Best Push-Ups For Biceps That You Can Do Anywhere

Push-up is one of the greatest general conditioning exercises for the outdoor athlete, and you can do them anywhere, no equipment required

The classic push-up has survived the test of time and is the single most efficient exercise to simultaneously strengthen the chest, Tricep, deltoid, lower back, abs and glutes.

Do Pushups Work Biceps?

The reason why push-ups are generally not recommended for training the biceps is because push-ups are ‘push’ exercises, while the biceps are ‘pull’ muscles.

There are many great bodyweight ‘pull’ exercises that train the biceps, including pull-ups, chin-ups, inverted rows and inverted curls.

I would like to point out that doing bicep push-ups will never be as effective on your biceps as doing chin-ups or inverted rows. Should you still want to do bicep push-ups. Then try these push-ups variations for biceps.

In fact, pushups are an exercise that recruits multiple joints and muscles to perform the movement correctly. Although doing pushups doesn’t necessarily focus on your biceps, they can benefit in an indirect way.

3 Best Push-Ups For Biceps

1. Reverse Grip Push-Ups

The reverse grip push-up is a fun and great variation of the standard push-up. The exercise is done with your fingers facing your feet (your palms outward). It’s considered the “bicep push-up” by many because of the hand position, it emphasizes a little more on your biceps than the standard push-up.

For easier variation, you can do the Reverse Grip Push-Ups on knee or on incline surface.

How to do Reverse Grip Push-Ups

Start in a standard push-up position and place your hands slightly wider than your shoulders with your palms flat on the floor and your fingers pointing towards your feet.
Inhale and slowly start to bend your elbows. Do not let your elbows move outwards (away from your body).
Lower yourself until you are about an inch from the floor. Pause the movement when you are at the bottom for a second.
Exhale and start pushing your body back up. Push through your palms like you would try to push the floor away from yourself.
Finish the exercise by extending your arms completely out. Repeat this for however many repetitions you wish to perform.

Tips

If you don’t have enough mobility in your wrists for this push-up variation, or it hurts your wrists, you can try warm before exercise, use wrist straps, or do the same on an incline surface.
Always make sure to do a proper warm up, especially focusing on warming up and stretching your wrists!
Keep your body in a straight line for the entire exercise.

2. Archer Push-Up

In Archer push up, arms are kept wider than the normal push up position and as you lower your body, you transfer the majority of your weight to one of your hands and incline towards that hand while the other hand is kept straight. Simultaneously move your body to both sides. You have to maintain a tight, steady, and controlled body to perform archer push-ups.

How to do Archer Push-Ups

Start in a standard push-up position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and elbows completely locked out.
Maintain a strong core position and shift your upper body toward your right side. Pull your right chest toward your right hand as you bend your right elbow.
As you lower toward the right side, allow your left arm to straighten. Your left arm should be fully extended, forming a straight line from your shoulder to your hand.
. Repeat for your desired number of repetitions, switch sides.

Tips

Don’t let your hips raise.
Make sure your body is in the straight line from head to the feet

3. One-arm Push-up

A one-arm push-up is a compound exercise that requires far more strength and balance than a standard push-up using two arms.

The one-arm push-up just might be one of the most difficult body-weight exercises to master. Almost 70 percent of your body weight is bearing down on one arm.

The one-arm push-up produces envisioned amounts of pushing strength, teaches you to generate full-body tension, as well as core stability and total body control.

How to do One Arm Push Ups

Get in the standard push-up position with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Place one hand on the ground directly beneath your chest and the other behind your lower back.
Straighten your legs behind you, spread them wide, and point your toes into the ground.
To maintain balance, turn your torso slightly away from the pushing arm. Breathe in as you lower your angled torso to the ground until your chin is a few inches above the floor.
Breathe out as you push yourself up from the floor, keeping your back straight. Stop just before you lock out your elbow at the top of the movement.

Tips

keep your core tight and back flat throughout the movement.
Do not rotate your arm outwards from your chest, as it will put additional stress on the elbow that can lead to discomfort and injury.

Bicep Push Up Alternatives

Even if you are curious about doing bicep push-ups, you might lack the core, arm, pecs strength to actually perform them. No need to be ashamed of this, though, as even regular push-ups require a lot of strength to do, let alone an even more challenging variation. Here are some alternative exercise you can perform at home or in the gyms that are reopening soon.

1. Bodyweight Bicep Curl

The bodyweight bicep curl is a very effective bodyweight isolation exercise for building muscle and strength.

Sometimes we just don’t have access to equipment, but that’s not an issue with the bicep leg curl, as you only need your arms and legs.

2. Inverted Row

The inverted row is another name for bodyweight rows. It’s also known as an Australian pull-up. The inverted row puts your body in a horizontal position, making it easier to perform.

But, you can also perform the inverted row at home by lying under a chair, holding the chair’s sides, and pulling yourself up.

3. Chin Up

The chin-up is a strength training exercise. This is a bodyweight exercise that can induce serious muscle growth of the biceps and back.

In this exercise, the palms are faced towards the body. Since the lifter is pulling their own bodyweight, the biceps are usually exposed to loads heavier than what one can lift with a barbell.

Takeaways

The push-up builds both upper-body and core strength. It has many modifications; beginners can start with easier versions, while more advanced exercisers can use a challenging variation.

Pushups are a fast and effective exercise for building strength. They can be done from virtually anywhere and don’t require any equipment.

Doing variations of them — to hit the biceps, for instance — will spice things up and target different muscles.