4 Pushup Variations for Bigger Chest at Home
52sShows a clear progression from beginner to advanced pushups, making it highly educational for viewers at any fitness level.
▶ Play ClipAI Summary
The video is a comprehensive beginner's guide to calisthenics, demonstrating how to train every major muscle group at home with no equipment (except optionally a pull-up bar). It covers exercises ranging from basic to advanced, emphasising progressive overload and the compound nature of bodyweight training.
Chapters
[00:25]
Chest Exercises
The video introduces push-ups as the staple chest exercise, with modifications: knee push-ups (easy), regular push-ups (medium), archer push-ups and pseudo push-ups (advanced, replicating planche).
[01:29]
Triceps Exercises
Triceps can be worked with skull crushers, tricep extensions, diamond pushups (elbows tucked), and tricep dips using a chair.
[02:09]
Shoulder Exercises
Shoulder exercises include pike pushups, elevated pike pushups (feet on chair for more weight), and wall handstand pushups (advanced).
[02:56]
Core Strength
Core exercises: V-ups (full range of motion), tuck V-ups (easier), L-sit (advanced, also works triceps/shoulders). Progression: tucked L-sit, then extend one leg at a time.
[04:08]
Back Exercises (Floor)
Back is tricky because it requires pulling. Floor options: reverse flies (easy), reverse flies with legs raised (harder), drags (raise whole body by pressing into floor). For more effectiveness, a pull-up bar is recommended.
[05:33]
Biceps Exercises
For biceps, a pull-up bar is best (chin-ups, headbangers, side-to-side holds, behind-the-head chin-ups). Without a bar: sit on a towel, lean back, and curl your legs as resistance.
[06:11]
Leg Exercises
Leg exercises: bodyweight squats (easy), lateral squats, explosive squats, alternating lunges, single-leg pistol squats (advanced).
[06:35]
Forearm Exercises
Forearms: fingertip holds and wall extensions.
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Mentioned in this Video
Tutorial Checklist
2
00:38
Perform push-ups with proper form: hands shoulder-width apart, back straight, lower chest to floor, push up. For beginners, start with knee push-ups.
3
00:52
Advance to archer push-ups: lean to one side, extend the other arm out, perform a chest fly with one hand while pressing with the other.
4
01:04
For pseudo push-ups: start with fingers pointing outwards, lean forward until hands are aligned with hips, press down while keeping the lean throughout.
5
01:17
Include decline and incline push-ups using a chair: place feet on chair for decline (upper chest), hands on chair for incline (lower chest).
6
01:29
For triceps: perform skull crushers (lie down, bring hands behind head, extend), tricep extensions, diamond pushups (hands forming a diamond, elbows tucked), and tricep dips (grab chair behind you, press up).
7
02:09
For shoulders: perform pike pushups (hands slightly wider than shoulder-width, hips raised, press down at head). Progress by placing feet on chair or doing wall handstand pushups.
8
02:56
For abs: do V-ups (full range, touch feet), tuck V-ups (easier), or L-sit (sit, hands beside hips, raise legs with core engagement). For L-sit progression, start tucked, extend one leg at a time.
9
04:29
For back without equipment: lie face down, perform reverse flies (squeeze back at top). Increase difficulty by raising legs simultaneously. Then try drags: lie down, hands by hips, push into floor to raise whole body, squeezing back.
11
05:58
For biceps without pull-up bar: place a towel under knees, lean back, pull with arms curling your legs as resistance. Increase difficulty by pushing legs down.
12
06:11
For legs: do bodyweight squats, lateral squats, explosive squats, alternating lunges, and single-leg pistol squats (requires mobility, lower and press back up on one leg).
13
06:35
For forearms: perform fingertip holds (hold fingertips on floor) and wall extensions (fingers against wall, hold position).
Study Flashcards (10)
What is the staple calisthenics exercise for the chest?
easy
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What is the staple calisthenics exercise for the chest?
easy
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Push-ups (with variations like knee, archer, and pseudo).
00:25
Which push-up variation replicates the planche and targets front delts, triceps, and chest?
medium
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Which push-up variation replicates the planche and targets front delts, triceps, and chest?
medium
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Pseudo push-ups.
00:52
Name three tricep exercises that can be done with no equipment.
medium
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Name three tricep exercises that can be done with no equipment.
medium
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Skull crushers, tricep extensions, diamond pushups, and tricep dips.
