The Best Push Day Workout to Construct Muscle & Strength

Training is an entire lot easier if you’ve some form of game plan. The simplest solution to do that is to follow a training split that divides the key muscle groups to be trained on separate days.

That being said, there are just a few ways to divide up muscle groups. There is a push-pull split, an upper-lower split, or a push-pull legs split, to call just a few of the more popular options. Further, you must know what muscle groups go together with every day and one of the best solution to train them.

This text goes to go over all the pieces you would like about considered one of these muscle groups, or higher yet, training days, the push day workout.

Table of Contents:

• What Are The Major Muscle Groups?
• What Are The Upper Body Pushing Muscles?
• The Best Push Day Workout Plan
• Programming Suggestions For Your Push Workout
• Advantages Of Using A Good Push Day Workout
• The Best Push Day Exercises

What Are The Major Muscle Groups?

Our body accommodates a ton of muscles, making it a bit confusing for brand spanking new people to start out figuring out. Walking right into a gym with absolutely no workout routine in mind is asking for failure.

Due to this fact, lifters will use what’s often called a “training split,” which is able to mainly act as a training template. A split divides the varied muscles into groups which is able to then be trained on their specific day. It’s an easy and effective solution to add structure to your workout routine.

That said, there are primarily two ways to divide the muscle groups:

• Upper Body and Lower Body
• Pushing And Pulling 

Strictly on your education, we’re gonna have a look at what these appear to be just so you may compare. 

Upper Body And Lower Body Muscle Groups

Dividing your muscles by upper body muscle groups and lower body muscle groups is pretty straightforward. Your upper body muscles are those which are situated above your hips, while your lower body muscle groups are those which are situated below your hips.

Upper Body Muscles:

• Chest
• Back
• Shoulders
• Biceps
• Triceps
• Core

Lower Body Muscles:

• Glutes
• Quadriceps
• Hamstrings
• Calves

What Are The Pulling And Pushing Muscles?

Dividing the muscles by utilizing pushing and pulling muscle groups remains to be pretty easy to do but requires minimal understanding of mechanics. One of the best solution to distinguish between pushing and pulling muscles is the pulling muscles will help pull a weight closer to your body. 

Pushing Muscles:

• Chest
• Deltoids
• Triceps
• Quadriceps
• Calves

Pulling Muscles:

• Back
• Biceps
• Glutes
• Hamstrings

As you see, pushing and pulling muscles will include muscles from each the upper and lower body. 

Upper Body Pushing Muscles

We’re going to be taking a look at this push day within the context of using a push-pull leg training split. Which means you’re going to be using your upper body pushing muscles within the workouts featured in this text.

This includes:

• Pectorals (Chest Muscles)
• Deltoids (Shoulder Muscles)
• Triceps

These three muscle groups are going to be your primary upper body pushing muscles. All of them are vital as all of them have different functions.

Pectorals:

The pectorals, commonly known as chest muscles, are a big set of fan-shaped muscles positioned across your chest (hence being called chest muscles). Sometimes known as a “show muscle”, they do so much mroe than look good 

While a set of massive pecs definitely enhances your aesthetics, they do so much more. The pecs are your strongest upper body pushing muscles and play a big role in manipulating your arms.

In point of fact, there are literally two sets of pectoral muscles, the pectoralis major muscle and the pectoralis minor muscle. 

The pectoralis major is what we described above, and it’s what most individuals consider after they hear pectorals. Still, the pectoralis major muscle group accommodates two heads.

• Sternocostal Head: The sternocostal head is the larger of the 2 heads and makes up the center and lower chest.
• Clavicular Head:  The clavicular head sits under the clavicle and can be often called the upper chest.

Along with the pectoralis major is the pectoralis minor. This can be a smaller muscle that appears like a triangle and sits underneath the pectoralis major. 

This whole muscle group is essentially liable for controlling the arm by manipulating the shoulder joint. By doing so, the pectorals perform several jobs, including flexing the humerus, adducting the humerus, horizontal adduction of the humerus, and rotating the humerus medially.

Deltoids:

The deltoids are the actual term for the “shoulder muscles” that sit atop the shoulder joint. While some research has identified as much as 7 different muscle heads, it’s generally agreed that there are 3.

The rationale there are such a lot of heads is as a result of the incontrovertible fact that the shoulder is probably the most mobile joint, with the ability to move in any direction due to being a ball-in-socket. In other words, these heads are needed to control the shoulder in any direction, even those which are completely opposite.

