Diamond pushups use more chest than wide pushups (from a study that also examined standard, pseudo-planche and simplified Lalanne pushups)

[pet777]

@thomaslowrens Thanks for the reply!

 

[thomaslowrens]

@pet777 Good luck, I hope you get some injury-free gains.

 

[adena]

@pet777 I’ve read that you can actually turn your hands outward instead of inward, still touching thumbs. It’s supposed to be better for you. It’s the way I do it and it is fine for me! It will keep elbows in as well.

 

[pet777]

@adena So ditch the diamond shape and just keep the hands close right?

 

[turnip52]

@pet777 Throw a Wu

 

[pet777]

@turnip52 Make a W?

 

[eirlysa]

@pet777 Be the W.

 

[pet777]

@eirlysa Instructions unclear; d..... aah screw it

 

[imepv7]

@turnip52 cash rules everything around me CREAM get that money, dolla dolla bills yall

 

[darkchylde]

@thomaslowrens Why wrong?

 

[thomaslowrens]

@darkchylde See this reply. Maybe it's not so wrong but the reply makes good points.

 

[darkchylde]

@thomaslowrens Thank you!

 

[dawn16]

@thomaslowrens So which pushups are best for chest

 

[thomaslowrens]

@dawn16 Chest flyes are the best isolation, weighted standard pushups (or band resisted according to this ) can be as good as the bench press, pseudo-planche and diamond are good, archer pushups too I guess. Personally I feel ring and partially RTO (rings turned out) dips in the chest a lot.

 

[wayaok]

@dawn16 Diamond it would appear

 

[fromgenesistorevelation]

@dawn16

So which pushups are best for chest

The one that you struggle with the most. Try Narrow/Diamond Pseudo Planche Pushups or if you have rings, Feet Elevated RTO PPPU's, for the ultimate boss level.

 

[tysina]

@dawn16 All of them!

 

[safaristan]

@thomaslowrens While it is unsurprising that the biomechanically inferior exercise requires more muscular recruitment un-loaded, it isn't actually that helpful when it comes to creating a program. That is like comparing unloaded squats to unloaded pistol squats, of course the pistol squats are going to require more muscular recruitment, as you are training at a much higher percentage of your 1RM in that exercise. That doesn't mean that pistol squats are more effective at building strength and mass than traditional barbell squats.

If you want to compare them accurately, you would want to load the standard pushup enough that they have the same RM between diamond and standard pushups.

For example, if you can do 30 standard pushups, but only 12 diamond pushups, you would want to add load to standard pushups until you max out at 12 reps. That would be a significantly more helpful way to evaluate which form may be the most effective for building muscle.

 

[thomaslowrens]

@safaristan You make a good point similar to the one here, I edited the original post.

 

[richtoday]

@thomaslowrens How significant is the EMG in terms of muscle development and strength gains?