Stop wasting time on bicep curls and isolated tricep extensions. If you want strong, and sexy arms, it’s time you started focusing on HYBRID exercises.
These moves will get you better results in less time because they work more muscles at once, including the larger muscle groups of our upper bodies!
And as much as I love weights, you don’t even need weights to build killer functional upper body strength.
Using your own bodyweight, you can get in a great upper body workout AND even work your core! Try these 5 Hybrid Bodyweight Upper Body Exercises that you’ll be sure to feel the next day!
5 Bodyweight Upper Body Exercise (no equipment needed!)
Below are 5 Hybrid Exercises to work your arms, chest, shoulders and even back. Try including these in your next upper body workout, especially if you need something quick at home!
These are some of my favorite moves from my 6-Week Bodyweight Shred to not only work the upper body, but also the CORE!
Climber Push Ups:
This core-intensive push up variation will work not only your chest, but really target your triceps and shoulders as well!
To do the Climber Push Up, start in a plank from your forearms. You can set your feet wider apart if needed to create a more stable base. Make sure your body is in a nice straight line from your head to your heels and that your shoulders are stacked over your elbows while on your forearms.
Engage your abs and, keeping your body in a nice straight line, climb one hand at a time up to a plank position from your hands. Place your hands right below your shoulders, but outside your chest as you climb up. Try to wiggle your hips as little as possible as you climb and don’t let your butt go up in the air or your hips sag toward the ground as you climb up.
Then at the top perform a push up. Keep your body in a nice straight line as you drop your chest between your hands and down toward the ground. Press all the way back up.Then climb back down, placing your elbows right below your shoulders. Repeat, climbing back up. Make sure to alternate or switch which hand leads the climb at some point.
Beginners can do the whole thing from their knees or even just drop to their knees for the push up.
Push Up Leg Kick:
This Push Up is a great way to work your obliques and really toast your entire core!
To do the Push Up Leg Kick, set up in a high plank position with your hands under your shoulders and outside your chest and your feet close together. Your body should be in a nice straight line with your abs braced and glutes and quads engaged.
Then lower down to the bottom of the push up, keeping your body in a nice straight line. Press back up and at the top, kick one leg out to the side toward your elbow. Your hips may rotate slightly as you kick, but your butt shouldn’t go up in the air.
Kick your leg up as close to your elbow as you can and then lower it back down and place your foot back on the ground. Once your foot is back down, repeat the push up then kick the other leg out to the side toward your elbow. Keep your leg as straight as you can as you kick it out. Place your foot back and repeat the push up before repeating on the first side.
You can modify the move by doing it from your knees then come up onto your toes for the kick. You can also do it with your hands up on an incline. To advance the move further, perform the kick at the BOTTOM of the push up!
Scapular Wall Hold/Reps:
This move is a must-do if you have a desk job. Whether you perform the isometric or the reps, it is a great way to work your back and open up your chest.
To do the Scapular Wall Hold Reps, stand with your back relaxing against the wall and your feet about six inches away. Bend your arms and drive your elbows back into the wall. With your body in a nice straight line, drive off the wall with your elbows, pressing your chest out and pinching your shoulder blades down and back. Brace your core and squeeze your glutes so your body moves as one unit.
Relax back into against the wall, keeping your body in a nice straight line from your head to your heels. Do not let your hips drop. Then repeat the press out, driving off your elbows. Do not arch your low back as you press out. Also, make sure not to shrug your shoulders. The further from the wall that you walk your feet out, the harder the move will be.
To do the hold, you would simply hold pressed out. That is a great activation move even before your pull up work!
Row Push Up:
This anti-rotational core move will work not only your abs, but also your chest, back, arms and shoulders. Talk about a move that works EVERYTHING!
To do the Row Push Up, set up in a high plank position with your feet about hip-width apart and your hands outside your chest (beginners can do this from their knees). Then perform a push up, lowering your chest to the ground as your body moves as one unit. Do not let your butt go up in the air or your head jut forward. Also, make sure your arms create an arrow shape (–>) with your body instead of flaring way out.
Press back up, again keeping your body in a nice straight line. At the top of the push up, row one arm up. Lift the hand off the ground as you drive your elbow down and back toward the ceiling. Feel your back work to lift your arm. Bring your hand to about chest height then place it back down and repeat the push up.
At the top of the push up, row the other hand up. Try not to let your body rotate as you row. Also, do not let your butt go up in the air. You want to keep your body square to the ground as fighting the rotation works your core more.
If you have weights and really want to use them, you may also do the Renegade Row Push Up.
Push Up Walk Back:
This push up variation is going to work your arms, shoulders and abs and get your blood pumping. It is also a great way to work on your mobility with the walk back! (Hey a little extra lower body work never hurts!)
To do the Push Up Walk Back, start standing with your feet close together. Then bend your knees and squat down slightly. Rock forward to “dive out” and extend into a push up.
