Push-ups are great. You don’t need us to tell you that. They’re the ultimate portable muscle builder. But how often do you veer away from the safe (but undoubtedly effective) default push-up variation? If your answer ranges from ‘not often’ to ‘never’, you could be leaving bodyweight gains on the table.
Case in point: the tiger push-up.
This variation takes a standard press and stretches it out, dropping you onto your forearms before driving back up to your hands. This simple tweak turns the humble push-up into a tricep pumping monster.
What Is the Tiger Push-Up?
The tiger push-up is a bodyweight pressing variation where you lower from your hands down onto your forearms, then press back up to full extension. Each rep moves through a greater range than a standard push-up, increasing the demand on all of the muscles involved (chest, shoulders, triceps, core), with a special emphasis on the tris.
It’s essentially a hybrid between a push-up and a bodyweight tricep extension – and it’s an effective one.
The Benefits
1. Extended Range for More Growth
Dropping onto your forearms increases the distance your muscles have to work through, boosting time under tension and hypertrophy.
What to read next
2. Tricep-Focused Pressing
The transition from forearms to hands heavily loads the triceps, making this a serious arm-builder.
3. Shoulder Stability and Control
Moving through multiple joint angles challenges your shoulders to stabilise and control the press throughout.
4. No Equipment, Big Return
No kit needed – just your bodyweight and a lot of elbow grease (emphasis on the elbow here).
Main Muscles Worked
- Triceps: extends the press from forearms to hands
- Chest / Pecs: assist the pressing phase
- Front Deltoids/ Shoulders: support shoulder flexion
- Core: keeps your body in a rigid plank position throughout
How to Do it Properly
- Start in a strong push-up position.
- Instead of thinking of lowering your chest to the ground, instead lower your elbows down and back until both your chest and forearms touch the ground.
- Keep your arms close to your body as you press back up, focussing on hinging from the elbow and engaging your triceps.
Coach’s Notes
This variation is going to feel humbling. Your torso should lower in a very linear fashion, finishing with your front delts touching your hands and your forearms flat on the deck. It’s in the pressing portion where the intensity turns up: imagine pushing the floor away, but hinging from the elbow, as opposed from the shoulders. It should feel like a tricep extension or press-down, not a close-grip push-up.
If you can do as many reps of these as close-grip push-ups, you’re doing them wrong.