The three primary muscle heads are: 

• Anterior Deltoid: The anterior deltoid sits on the anterior (front) side of the shoulder. It’s utilized in nearly every movement aside from pulling exercises. This implies it aids in lateral movements, horizontal adduction, overhead pressing, and flexion of the arm. For this reason, out of the three deltoids, it’s generally probably the most developed. 
• Lateral Deltoid: The lateral deltoids sit on the furthest a part of the body and make up the side of the deltoids. When guys have developed delts, they’ll consult with them as “capped,” and frequently refers to large medial delt hanging off the shoulder. Regardless, it’s primarily used for shoulder abduction (the “up” a part of flapping your arms) as within the lateral raise. It also assists in overhead pressing.
• Posterior Deltoid: The posterior deltoid sits on the posterior (back) of the shoulder and is definitely used for pulling exercises. Nonetheless, it also assists in overhead pressing. That being said, you’ll train this during your pulling workout. 

Triceps:

The triceps are composed of three muscle heads that sit on the posterior of the arm. Together, these three heads work together to increase the elbow. That is the last motion of any pushing movement and, oftentimes, the toughest.

Because of this it’s common for powerlifters to specifically train the triceps to extend their lockout strength, the term used for fully extending the elbow as within the bench press. That said, these three heads have barely different functions.

• Lateral Head: The lateral head sits on the surface of the arm. It accommodates the very best variety of type II muscle fibers, so it’s liable for creating high levels of force. 
• Medial Head: The medial head sits along the center of the arm, with the bulk situated under the opposite two heads. It accommodates the very best variety of type I muscle fibers and is liable for providing force for the vast majority of smaller movements.
• Long Head: The long head is the longest of the heads and crosses each the shoulder and elbow joint. This offers it the unique function of stabilizing the arm (by the use of the shoulder joint) and extension of the elbow joint.

The Best Push Day Workout

Because we like variation in our push day routine, we’re going to present you two push day workouts to make use of. When using a push, pull, leg routine, you may train your “push day” once every 3 sessions, meaning that you’re going to hit a muscle group a few times every week. 

Due to this fact, use just one push day workout at a time for about 6-8 weeks. Right now, if things start becoming stale, go ahead and swap days. What this can do is introduce a latest stimulus to encourage consistent growth.

Stay tuned after the workouts for details on find out how to perform the push workout exercises featured in these routines.

Push Day 1:

Push Day 2:

Programming Suggestions For Your Push Day Workout Routine

As you may see, most of the exercises within the two days are similar but vary by implementation. These two variables are the important thing to producing consistent results long-term.

Further, notice that the larger compound movements will use heavy loads for strength training, the smaller accessory and isolation movements use lighter loads for muscle hypertrophy. One of the best of each worlds.

One other key thing to take note: Progressive overload is important. In case your goal is to extend your strength and construct muscle, ensure you might be consistently adding a set, rep, or weight to your program. That is where the muscle-building magic happens.

Different Workout Splits for Different People

Because the saying goes, there’s multiple solution to skin a cat. This can be true for a way you may effectively split up your muscle groups. Again, there is no perfect split, as that is dependent upon your specific circumstances and goals.

And, it is usually a great idea to get a glimpse of other options to be able to fully understand what makes the difference. Regardless, in this text we’re talking about what an awesome push workout would appear to be inside the context of a push/pull/legs split.

For more great routines, try our article: The 5 All-Time Best Workout Splits.

Advantages Of Using A Push Day

There isn’t any right or improper solution to split the muscle groups, as one of the simplest ways will depend upon your specific circumstances. That being said, having a push day workout routine in your training plan brings quite just a few special circumstances. Whether you run a push-pull legs split or simply push-pull, these are a few of the top advantages of getting a push day workout. 

1) Optimize Recovery Time:

Top-of-the-line reasons to make use of a push workout day is it’ll ensure you might be getting enough recovery time in between training sessions; that is assuming you might be doing greater than push workouts. Because you’re a SET FOR SET reader, we will assume you are including your pull exercises as well.

Being so, you can be rotating through these different training days allowing loads of recovery time in between your training sessions. As proper recovery is important for muscle growth, using a push-pull type split will almost guarantee you are getting enough recovery.

2) Ensures Equal Training:

When some guys go to the gym with no plan, they are going to are likely to favor the muscles they like more. For instance, the chest muscles are one muscle group that tends to be a favourite for a number of trainees. This may cause one muscle group to be over-trained and one other to be under-trained. This may not only cause muscle imbalances but a disproportionate looking body.

Again, assuming that you just’re using a push-pull type split, you may be sure you have an equal training balance. What this implies is that you just are definitely going to coach your pushing muscles and pulling muscles with roughly the identical volume. 

