incline to fully fatigue your triceps.

7. One Arm Pushup

The one arm pushup unilaterally loads the triceps muscles with the entire bodyweight, shocking them into growth. Additionally, you’ll need to keep your biceps tight and engaged to maintain balance during the exercise, making it a great pushup for arm growth.

How to do One Arm Pushups for Arms?

1. Get down on all fours. Keep your body straight.
2. Place your feet far apart in order to maintain balance.
3. Place one hand behind your back.
4. Bend your arm at the elbow to lower your chest to just above the floor. Lean your shoulder into your hand as your descend.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Flex your triceps in order to extend your arm at the elbows and lift your chest back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.
7. Repeat this with your other arm.

Tips: Keep your biceps tensed and engaged at all times to maintain stability. This will emphasize the eccentric portion of the biceps contraction, leading to more arm growth.

8. Slow Pushups

This exercise increases the time the muscles are under tension so it’s sure to grow your arms, but it’s incredibly painful. Try it if you like being in pain.

How to do Slow Pushups for Arms?

1. Get down into pushup position.
2. Bend your arms at the elbows to slowly lower your chest to the floor. Take your time. Take at least 10 seconds.
3. Pause at the bottom. Hold the pause for at least 10 seconds.
4. Flex your triceps to slowly raise your chest off the floor. There isn’t any rush so let it last at least 10 seconds.
5. Do as much reps as possible like this.

Tips: Keep increasing the time of each phase of the pushup. Try it for 30 seconds and even a minute. The constant tension on your muscles during this pushup will shock your arms into growth.

There you have it. Those were 8 pushups for arms that are sure to level up your next arm workout. You better buy some bigger T-shirts because those arms are going to grow! Check out these variations for massive shoulders.

References:

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.

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

Adams, G., Cheng, D., Haddad, F. and Baldwin, K., 2004. Skeletal muscle hypertrophy in response to isometric, lengthening, and shortening training bouts of equivalent duration. Journal of Applied Physiology, 96(5), pp.1613-1618.