01:29
What are three progressive shoulder exercises from easiest to hardest?
medium
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What are three progressive shoulder exercises from easiest to hardest?
medium
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Pike pushups, elevated pike pushups (feet on chair), and wall handstand pushups.
02:09
Name two calisthenics exercises for abs/core.
easy
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Name two calisthenics exercises for abs/core.
easy
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V-ups and L-sit.
02:56
Why is targeting the back more challenging than the chest in calisthenics?
hard
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Why is targeting the back more challenging than the chest in calisthenics?
hard
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You need to pull something (requires a pull-up bar or doorframe bar).
04:08
How can you target your back without any equipment?
medium
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How can you target your back without any equipment?
medium
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Reverse flies (on the floor), drags (raising whole body), or using a pull-up bar.
04:29
What hack does the video provide for training biceps without a pull-up bar?
hard
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What hack does the video provide for training biceps without a pull-up bar?
hard
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By using a towel under your knees, leaning back, and curling your legs as resistance.
05:45
List three leg exercises mentioned in the video.
easy
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List three leg exercises mentioned in the video.
easy
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Bodyweight squats, lateral squats, explosive squats, alternating lunges, and pistol squats.
06:11
What two exercises are recommended for forearms?
easy
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What two exercises are recommended for forearms?
easy
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Fingertip holds and wall extensions.
06:35
💡 Key Takeaways
🔧
Pseudo Push-Up Progression
Clearly explains how pseudo push-ups simulate the planche and target front delts, triceps, and chest as an advanced progression.
00:52
💡
L-Sit as Compound Core Exercise
Highlights that the L-sit is not only a core exercise but involves multiple stabilising muscle groups, illustrating the compound nature of calisthenics.
03:00
📊
Back Training Requires Pulling
Points out the key challenge of calisthenics for the back: the need to pull something, unlike pushing exercises which can be done against the floor.
04:08
🔧
Towel Bicep Curl Hack
Offers a creative, equipment-free method to train biceps using a towel as resistance, solving a common limitation of home workouts.
05:45
⚖️
Scalable Difficulty
Demonstrates the core principle of calisthenics: every exercise has easier and harder variations, allowing continuous progression without added weight.
02:34Full Transcript
[00:00] Can you get in shape without weight? Of course you can, as long as you have this much room and a floor, then you can get in shape by only doing calisthenics exercises. And that's exactly where I'm gonna show you in this video.
[00:12] I'm gonna be going through each muscle group and showing you beginner to advanced calisthenics exercises that you can do literally in your bedroom and your living room absolutely anywhere. And trust me, you can get amazing results from this. So first, subscribe to stay tuned for more content.
[00:25] And second, let's get right into it. So starting off with our chest. One of the staple of calisthenics exercises are pushups and you definitely know this exercise. But depending on your strength levels, there's different modifications that you can do
[00:38] to make it easier or harder. So to make it easier, you can go on your knees and do knee pushups. As you get stronger, you can do the regular pushup. But then, as you get even stronger, there's different variations you can do, such as archer pushups,
[00:52] which is basically doing a chest fly with one hand while doing a press with the other hand. Sudo pushups, one of my favorite pushups because this replicates the planche and it targets your front delts, your triceps and your chest significantly at the same time.
[01:04] So start with your fingers pointing outwards like this, lean forward until your hands are aligned with your hips and press down, keeping that lean throughout the whole motion. And this exercise is also great to eventually progress
[01:17] into more advanced exercises such as the plan. Also, I'm sure you can find an elevated surface such as a chair. So here, I got a chair and you can do decline pushups to target your upper chest and incline pushups
[01:29] to target your lower chest. Now, getting into our triceps. Skull crushers are great for this. At the top, you want to squeeze your triceps, come back down slowly and repeat. You can also do tricep extensions like this and a more advanced variations are diamond pushups.
[01:43] So place your hands in this form, put a red below your chest, go down slowly with your elbows tucked in, come back up and repeat. Personally, diamond pushups alongside the pseudo pushups are one of my favorites. Also, let's bring the chair back
[01:56] because you can do tricep dips. Simply grab the chair behind you. You're gonna press up, squeeze your triceps, come back down and repeat. Next, I know you want to get some bigger shoulders or here are a few exercises you can do for that. Again, one of these staples of calisthenics exercises
[02:09] for your shoulders are pike pushups. You want to place your hands slightly wider than shoulder with a part. Go into this triangle position like this, lean your weight onto your shoulders, press down
[02:21] and come back up. And to make this harder, we can bring the chair back. A little bit our feet so that more weight is on our shoulders and do the exact same thing. And if you want to make it even harder, I'm sure you've got a wall that you can get access to and you can do wall handstand pushup.
