Push Ups with feet on exercise ball

Muscles worked

The prime mover is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.

Every exercise for:ChestTricepsShoulders

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 strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.

What you need

No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.

The exercise ball is an unstable base on purpose. It shortens the leverage you can hold and demands constant small corrections, so the trunk works even when the movement is aimed elsewhere.

Every exercise using:Body onlyExercise ball

These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:

• Single-Arm Cable Crossovercable
• Smith Machine Bench Pressbench + smith machine + machine
• Smith Machine Decline Pressmachine
• Smith Machine Incline Bench Presssmith machine + bench + machine
• Wide Grip Decline Bench Pressbarbell + bench

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 22 are listed at intermediate level.