The diamond-triangle push-up is one of the most incredible push-up variations that will get your arms blazing and help you build more strength in a hurry. The diamond-triangle push-up is an excellent choice for an effective and demanding triceps exercise.
In this article, we will learn about the benefits of diamond-triangle push-ups, the muscles used, and how they can enhance your performance and looks.
What are Diamond Push-Ups & How to Do It?
The standard push-up can be modified into a more challenging exercise by performing diamond push-ups, also called triangle push-ups. Perform diamond push-ups by bringing your hands in a diamond or triangle formation below your chest.
This will help you build strength and stability. Maintain a straight line with your back and legs as you push off the ground to get off the ground.
Even though most strength athletes have performed push-ups in the past, the correct form is infamously tricky. Add a close-grip element, and it gets even more complex. It's all in the details, or this case, how you hold your hands.
The following are the correct way to perform push-ups:
- Start in a position where you are on all fours with your knees and toes flexed and in touch with the floor. It is ideal for your hips to be higher than your knees. Your hands should have a narrower width than your shoulders. Create a diamond shape by connecting your thumbs and index fingers. Grab the ground with both hands and turn your shoulders outward to work your lats.
- Extend your legs straight ahead and raise your knees off the floor to get into the pushup position. Either keep a hip-width gap between your legs or bring them closer.
- Engage your core muscles while also pulling your shoulders and hips back. Squeeze your quads and glutes. Keep your chin tucked in as if you're keeping an egg there. This position should serve as the starting point for all repetitions.
- Bending your elbows will bring your chest closer to your hands. As you get lower to the mat, your shoulder blades should retract into their sockets.
- Bring your upper arms down until they are alongside your ribcage as you lower your body. Take a little break when you reach the bottom of the movement.
- To start the upward movement, maintain your alignment as you squeeze your chest and straighten your elbows. This will get you moving in the right direction. As you push yourself to the maximum range of motion, you should feel a protraction in the shoulder blades.
- Finish the exercise by contracting your chest and triceps at the same time.
Determine the number of sets and repetitions you will perform based on how well you can keep up a decent technique for the entire set and each repeat.
Muscles Worked
Diamond push-ups have a reputation among weightlifters for being a relatively ineffective move. Unfortunately, you're only partly right. While your chest and triceps do the heavy lifting, other muscles also contribute.
Pectoralis Major
The pectoralis major is the large muscle in the front of your upper body that forms your chest. You can credit this muscle with bringing your upper arm closer to your body's midline. This holds for all push-up variations, not just triceps-focused ones (like this one).
Triceps
Your triceps are the large muscles in the upper back of your arms. As you lower yourself in a diamond push-up, they lengthen to help you return to starting position and shorten as you push yourself back up.
As the lockout phase of the bench press and overhead presses places a premium on triceps strength, developing unbreakable triceps is essential.
Deltoids
The deltoids are a group of muscles that may be found between the shoulder blades and the top of the upper arms, with the front deltoids being the most prominent.
You can bring your arm closer to your chest when you use them. During a diamond push-up, your shoulders stabilize your body and provide muscle to your push.
Serratus Anterior and Pectoralis Minor
Both the serratus anterior and the pectoralis minor are involved in diamond push-ups, but they do so in a complementary fashion. The serratus anterior muscles, situated beneath and on either side of the ribcage, aid in the rotation of the shoulder blades.
The pectoralis minor is a smaller muscle that sits under the pectoralis major and helps bring the shoulder blades forward (protraction). These muscles will aid you through the lift's full range of motion as you flex and extend (protraction and retraction).
Abdominals
Your abs consist of the rectus abdominis and the transversus abdominis. They prevent you from overextending your lower back and help you maintain spinal stability when you perform diamond push-ups.
Diamond-Triangle Push-Up Benefits
The diamond push-up is a standard push-up progression that many athletes do, particularly when they want to emphasize the development and strength of their triceps.
Isolates Your Triceps
The American Council on Exercise cites the diamond-triangle push-up as the best and most effective exercise for the triceps. This is because the diamond-triangle push-up engages and recruits all three heads of the triceps through the entirety of the motion, which contributes to the development of greater strength and muscle mass.
Builds More Strength and Muscle
To gain muscle growth and strength, it is best to perform solitary resistance exercises that are both efficient and effective. Increased muscle mass relies heavily on time under strain and range of motion.
The diamond triangle is highly efficient in increasing muscle mass and strength because it stimulates a wide range of motion and maintains tension throughout the entire exercise.
You Don’t Need Weights
What makes the diamond-triangle push-up special is that you can perform the most effective triceps exercise possible without a gym, weights, or any other specialized equipment. Even without leaving the comfort of your couch, you can tone and sweat those arms.
Builds Core Strength
More core strength and stability can be developed by performing the diamond-triangle push-up. Gaining strength in one's core has a multiplier effect on one's overall functional mobility, lifting capacity, and athleticism.
Related Article: 8 Awesome Benefits of Doing Push-Ups Every Day
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Diamond Push-Up Variations
Once you have the diamond push-up mastered, you can progress to one of these variations:
Wall Diamond Push-Up
To practice this variant, stand in front of a wall and position your hands to form a triangle against the wall. Wall diamond push-ups are simpler and place less strain on your shoulder joints than traditional push-ups.
Note: The provided image is just for reference; your hands should be in a diamond position.
Incline Diamond Push-Up
By keeping your upper body lifted throughout the exercise, this variation of the diamond push-up relieves some of the strain that would otherwise be placed on your arms. It emphasizes the chest as well as the core muscles.
To perform this, do a diamond push-up while resting your upper body on an elevated surface.
Decline Diamond Push-Ups
You can perform a decline diamond push-up by placing your feet on an elevated surface like a bench or chair and maintaining your hands together throughout the movement. This exercise explicitly targets the upper portion of your pectoral muscles.
Common Diamond Push-Up Mistakes
Despite the diamond push-seeming up's simplicity, it has its potential pitfalls. If you make these mistakes when performing an exercise, it might hinder your performance and cause you discomfort, reducing the effectiveness of the exercise for your intended muscle groups.
Related Article: 12 Mistakes That May Be Hindering Your Progress At the Gym
Overextending Your Lower Back
Your shoulder motion may be impacted if you let your lower back sag and overextend toward the floor. Your shoulder blades won' protract as easily when you push up if your lower back and hips sag toward the ground.
When this occurs, gently bend your knees and lift your hips toward the ceiling. You can maintain your back more straight with this. Using your core and thighs can also help you out.
Not Keeping Your Body Rigid
Diamond push-ups require you to maintain a rigid body position. Your hips and legs may fall to the floor before your chest if your body isn't in proper alignment. This is a surefire method of limiting your chest, shoulder, and triceps muscle's range of motion and, thus, your exercise stimulus.
Try standing next to a wall and pressing your heels into the floor to alleviate this issue. As a result, you'll be more motivated to maintain a more rigid hip and leg position during the diamond push-up.
Restricting Shoulder Blades Movements
If you want solid shoulders and the best possible gains, you need to give your shoulder blades room to move so that you can fully engage your pectoral and serratus anterior muscles.
When you go down, imagine pressing your shoulder blades together behind you. Then, as you get higher, let your shoulders circle forward and down.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, the diamond-triangle push-up is one of the most effective exercises for the triceps. Increasing the amount of time spent under tension, the range of motion, and the activity level of muscles can help improve body composition by leading to greater muscle growth and strength gains.
Increase your arm day training day split and athletic performance by adding the diamond-triangle push-up to your plan.