As you dive out and catch yourself, bend your elbows to absorb the shock of landing. You will perform a push up as you catch yourself and lower your chest to the ground. Push back up to a plank position and then, keeping your legs straight, walk your hands back in toward your feet.
Stand all the way back up and then squat down to repeat the dive back out and push up. This is an advanced move. Beginners may need to walk out instead and go down to their knees for the push up.
Ready to build full-body strength as you burn fat WITHOUT using any equipment?
To improve your Push Ups, you’ve got to actually practice doing them. The problem is…So many of us do them wrong to start!
We have poor form and don’t engage the correct muscles so we are stuck at a modified variation FOREVER.
Or we try and progress too quickly and then get caught up on doing harder variations even though our form is incorrect and we really aren’t getting the most out of the movement.
Below are 5 quick tips to help you improve your push ups!
How To Improve Your Push Ups:
Strengthen Your Core – I say this all the time, but I’m going to repeat it again because it is essential to remember…Push ups are just a moving plank!
If your core isn’t strong and engaging correctly, your hips will sag and your push up will look more like you’re doing the worm than a sleek and graceful upper body and core exercise.
You’ve got to first work on strengthening your core and making sure it engages correctly during the entire push up movement. This means you’ve got to work on your planks. You’ve got to work on engaging your back, not shrugging your shoulders, bracing your abs, engaging your quads and even squeezing your glutes.
So if you want to strengthen your push ups, you should include planks in your workout routines where you focus on really engaging and activating your core!
Another great way to build your core strength is to use Incline Push Ups because Incline Push Ups are a way to modify the push up while still engaging your core in the same way as a full push up. Learn more about Incline Push Ups below!
Activate Your Back – Push ups do focus on your chest, shoulders and triceps. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to get your back activated and working correctly if you want to do a proper push up.
Getting your back muscles activated and working correctly helps stabilize your shoulders and mobilize your shoulder blades to prevent shoulder injury during push ups. Getting your back and your serratus anterior (the muscle on the sides of our ribs under our chest and in front of our lats) activated and working will not only prevent injury but also improve your pressing strength!
I recommend doing different exercises to improve your scapular mobility and strengthen your upper back. Scapular Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper back and serratus anterior while also improving your core strength. You can do them from your forearms or your hands
To do a Scapular Push Up from your hands, set up in a high plank position with your hands under your shoulders and your feet together. Your body should be in a nice straight line from head to your heels.
Without bending your elbows or dropping your hips, pinch your shoulder blades together and press your chest out. Do not tuck your chin or jut your head forward. Also do not let your core wiggle or your elbows bend to try to increase your range of motion.
You are not doing a push up. This is a very small range of motion where you are simply focused on pinching your shoulder blades together. Just pinch your shoulder blades together and then relax or even round your back up out of it (rounding your back at the top is another variation but can be very useful for correcting certain push up problems).
Keep your core tight as you pinch your shoulder blades together. As you get stronger and build the mind-body connection you will find your range of motion increases.
If you struggle to pinch your shoulder blades together without wiggling your core or bending your elbows, go down to your knees as if doing a push up from your knees or even come into a quadruped position to start. You can also do this against the wall. Just focus on mobilizing your shoulder blades!
Another push up variation I recommend to activate and strengthen your back and serratus anterior while mobilizing your shoulder blades and strengthen your core and upper body is the Push Up Plus!
You may see what I call the Scapular Push Up also called the Push Up Plus, but the Push Up plus I’m referring to is very different.
This move is very focused on engaging the core and working to mobilize your shoulder blades.
To do the Push Up Plus, you’ll first perform a full push up. I recommend if you can’t do a full push up from the ground that you do this off an incline so you can really engage your core at the top.
Perform a push up and then, at the top, round out as if performing the “cat” stretch. Draw your belly button in toward your spine and perform a pelvic tilt, tucking your hips under toward your ribs as you round your back. You want to hollow out your belly and your round your back out. You should feel your back stretching.
Then return to the nice high plank position and feel your shoulder blades go back to neutral before you perform another push up.
While at the top of the push up, even feel around your rib cage under your armpits engaging to help stabilize your shoulders. You should even feel this if you think about it throughout the entire push up motion.
Use Incline Variations – The Incline Push Up is a must-do push up variation if you aren’t yet able to perform a full one with perfect form.
While I use the Knee Push Up and am not against that variation, I do believe if you’re stuck unable to progress to that first full one, it’s because you’ve only been doing push ups from your knees. Plus the Knee Push Up, may actually be too hard for some people to start. It may cause you to develop bad habits.
You may find you tuck your chin or your elbows flare way out or your core still sags. You may see this in your clients even. And this can be another reason to modify with an incline. It does give you more control and allows you, or your clients, to learn proper form with the right amount of resistance.
When you do push ups from your knees you do build upper body strength and you are working on your core strength; HOWEVER, you also never force yourself to take on your full bodyweight or engage your core in exactly the way you have to do a proper full push up.
