Wide Push-Ups

Setting your hands wider than your shoulders is the simplest way to make a push-up target your chest more than your triceps. The wider your grip, the more your pecs have to do to open and close your arms against the floor. It is the same movement you already know, just with a hand position that shifts where you feel the work.

How to do a wide push-up

1. Start in a plank with your hands roughly 1.5 times shoulder width apart. Hand width is hard to judge from the side, so check the hand-spacing diagram on the variations hub to see standard, wide, and diamond side by side.
2. Point your fingers forward or slightly out, and set your feet at a comfortable, stable width.
3. Brace your core and glutes so your body stays in one straight line from head to heels.
4. Lower your chest toward the floor, keeping your elbows from flaring past about 45 degrees from your torso.
5. Stop when your chest is an inch or two off the ground, then press back up until your arms are straight without locking hard.

Muscles worked

The wide grip puts the emphasis on your chest (pectorals), which handle most of the pushing at this angle. Your front deltoids assist through the top of the movement. Your triceps still work, but less than in a standard or diamond push-up because your elbows travel through a shorter range. Your core and glutes stay switched on the whole time to hold the plank.

Benefits

• Shifts more load onto the chest without any change in equipment.
• An easy tweak to a movement you already do, so there is nothing new to learn.
• No gym or gear needed, just floor space.
• Pairs well with narrow variations to hit different parts of the same push.

Common mistakes

• Going too wide. A very wide grip can put uncomfortable strain on the shoulders and cuts your range short. If it pinches, bring your hands in.
• Letting the elbows flare straight out. Elbows winging out to 90 degrees stresses the shoulder joint. Keep them nearer 45 degrees.
• Partial range. Dipping only a few inches feels easier but skips the part where the chest works hardest. Lower with control until your chest is close to the floor.
• Sagging hips. Let the middle drop and your lower back takes the load instead of your chest.

Difficulty and progressions

A wide push-up is close in difficulty to a standard one, so if you can do regular push-ups you can do these. If they feel too hard, drop to your knees and keep the wide hand position. When they feel easy, slow the lowering phase down or add reps.

For a fuller chest-and-arms session, alternate sets of wide push-ups with diamond push-ups: wide loads the chest, diamond loads the triceps. A practical starting point is 3 sets of as many clean reps as you can manage with good form, resting a minute or two between sets, and building up from there.

Explore the rest of the all push-up variations guide, brush up on proper push-up form, or follow the full 100 push-ups programme to work toward 100 reps.