3) Easy To Organize:

Much like most training splits, they’re relatively easy to arrange. Because of this once you go to the gym, you should have a great plan to follow. Even when you’ve minimal knowledge of coaching, once you go to the gym, you’ll need a basic idea of what you’re going to train that day. In your push day, you are going to train your pushing muscles. While there’s obviously more to it than that, it might probably get you pointed in the best direction. 

This also can help lay the groundwork for constructing your very own program. While there’s so much more to constructing an efficient program than simply dividing muscle groups, it is unquestionably step one.

The Best Push Day Exercises

We have already gone over the routine, and now it is time to learn find out how to perform each of the exercises in this system. Because, at the tip of the day, a push day workout routine is nothing without the right pushing exercises. One of the best push workouts are going to the movements which are one of the best at constructing muscle and strength.

Due to this fact, we’re going to go over what exercises you must include in your push training split. Remember from above that upper-body exercises will push the load away out of your body.

This is likely to be your chest muscles pushing a weight out in front of your body or your shoulder muscles pushing a weight above. Regardless of the case could also be, these exercises are guaranteed to cause massive muscle growth in your upper bodies push muscles.

1. Push Press:

The push press is vital push day exercise for anyone wanting to enhance the ability of their pushing muscles. Arguably the simplest power exercise to perform, the push press is exclusive on this list, being the one true power movement. No matter what your goals are, the push press can definitely make it easier to get there.

Suggestions For The Push Press:

• Stand with feet flat on the bottom and shoulder-width apart.
• Maintain good form with elbows under the bar the entire time.
• When performing the dip, utilize a minimal dip (1/4 squat).
• Extend with power.
• Take into consideration sending the load up in a straight line.
• Lockout with arms prolonged fully overhead. 

2. Barbell Bench Press and Dumbbell Chest Press:

While technically two exercises, we will put these two bench press chest exercises together. It is because they each use a flat bench and use a really similar movement pattern. Further, because they’re so similar, you needn’t perform each of them at the identical time. In other words, as a substitute of performing these at the identical time, you may swap them out every 8 weeks or so so as to add a special stimulus. 

Suggestions For The Bench Press And Chest Press:

• Keep your feet on the bottom and butt on the bench.
• Bring the bar right down to your nipples.
• Make sure you have your elbows come down at a 45-degree angle.
• Take into consideration blowing the bar up once you exhale.
• Try squeezing the bar to get more power.

3. Incline Bench Press and Incline Dumbbell Chest Press:

Same because the flat bench press, but these two push exercises are going to coach the upper chest. Further, since you perform the incline bench on an incline, you are going to hit your shoulder muscles more. Regardless, what we prefer to do is perform the flat bench and incline press on separate training days and use different implements.

Suggestions For The Incline Bench Press And Chest Press:

• Keep your feet on the bottom and butt on the bench.
• Bring the bar right down to your upper chest.
• Make sure you have your elbows come down at a 45-degree angle.
• Take into consideration blowing the bar up once you exhale.
• Try squeezing the bar to get more power. 

4. Close Grip Bench Press:

The close grip bench press is an awesome triceps exercise but in addition acts as an efficient upper chest exercise. Because you are taking a narrower grip, your elbows are going to see more flexion. Further, they’ll be tucked barely closer to the body meaning the arms will experience less horizontal adduction. This implies the chest muscles can be used barely less.

Suggestions For The Close Grip Bench Press:

• Grab the bar barely narrower than shoulder-width apart. Many individuals grab the bar way too narrow.
• No have to tuck the elbows to the body! Again, many individuals will tuck way an excessive amount of. In point of fact, they only must be barely more tucked than the bench press.
• Make sure you lockout at the highest with arms straight every rep. People are likely to stop just in need of the complete lockout on these.

5. Military Press:

The military press (or strict press) is the premier exercise to exhibit your overhead pushing strength. Being so, a number of guys don’t love it because, quite frankly, their overhead pressing strength sucks. The truth is, that is exactly why you must be doing the military press in your push days. No other exercise will create brute strength in your shoulders and triceps the best way the military press. Stop taking a look at the deltoids as considered one of the smaller muscle groups and only use lateral raises; it is time to noticeably start training your delts with this awesome compound exercise.

While the military press generally refers to using a barbell standing, you may alter the exercise barely for a special stimulus akin to using dumbbells and sitting.

Suggestions For The Military Press:

• Grab the bar barely wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Keep the elbows tucked under the bar.
• Keep your core tight and your glutes tight. This may help brace your torso.
• Drive the barbell up in a straight line.

6. Lateral Raises:

We all know we just talked about the way you need greater than lateral raises, but that doesn’t suggest they are not awesome deltoid exercises. We just want you to make use of them along side the military press. 