With the Incline Push Up, you are working your core and body in the exact form you will with a full push up from the ground. It is also very easy to slowly progress. As you get stronger, you can slowly lower the incline even just ever so slightly each and every workout!
Use Eccentric Variations – If you want to build strength and take your push ups to the next level, you also need to do some Eccentric Push Ups. What this means is you need to do Push Ups where you focus on a slow lower down to the ground. By slowing down the lower down, you can challenge your muscles even more. You can build core strength while challenging your upper body further.
If you can do a full push up, this is a great tool to use to be able to do more push ups and even more challenging variations. And if you can’t yet do a full push up from your toes yet, this is a great way to help yourself progress toward that first full one and start taking on your full bodyweight.
Often before you can do that first full one, you can at least handle your own bodyweight for part of the movement. Which is where the Eccentric Push Up comes into play. By taking on your full bodyweight for a slow lower down, you are building upper body and core strength. You are learning to engage everything correct with perfect form even if you can’t push back up.
So if you aren’t yet at that first full push up, try doing just an Eccentric ONLY Push Up.
To do Eccentric-Only Push Ups, set up in a high plank position with your hands outside your chest and your feet together. Your body should be in a nice straight line. Keeping your body in a nice straight line, slowly lower your chest down to the ground. Try to slowly lower down for at least a 3 count if not a 5 count. Keep everything engaged until you touch the ground.
Here you can release and relax onto the ground and then reset. You do not need to push back up. Simply reset at the top. Your focus is on perfect form for a very slow lower down. At the bottom you can release and simply reset back at the top.
By just doing this slow lower down, you may find you are able to build toward that perfect full push up even when you feel like you’ve been working forever with other modified variations!
Its all about constantly challenging yourself and finding ways you can do as close to a full version as possible!
Mix Up Your Grips – We’ve all heard the phrase, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link.” Well the same is true with push ups. If your shoulders are weakest, triceps are weakest, chest is weakest….WHATEVER is weakest that is what will limit how many push ups you can do.
That is why it is important to include a variety of push up “grips” in your workouts. Do some close grip, some wide grip, some pike presses so T Push Ups…include a variety of hand placements and even movements that focuses on certain areas.
There are so many push up variations out there you can use to target your upper body and core in different ways to strengthen your weak points!
The Push Up is a must-do move even though most of us need to make sure we do extra pulling exercises because we sit hunched over a computer for 9 hours a day.
So while you definitely need to include rows and pull ups and all sorts of pulling exercises in your workouts, you can still include Push Ups.
Push Ups are an important bodyweight exercise to include because they work not only your chest, shoulders and triceps but also your entire core. As I’ve mentioned before, Push Ups are basically just a moving Plank.
They can help train the muscles of your core to work together correctly. They can help you develop and improve your mind-body connection so that your core engages and works properly during compound exercises.
However, doing the same basic Push Up over and over again gets boring. Plus there are so many different variations out there that can work not only your upper body, but also your core, in different ways to focus on different muscle groups.
That is why it is important to include different Push Up variations in your workout routine. Check out these 31 Push Up Variations below for some great upper body and core exercises!
Bodyweight exercises can be a great way to work your chest, shoulders and triceps as well as your core.
And two of the best bodyweight exercises you can do to work your chest, shoulder, triceps and your core are the Push Up and the Dip.
While both pressing moves may work the same muscle groups, they work them in different ways, which is why a good exercise program should include both movements.
If you include both pressing movements in your workout routine, it is also important that you include a variety of pulling exercises in your workouts as well.
Because we sit in flexion all day at a desk, it is important that we do enough pulling movements (aka work our back) and don’t simply focus on pressing exercises. If we only focus on pressing movements, we are going to further imbalances caused by sitting all day at a desk, which could lead to pain and injury.
To prevent injury as you include both the Push Up and the Dip in your workouts, make sure to also include Pulling Exercises, such as Rows and Pull Ups, as well as a proper foam rolling and stretching routine.
The Push Up – It is a bodyweight exercise that we should all be able to do. And while it seems so easy, it can be a very challenging move.
Because, while the Push Up seems like it is only an upper body exercise, a Perfect Push Up works more than just your chest, shoulders and triceps – it works your entire core.
The Push Up is basically a moving plank. And for many, just holding a plank is hard enough. Yet with a Push Up, you are being asked to hold that perfect plank as you move.
To do the Perfect Push Up, everything from your shoulders to your heels must be engaged and working together.
Below we will teach you how to do the Perfect Push Up and get all the correct muscles engaged and working. Plus, we will show you how to strengthen your weak points with Push Up Variations and supplemental exercise to help you do more Push Ups
If you want to be able to do push ups from your toes, the knee push up isn’t the best way to get there.
Yes, push ups from your knees will strengthen your upper body, BUT if you want to be able to do push ups from your toes, YOU NEED TO DO PUSH UPS FROM YOUR TOES.
So how do you do push ups from your toes if you can’t actually do push ups from your toes?
