This Press Move Should Be Added To Your Workout Plan

Chest day is one of the most popular training days of the week and, apart from bench press, the other most fundamental move you should be doing to grow your chest is the good old-fashioned press up. Nowadays there are tons of variations of them but this one we’re going to talk about is not only great for chest growth, but it will also help with strength and muscular endurance as well as give you a great pump.

THE METHOD

For this exercise you’re going to be using time under tension and long, controlled eccentrics. The idea is to drive as much blood to your chest, shoulders and triceps as possible. For each rep you’re going to lower over 10 seconds, push halfway back up, lower again over five seconds, then push back up to the top. For the full workout, complete a minute of work (usually 4 reps) with a minute of rest for a total of 14 minutes.

Start with a high plank with your feet together and your hands parallel to your shoulders. Before you start, tightly grip the floor with your fingers to create tension in your shoulders and chest. Keep your core tight and your fingers tense and lower yourself slowly to the floor whilst counting out the 10-second eccentric phase. Make sure you keep your elbows tucked in close to your body to shift more work to your arms which will help them to pump up. Then you’re going to press back up to halfway.

Stop briefly before lowering your chest to the floor again. On this occasion you’re going to be counting out 5 seconds. As you’re working hard you should start to feel the lactic acid building up. Keep your glutes tensed and finish off the move by extending to the top and complete three more for your first set.

Although you’re only doing a minute of work and aiming for 4 reps you’re going to force blood and nutrients into the chest, arm and shoulder muscles to get a great muscle contraction and you should feel a nice pump. We’d recommend using this as a starting exercise on one of your pull day workouts as it will help you get a lot more out of your workout that will follow it!