Find out all you need to know about the diamond push-up below.
The diamond push-up is a variation of the traditional push-up. The trick is, mainly, in the hand positioning throughout the movement. This is a bodyweight exercise that you can do anywhere given enough space.
How To Do The Diamond Push-Up
- Get on all fours as you normally would in a traditional push-up – legs and arms straightened out with toes and hands touching the floor.
- Hands should be put in line with your shoulders.
- Make sure your spine maintain a normal curvature – no overextending or slouching your back.
- Position your index fingers and thumbs so they are touching, forming a diamond shape with your hands.
- That is the start position for the exercise.
- Flex your elbows and have your chest lowered towards your hands.
- Stop just before your chest touches the floor.
- Push back your body by straightening your arms back to the initial position.
- That is one rep.
This exercise is considered a harder version of the traditional push-up.
Read More: How To Unlock Your Push-Up Strength
Mistakes to Avoid
Although it might seem easy to do and follow, there are a few mistakes you should avoid when doing this exercise.
Don’t flare out your elbows during the exercise. Keep your elbows aligned with your wrists at all times. Flaring out the elbows will take away some of the tension from your triceps.
The spine curvature is extremely important during this exercise as it is with any push-up variation. Keep it straight during the movement. Overextending your spine (lowering your pelvis) will put you at risk of injury while slouching it (lifting up your butt) will render the exercise useless.
Hand positioning is also crucial. If you put your hands too far ahead of your body you will be doing more of a plank exercise than a push-up, while having your hands’ place on the floor too far back you might tilt forward and fall on your face.
Muscles Worked
The diamond push-up targets primarily your triceps, however, more muscles are involved in the process.
- Triceps
- Anterior deltoid
- Pectoralis major
- Pectoralis minor
- Upper back
- Glutes
- Core
Benefits of the Diamond Push-Up
This exercise will help you build strong triceps by targeting the lateral (outside) tricep head.
The fact that it is a bodyweight exercise, you can perform it anywhere so long as you have enough space to get into the traditional push-up position.
It is great for building lean muscle and increasing the size of your arms in general.
How Many Sets and Reps?
It depends on your objective. The standard 2-3 sets of 8-15 reps is a good start for most people.
If you are doing diamond push-ups as part of a workout finisher, you are more likely to perform as many reps as possible to burn out your triceps.
For bulking up, perform one of the harder variations (see below) and aim for 3 sets of 15-20 reps.
Diamond Push-Up Variations
There isn’t much you can change on the diamond push-up. However, you can make it harder by adding resistance to it.
Diamond Push-Up with Resistance Band
Instead of a resistance band, you can also put a weight plate on your back and perform the push-up as intended.
You may also do explosive diamond push-ups. Check out the video below to see some explosive push-up variations.
Other Push-Up Exercises
There are numerous push-up variations you can try. Each of them with a different goal.
For beginners, you can try wall push-offs, inclined push-ups or knee push-ups.
For people with an intermediate level of fitness, the traditional push-up and the diamond push-up are good exercises.
One of the hardest push-up variations we found is the Hindu push-up which targets your shoulders more than your chest.
Read More: 10 Push-Up Variations to Build Strength, Power and Muscle for Athletes
Are Diamond Push-Ups Better Than Regular Ones?
It is a genuine question, as some people wouldn’t know how to answer it. Is one better than the other? And as with any question that tries to compare one exercise with another, the answer is “it depends.”
It depends on what your objective is, although both variations target similar muscle groups. The diamond push-up focuses on triceps activation, so that is a better way if you want bigger arms. The traditional push-up is a good chest builder.
Source: Ketut Subiyanto on PexelsRead More: 15 Push-Up Chest Workouts You Can Do At Home https://www.boxrox.com/push-up-chest-workouts/
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Image Sources
- athlete perfroms push-ups: Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels