If building muscle is the cornerstone to your training program, you need a carefully planned exercise and nutrition regime. Knowing which muscles to target, how many sets and repetitions to complete, and the necessary equipment is imperative in achieving success. Although many consider the pushup an old-school training technique, with the right form and technique -- and perhaps some newer pieces of equipment -- you can build muscle with this exercise.
Targeted Muscles
The pushup is a compound exercise, meaning that it targets several muscle groups at once. This allows the body to build strength at a faster pace and for a more even distribution of strength. Specifically, the pushup targets the deltoids, triceps and chest muscles. It also helps build and tone muscles of the lower back, due to the plank position the body must hold.
Repetitions and Sets
Doing pushups three times a week, or every other day is sufficient. Completing 12 to 13 pushups with good form is a great way to begin to tone and build the muscles of the upper body. For progressive overload to continue, you'll have to eventually add resistance. You can strap a weight vest to your body in order to increase the resistance on the concentric phase of the pushup. Adding the resistance is necessary to increase the amount of muscle you want to gain; otherwise, your body begins to develop muscular endurance, which merely conditions the muscle you already have.
Equipment
The Perfect Push-Up was a device invented by former Navy SEAL Alden Mills. It was designed to reduce some of the risk of injury and the stress that the pushup places on the joints and tendons in your arms. Two padded rotational handles sit atop a flat, round disk, and the device comes with different workout cards that suggest variations of the pushup to include in your workout to effectively build muscle. These exercises focus on varying shoulder widths, increasing range of motion and controlling the tempo of your pushup. The pushup often induces tendinitis in the wrists, elbows and forearm, but padded rotational grip handles help absorb some of the stress you would feel if your wrists were flat on the ground, absorbing all of your body weight.
Increasing Training Load
The Perfect Push-up device purportedly helps you safely and effectively target the larger muscles of your upper body, while removing the stresses that this exercise can place on your joints, tendons and ligaments. This is supposed to allow you to complete more repetitions and eventually add resistance to your program to help you in your muscle building. This makers of this device also claim to help you stimulate both of your Type 1 and Type 2 muscle fibers due to the different angles and ranges of motions that will promote more muscle growth. Having a well-rounded training program that includes other strength-training exercises can help your training efforts, along with proper dietary intake.
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