Wide Push-Up
The wide push-up is a push-up with your hands set well outside shoulder width. It works the chest, front of the shoulders and triceps over a slightly shorter range than a standard push-up, with less triceps involvement.
Also called: Wide Grip Push-Up, Wide-Base Push-Up, Wide-Hand Push-Up · Equipment: bodyweight · Pattern: push
Step by step
- Kneel on the floor and place your hands about one and a half times shoulder width apart, fingers pointing forward, level with the middle of your chest.
- Step your feet back until your body forms a straight line from head to heels, with your weight on the balls of your feet and your arms straight.
- Brace your trunk and squeeze your glutes so your hips stay level with your shoulders.
- Bend your elbows and bring your chest down towards the floor under control. Keep your elbows stacked over your wrists, angled slightly back towards your hips rather than straight out to the sides.
- Touch your chest lightly to the floor, keeping the straight line from head to heels.
- Push the floor away until your elbows are straight, moving your whole body as one piece.
- Finish the set by bringing your knees to the floor and sitting back.
- Body in one straight line from head to heels
- Elbows stacked over your wrists
- Chest to the floor under control
- Push the floor away to straight arms
- Glutes tight, hips level with your shoulders
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Pectoralis major: sternocostal (mid) | Prime mover | C |
| Anterior deltoid: anterior | Secondary | C |
| Triceps brachii: lateral head | Secondary | C |
| Serratus anterior | Secondary | D |
| Rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | C |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Hands set extremely wide
Fix: Bring your hands in to about one and a half times shoulder width.
Elbows flared straight out to the sides
Fix: Keep your elbows over your wrists and angle them slightly back towards your hips.
Hips sagging towards the floor
Fix: Brace your trunk and squeeze your glutes to hold one straight line.
Half reps
Fix: Bring your chest to the floor on every rep, then press to straight arms.
Head poking forward
Fix: Keep your head in line with your body and lead with the chest.
What the research says
General fitnessEndurance
- Hand width — Two EMG studies found chest and triceps activation was higher with a narrow hand position than a wide one. There is no training study comparing wide and standard push-ups for muscle growth or strength.
- Push-ups and the bench press — In controlled trials, push-ups loaded to match a bench press produced similar chest and triceps growth and similar bench-press strength gains.
- Effort with light loads — With light loads, research finds sets taken close to failure produced more growth than sets that finished well short.
- Reps and progression — Research finds high-rep sets build local muscular endurance most, and that adding reps or adding load produce similar muscle growth when sets are hard.
- Volume and frequency — Research links more weekly sets for a muscle to more growth, with diminishing returns, and training a muscle about twice a week is a common way to spread that volume.
Swap it mid-workout
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the wide push-up in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.