maratoolIncline Push-Up Depth Jump
How to do the incline push-up depth jump
- For this drill you will need a box about 12 inches high, and two thick mats or aerobics steps.
- Place the steps just outside of your shoulders, and place your feet on top of the box so that you are in an incline pushup position, your hands just inside the steps. This will be your starting position.
- Begin by bending at the elbows to lower your body, quickly reversing position to push your body off of the ground. As you leave the ground, move your hands onto the steps, bending your elbows to absorb the impact.
- Repeat the motion to return to the starting position.
Muscles worked
The force comes from the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.
A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so it has to produce that force immediately on contact.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range; the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement.
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.
What you need
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Incline Push-Up Mediumbody only
- Leg-Over Floor Presskettlebell
- Leverage Chest Pressmachine
- Low Cable Crossovercable
- Medicine Ball Chest Passmedicine ball
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 63 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.