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Push-ups are the unbeatable source of strength and are for everyone, be it a beginner or an advanced athlete. The diamond pushup is an intermediate difficulty variation of pushups .
If you are looking for a pushup to work on more than one muscle group then Diamond push up is for you.
Today we are going to discuss what diamond push ups are? Is a it any good? What muscle group do they work on? What are the benefits of diamond pushups? Can you do diamond push every day?
Since diamond push-up is a difficult variation, should you do them as a beginner? And at the end, we will compare it with other exercises to find out what’s best for you.
The diamond push up which is also referred to as triangle pushup or close grip pushup is one of the intermediate difficulty push up variations. These are exactly like the regular push up except your palms are placed right under your chest rather than being shoulder width apart.
Technique plays a significant role in every exercise routine; Diamond Push-up is not an exception. If you want to see the results, you’ll have to perform the exercise correctly else all your efforts will be worthless.
Now, let’s talk about the correct technique for performing this exercise.
This looks pretty simple, right?
No, it’s not as simple as it looks, there are several elements involved in the technique.
We’ve already discussed how to do a proper diamond pushup. The diamond push-up is more difficult than a traditional pushup. So why would you include this exercise in your routine if this won’t giving you a better result?
We’ll talk about the muscle groups that a diamond push-up works explicitly on in the next section of the article but, to give you a head start, as per a study by the University of Wisconsin the diamond pushup is one of the best exercises of triceps . It beats all other exercises when it comes to muscle activity. You’ll also have bigger and better-shaped chest and shoulders.
Apart from muscle building, Diamond pushups will strengthen your lower back and the core.
As per a study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , a slight change in your hand placement while performing a pushup can target an entirely different set of muscle groups .
While the classic pushup works on the two major muscles of your chest (pectoral major and minor), the diamond pushup primarily focuses on the tricep muscles.
The triceps brachii is a big muscle present at the back of your arm and makes 2/3 or your entire upper arm.
However, triceps is not the only muscle group that gets worked on by diamond pushups. Other muscle groups that get worked on are your biceps, pecs, deltoids, obliques, abs, and quads.
Since the palms are placed right under the cheast while performing diamond push-up more and mpore strain is put on triceps resulting an amazing workout for them.
Although the major muscle the worked out in diamond push ups is tricep muscles but that doesn’t mean that your chest muscles aren’t worked.
Diamond pushups are performed at a difficult angle it puts additional strains on one’s shoulders and just to stabilize the body in a straight line core remains engaged too. This difficult angle helps you develop stronger shoulders and core.
One arm pushup is just an insanely difficult exercise and an end goal for many fitness enthusiasts. but, if you try to do a one arm pushup on the very firsrt day, you’re just gonna hurt yourself.
There is a proper progression i.e. diamond pushup because in both the exercise the palms are placed right under the chest to make that difficult angle.
If you are a beginner, the answer is a straight NO.
If you are an intermediate, don’t do it for more than 5 times a week and keep the rep range towards the lower end.
If you are an advanced level athlete, the suggestion is still not to overwork any specific muscle group. Workout only for 5 days. If you really want to work out on the rest days as well, just work on your technique rather than a full-fledged exercise.
Overworking any muscle group will not result in better result. However, there are many drawbacks of overdoing any specific muscle group.
You can certainly try to do diamond pushups as a beginner, but I would suggest you to move with a progression that I’m going to explain below.
If you are a total beginner to any bodyweight exercise, First I’d suggest you to start with knee pushups . Once you can do 20 reps comfortably, move towards the regular pushups.
Keep doing regular pushups until you can do 20 rep easily.
Next step is to bring the hands closer than the shoulder width and repeat the same routine and reach 20 reps.
Now, you are ready for a diamond pushup. Go for it!
Over the time your body gets used to of the bodyweight exercises as there is nothing more to challenge it. However, you can also modify the exercises to make it more challenging and gain more benefits.
There are few ways that you can use to make a diamond pushup even harder for better results.
These are simple variations to the diamond pushups, but they are worthy of trying once you master the diamond pushups.
Push up is the most versatile bodyweight exercise. There are 100s of pushup variations that you can try . There is literally a pushup variation for everyone from beginner to advance. By tweaking the position of your hand or your feet you can target different muscles group .
Out of all these pushup variations, there are three most common one’s Standard pushup, Wide Pushup, and the Diamond pushup.
In all three above mentioned pushup variations, there is no fundamental difference. In all 3, your hands and your toes are always touching the ground. Your body from shoulders to ankle remains in a straight line and the movement in all three pushup variations is the same.
The only difference between these 3 is the position of your hand.
In diamond push up your thumbs, and your index fingers are placed so close to each other, almost always touching each other. In regular pushup both your hands are always at the shoulder width apart from each other and in the wide pushups, the distance between both the hands is slightly wider than the shoulder width.
Although all the pushup variations primarily focus on the upper body strength and muscle growth hand positions enables them to target different muscle groups .
The regular and the wide pushup focus more on the chest , shoulders and back muscles. However, the diamond pushup along with chest helps in the development of triceps muscle.
Both dips and diamond pushup primarily focus Tricep muscles and chest, but at the same time, they also focus on strengthening your core. They are both good exercises, and there is no doubt about it.
However, there is a limitation while performing dips. You need dip bars. Whereas, to perform a diamond pushup, you just need your body and a flat surface.
The dip is not just a single exercise like pushups; you target different muscle group by modifying your body posture.
There are two main variations of a dip Chest & Triceps. If you lean the upper body forward while performing a dip, it focuses on the chest muscles more. However, if you lean a little backward, it focuses more on the tricep muscles.
The diamond pushup is a sure shot winner when it comes to building a strong upper body. Not only do a diamond pushup work on your chest (specifically the upper pecs) but also it will give a pump to those guns since the tricep makes 2/3 of them.
The diamond pushup is comparatively tricky than the regular pushups, but if they are performed with the correct technique, they are the perfect exercise for building that beach body.
So just stop reading and give me some pushups right now.!