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Coach Foreign Guy
Fitness Correspondent
You don’t stop when you are tired, you stop when you are done!
Chest and triceps exercises can help strengthen the muscles in the upper body. This can lead to improved upper body strength in major compound lifts like bench presses, overhead presses, and dips.
Training your chest and triceps together is a great idea and a very common training split. If you prioritise compound chest and tricep movements first before moving on to other accessory exercises, then you’ll make the most out of your session.
You’ll get great results and save time while doing so. Here are a few chest and tricep workouts to help you.
Regular Pushups
Get down on all fours, placing your hands slightly wider than your shoulders
Straighten your arms and legs.
Lower your body until your chest nearly touches the floor.
Pause, then push yourself back up
Incline pushups
Stand facing the bench, table, or the edge of a bed. Place your hands on the edge of the bench just slightly wider than shoulder width. Your arms are straight but your elbows are not locked. Align your feet so that your arms and body are completely straight.
Bend your elbows to slowly lower your chest to the edge of the bench while inhaling. Keep your body straight and rigid throughout the movement.
Push your body away from the bench until your elbows are extended, but not locked. Exhale as you push up. Keep going with slow, steady repetitions. Decline Pushups. Kneel with your back to the bench. Put your hands on the floor, shoulders over your wrists, and elbows at 45 degrees. …
Brace your core, glutes, and quads. …
Push into the floor to return to starting position, extending your elbows. Complete 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 20 repetitions
Plyometric push-ups
Start in a plank position on your knees, kneeling forward slightly to get in a high plank position. Align your palms under your shoulders. Bend your arms to lower yourself into a pushup. Immediately push back up explosively, taking your hands off the floor
Time under tension pushup
Start in the pushup position, then shift your hands so your fingers point out, and move your hands slightly wider than usual. Keep your left arm straight as you bend your right elbow and shoulder, lowering your chest within an inch of the ground. Pause here, then side halfway across to the left side.
Mountain climbers
Start with your body in a straight line and your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Bring one knee up toward the centre of your stomach and then quickly alternate between your legs. Continue alternating until the set is complete.
Star Jumps
Bend down looking forward bringing your chest to your knees. Touch your toes with your hands. Explode up into the air opening the arms and the legs into a star-like shape. On landing ensure to do so with soft knees and on the balls of the feet.
Bent-Over Dumbbell Triceps Kickback
Bend your knees forward and hinge forward at the hips, keeping your core tight and back flat. Hold your arms at your sides with a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other. Bend at the elbows until your forearms are parallel to the ground, keeping your elbows tight by your rib cage. Kick the weights back to completely straighten your arms. Bend your arms to return to start. That’s 1 rep.
Diamond Push-Up
Start in a high plank with your palms flat, hands shoulder-width apart, shoulders stacked directly above your wrists, legs extended behind you, and your core and glutes engaged.
Walk your hands together so that your thumbs and forefingers form a triangle.
Bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor. Straighten your arms and push your body back up. This is 1 rep.
Plank Up-Down
Start in a high plank with your palms flat on the floor, hands shoulder-width apart, shoulders stacked directly above your wrists, legs extended behind you, and your core and glutes engaged. Place your feet hip-width apart.
Lower your right arm down so that your forearm is on the floor, then do the same with your left. You should now be in the forearm plank position. Place your right hand back on the floor to extend your arm and follow with your left arm, so that you end back in high plank. That’s 1 rep.
As you move, keep your hips as still as possible so that they’re not swaying from side to side. To make this easier, try widening the placement of your feet.
Triceps Dips
Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat and your back against a box or step. Place your hands on the box, fingers toward your body. If your box is high, like the one pictured here, place your hands on the box first, and then walk your heels out so you can comfortably lower your body in front of the box without hitting it.
Straighten your arms to lift your butt, then bend your elbows to lower yourself without sitting down completely. That’s 1 rep.
Keep your heels on the floor and your elbows pointed directly behind your body (not flared out to the side).
Narrow push-up
Start in a strong plank position with your back straight, engaging your core. Hands should be closer together than shoulder-width.
The key to making the narrow push-up a more effective tricep exercise is to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible as you lower your body to the floor and push back up to a plank position.
Pike push-ups
The pike push-up is effective because it loads more body weight onto your shoulders and triceps.
Start in a tabletop position, placing your hands under your shoulders and your knees on the floor.
Lift your hips to the ceiling and straighten your knees, coming into a Downward-Facing Dog yoga position. Bend your elbows and lower your head to the ground, allowing your head to gently touch the floor. Straighten your arms to push back up to the Downward-Facing Dog position
Up-down forearm push-ups
This is a two-part exercise, starting with a standard push-up and ending with a forearm plank position. Start in plank position — hands under your shoulders, back straight, hips tucked, and core tight. Bend your elbows to lower yourself to the floor, keep your elbows as close to your body as possible, and push back up to plank.
From the plank position, lower your forearms to the floor, keeping your back straight. With your elbows pulled in towards your body, push off of your hands to lift back up to full plank position.
Alligator push-ups
Begin in a plank position with your hands placed underneath your shoulders. As you lower your body to do a push-up, bring your right knee forward towards your right elbow.
As you push back up to plank, switch legs and lower yourself to the floor, bringing your left knee towards your left elbow. The key to making this a tricep exercise is to keep your elbows in towards your body, concentrating on contracting your arm muscles as you lower your body.
Stagger push-ups
This exercise is sure to test your strength, stability, and power. By staggering your hands, your rear arm and core have to work harder to maintain balance.
Start in a plank position, making sure to tighten your core and tuck your hips to stabilize your back. Instead of placing both hands under your shoulders, place one hand forward on the mat or floor — staggering the placement of your hands.
Do two push-ups, focusing on stabilizing your core to stay balanced and keeping your shoulders inward towards your body. Switch hand positions and repeat.
Ngoni is a trainer at Invictus Fitness Centre, a gym at Westgate Shopping Centre.
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