That said, the lateral raise is some of the essential shoulder isolation exercises to perform because it isolates your medial delts. Keep in mind that once you perform almost any compound pushing exercise (and even some isolation), you’ll train your anterior deltoids. And once you train your pulling exercises, you almost at all times train your posterior deltoids. Because of this your lateral deltoid is nearly at all times undertrained. While the dumbbell lateral raise is a fantastic exercise as well, we prefer using the cable machine. 

Suggestions For Lateral Raises:

• Allow the cable to pull your arm across your body.
• Pull the arm, fascinated about a swooping motion.
• Keep the elbows barely bent.
• Consider bringing your elbow to parallel level together with your shoulder. Your hand mustn’t be higher than shoulder height.

7. Chest Fly:

The chest fly is among the best isolation exercises for the chest muscles. Remember above after we talked about how horizontal adduction is considered one of the first movements to coach the pectorals? Well, that is literally all of the chest fly is; one big horizontal adduction exercise. While you may definitely use dumbbells, we recommend using the cable pulley system because it allows constant tension throughout the range of motion.

Further, the cable lets you direct the resistance from a wide selection of angles. This lets you train the muscle fibers in every direction, which is important for muscle growth. For instance, a rising angle will goal your upper chest more while a declining angle hits the lower chest. Use this in your training to make sure a full chest. 

Suggestions For The Chest Fly:

• Your hands must be barely past your torso within the starting position.
• Keep your elbows barely bent.
• Your arms will maintain the identical bend throughout the movement.
• Take into consideration “swooping” your hands, attempting to make the largest circle as they arrive together.

8. Dip:

Dips are the king of body weight pushing exercises. While many individuals consider push-ups, you’ve to lift your entire body weight when performing dips; it’s like a pull-up but pushing. Further, as a result of the biomechanics of a dip (which involves flexion and adduction), the dip is definitely a killer chest exercise. Still, it is also going to construct some massive triceps.

Because there are such wide varieties of the dip, you may perform them virtually anywhere with minimal equipment. As well as, they’re very easy to scale for any training level. At the tip of the day, dips are considered one of our favourite exercises, pushing or not. 

Suggestions For The Dip:

• Wrap your hands across the bars in order that the crease of your thumb sits on top of the bar.
• Start together with your arms fully prolonged and torso straight.
• Slowly lower your body down.
• As you come down, keep your forearms vertical. Bend at your elbow to let your torso come forward.
• With the intention to hit your chest more, tuck your chin and permit your torso to lean over more.
• Come down, so your arms are parallel to the bottom.

9. Dumbbell Pullover:

The dumbbell pullover is a classic bodybuilding movement that targets the chest. It’s often credited for being the key to the huge pecs of bodybuilders throughout the golden age of bodybuilding. Unfortunately, it’s not used as often anymore accurately. None of that matters, as you are going to be doing them now. One in all the highest reasons we love the dumbbell pullover is that it really lets you hit the pushing muscles from every angle.

Suggestions For The Dumbbell Pullover:

• Use a lighter dumbbell so you may think about the stretch.
• Only allow the dumbbell to go barely past your head, mainly to the spot where you may’t go lower comfortably.
• Keep your elbows barely bent throughout the movement.
• Take into consideration “swooping” the dumbbell because it comes over your head. 

10. Upright Row:

The upright row is a fantastic exercise for not only the deltoids but all of the upper back muscles. Further, it is the only compound exercise that targets the lateral deltoids. Remember, this is significant because the anterior and posterior delts already get trained together with your other pushing and pulling exercises. That said, many individuals will claim you may hurt your shoulders performing this exercise. That’s because they’re not using good form. Follow the information below to make sure no shoulder pain.

Suggestions For The Upright Row:

• Use a large grip.
• As you pull up, think about pulling your elbows up fairly than the hands.
• Pull the rope apart as you pull up.
• Pull up until your elbows hit shoulder level, don’t go higher.

The Perfect Push Day Workouts

We just laid out two awesome push day routines that can work for anyone’s goals. Now it’s just as much as you. With the intention to maximize this plan, you are going to have to follow a correct eating regimen and get adequate sleep for recovery.

Each of those can have a large impact on not only your muscle growth but your muscle soreness as well. And, at all times use proper form to optimize training adaptations and mitigate injury. Also, ensure to pair it with a pull day workout so that you’re developing your muscles evenly. Aside from that, you may now see that this program will hit every muscle in a wide range of angles AND loads.

Proceed to make use of progressive overload and switch things up when things get stale. Just be sure you follow an equally badass pulling program to enrich this push training plan.