[02:34] This is an advanced exercise, but again, once you build up to it, it's amazing to build mass and strength into your shoulders. Till this day as I am an advanced calisthenics athlete, I do handstand pushups all the time. So simply walk up onto the wall.
[02:48] Same thing, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder with a part and perform the handstand pushup. And that's it for shoulders. Next, let's get into our abs and our core strength. V-ups are great for this
[03:00] because it's a full range of motion exercise, targeting both your lower and your upper abs. But if you want to make it easier, you can do tuck the V-ups. Tuck your legs and come this way. If you feel like those two are too easy, then try doing the L-sit,
[03:12] another staple for calisthenics exercise. Simply place your hands beside you and you want to raise your legs up, squeezing your core like this. To make it easier, you can do a tucked variation like this
[03:25] and progressively extend one leg as a time as you get stronger. See, I'm already out of breath because the thing with calisthenics is that it's all compound exercises. So although the L-sit, for example, is mainly targeting my core, there's so many other muscle groups getting involved
[03:37] to stabilize myself, such as my triceps, my shoulders, my chest, my back, my leg. Next, we're gonna get into our back. But before doing so, I wanna let you know about my training app. By joining it, you'll get access to all my workout programs from beginner
[03:50] intermediate all the way to advanced. I also have my nutrition guides there as well, depending on your goal, whether you wanna build muscle or lose fat because if you didn't know, nutrition is literally 80% of your result. And I do one-on-one coaching there as well.
[04:02] So you can ask me questions personally about your fitness journey and I'll be there to help you out along the way. So if you wanna join it, check out the link in my description down below and I'll see you on my app. All right, next, let's get into our back. Now the back is kinda tricky because the only muscle group that you need to be able
[04:16] to pull something in order to target it effectively. Because your chest, for example, all you gotta do is push and you can push yourself off the ground. But in order to pull, you need to either have some sort of equipment such as a pullable. But there are easier variations to target your bag
[04:29] that you can do with simply using a floor. So let me show you a down flat on the ground like this and you can do reverse flies this way. Squeezing your back at the top, bringing it back down slowly and repeating. Now that might be too easy for you.
[04:41] So if you wanna make it harder, you can also raise your legs at the same time engaging your lower back. So up, squeeze, bring it back down slowly and repeat. Now using the floor and doing a harder variation or drag and it raises.
[04:53] This one looks a little tricky, but it is effective. Which you wanna do is lay down on the ground like this. Place your hands by your hips and you're gonna basically raise your whole body by pushing down on the ground. So push, raise, squeeze my back, bring it back down slowly.
[05:08] Now if you wanna target your back even more effectively, I suggest that you get a pull-of-bar, doorway pull-of-bar, whatever that is. You can get them on Amazon, Walmart, any nearby store really. And once you have this, then it opens so many more opportunities for what you can do to target your back.
[05:21] Such as pull-ups, chin-ups, typewriters, and front levers. Now for your biceps, again, you need to be able to pull something.
[05:33] Compared to your triceps where all you can do is simply push off the ground. To target your biceps, you need to pull something such as dumbbells. Or again, get a pull-of-bar and you can do chin-ups, headbangers, side to side holds,
[05:45] and behind the head chin-ups. But here, what if I don't have a pull-of-bar and I want to target my biceps? Well, here's a life hack. Grab a towel that won't rip. Place it under your knees like this. Get a good grip on it. Lean back and you're basically going to be curling your leg.
[05:58] So without using the assistance of your legs, you're going to pull with your arms, squeeze your biceps, bring it back down slowly, and repeat. And you can actually make this pretty challenging because you can push your legs down to build more resistance for your biceps.
[06:11] So pushing down my legs and fighting it with my biceps, you'll definitely get a good bicep working on this. Next, for our legs, you can do body weight squats as an easy variation, lateral squat as a more advanced variation,
[06:23] explosive squats to build that explosive strength in your legs and the same thing with alternating lunges. And for an advanced leg exercise, you can do single leg pistol squat.
[06:35] So this takes a lot more mobility, but going down on one leg, stabilizing yourself and pressing back up. And finally, for our forearms, you can do finger tip holds like this, and you can also do wall extensions like this.
[06:47] And that's how you can get in shape with calisthenics from home, make sure to subscribe.