Build Muscle Up the Old-Fasioned Way

Most people don't realize that you can build muscle up without using any fancy gym equipment -- in fact, standard bodyweight exercises like pushups can be effective at achieving muscle weight gain when used properly.

Frankly, it's easy to underestimate how effective pushups can be at building your chest, shoulders, back, and arms. At a glance, pushups are plain and almost boring: up down, up down, up down -- that's it. And that's true to an extent. But many people outside of fitness enthusiasts are only familiar with the standard pushups that they learned in their high school gym classes.

There is a wide variety of pushups that you can perform to isoltae different muscle groups, but we're going to focus on five styles in this article. These are not necessarily the best five for all people, but they will open your eyes to the variety possible in simple functional exercises.

Wide pushups: traditionally, pushups are performed with your hands being placed at shoulder width.  Wide push ups, sometimes called "wide-stance pushups", require you to extend your hands beyond the width of your shoulders. Wide-stance pushups work your chest muscles more heavily than military-style pushups, so if chest definition is what you are looking for -- wide pushups are one exercise that will help you meet your goals.

Fist pushups: Sometimes referred to as "knuckle" pushups, require the use of your fists, instead of the palms of your hands, to bear your body weight during the pushup. Fist pushups are beneficial because they target different areas of your body than traditional pushups, and may actually increase the effectiveness of your workout.

Fly pushups: adding another layer to wide pushups, fly pushups require you to begin the pushup with your hands a normal width apart at the top position. When lowering your body to the ground, you should slide your right hand out roughly 12 inches, and then slide it back to normal width on the up rep. On the next repetition, you would perform this motion with your left hand. Hint: place your hand on a towel, piece of cardboard, or similar ietm to assist with the slide, or "hop" your hands in and out.

Incline pushups: Incline pushups are the exact opposite of decline pushups -- instead of placing your feet higher than your head, your head should be higher than your feet for this exercise. Any sturdy surface that will allow you to perform the pushups unencumbered can be used. Incline pushups work your lower pectoral muscles.

Deep pushups: If you are working out at home, you can perform raised pushups with the help of three sturdy chairs. By placing each of your hands on an opposite chair, and your feet on the third chair, you can increase the depth of your pushup and thereby increase the effectiveness of your workout routine. A similar, but less intense, movement can be performed with pushup stands. The "Perfect Pushup" bars work wonders.

Here is a more comprehensive list of pushup variations: wide, fly, diamond, military, yogi, fist, incline, decline, stacked, deep, inchworm, and prison cell pushups.

Tips to increase the effectiveness of your pushup workouts: remember to add some weight once the pushups begin to get easy. You don't want to push out 50 easy reps. Rather, struggle with 20 or 30. Also be sure to add variety by varying your hand position for each of the above types of pushups.

Push ups are a great way to strengthen your upper body and build muscle up at the same time. If you keep it interesting by mixing up your hand positions and trying a few different styles of pushups you can increase the effectiveness of your at-home exercising and relieve the boredom!