The diamond push-up also referred to as a close-grip push-up or triangle push-up is an excellent option to target the triceps along with a few other muscles work. The triceps are found on the back of the arm, and are bigger muscle group than the biceps. It is crucial to strengthen these muscles – to give the arms shape and definition and get rid of ‘turkey/bingo’ wings. The triceps work in tandem with the biceps on the front of your upper arm to enable extension and retraction of your forearm. This muscle group plays a vital role in stabalizing the shoulder, a joint with the greatest range of motion — and, therefore, the most instability — in the body.
Diamond push-ups focus mainly on the triceps brachii, the muscle that runs along the back of your arm. The synergists, or the muscles that help the triceps complete the exercise, in the exercise are the pectoralis major, or chest, and the deltoids, or shoulders. The biceps brachii work as dynamic stabilizer, which means its primary focus is assisting in keeping your joints steady, while the rectus abdominis, obliques and quadriceps also act as stabilizers to maintain your posture.
A study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research reviewed hand positions during push-ups and their effects on target muscles. According to them a narrow base position, such as during a diamond push-up, better activated the triceps brachii —as well as the pectoralis major — than a wide base position.
How to Perform:
- Start in a push-up position with your thumbs and index fingers of each hand touching to make a diamond or triangular shape. Lift your legs up into a standard push-up position.
- While keeping your elbows as close to your side as possible, lower yourself down until your chest touches the back of your hands.
- Keep everything tight (abs, glutes, thigh muscles) throughout the movement.
- Push back up to the starting position and repeat.
- Lift your legs up into a standard push-up position.
Most of us deal with weak shoulder blade muscles that makes retraction (pulling the shoulders backwards) hard. A common problem is the shoulders hanging forward. They are not centred the way they should be. This is because of weakness of the shoulder blade muscles and tension of the muscles on the front (chest, neck muscles, etc). When you come down diamond push-up on the ground the shoulder blades need to come together, which makes the exercise harder. When you push yourself up the shoulder blades go out of each other. If you want to gain optimal results you can push yourself out even more. This makes the range of motion greater and you involve more of your shoulders and chest into the exercise.
Start Slow & go on to build strength.
If you master this exercise the right way, you will have:
- Solid triceps strength.
- Solid chest strength. Also great for the upper chest development
- Solid front deltoid strength
- Great core strength
- No lower back pain
- Overall a beautiful athletic body is what you will build. Balanced out by targeting the right muscle group with solid strength.