PUSH Day Essentials

As promised I wanted to take the time on this entry to talk about three specific exercises you can use on your “Push Day”. There are thousands and thousands of exercise programs out there, but a common one that most know is the “Push” and “Pull” split. Meaning on one day you workout all of your “Pushing” muscles such as your chest, shoulders, and triceps. On the “Pull” day you would train your back and biceps and on the third day you would train your lower body. This article will focus on chest and triceps.

The first exercise shown above is called V-Bar Triceps Push Down. You begin by attaching a V-Bar to a high pulley using an overhand grip. As you push down, you want to keep you torso straight with a very small inclination that way you are solely isolating your triceps. You also want to focus on keeping your elbows against your body throughout the slow and controlled movement. As you push down you exhale and squeeze/hold for a good second at the contracted position and then inhale as you bring the bar back to its starting point. Depending on your goals, resistance and reps will vary but I like to keep my reps to about 12-15 reps for a total of 4 sets.

The second exercise shown above is simply a variation of the Triceps Push Down but this time using a rope. You now face out at an incline still keeping your core tight but at a different angle. As you push down the rope, you want to exhale and open up the handles when you reach the fully contracted position and inhale and close up the handles as you return to its initial starting position.

Last but not least, the Low Cable Crossover is probably one of my favorite chest exercises. It’s one of those things that if you do it right with a lightweight and focus on squeezing at the contracted position you will really see a difference. It’s not about the quantity of the reps but the quality is what’s most important.

For this exercise place the pulleys at a low position and grasp a handle in each hand. Gain tension in the pulleys by stepping forward and with a slight bend in your arms (shown above) draw your hands upward toward the midline of your body. Focus on a slow and controlled movement as you briefly pause at the top contracted position and then release back to the starting position. As far as repetitions go, I like to keep the reps high and resistance low. For this specific demonstration I was using 15-17lbs resistances on each side but like I said earlier it all depends on your goals.

I hope you guys enjoyed this article and were able to take away some useful information to incorporate into your routine! Stay tuned for more articles like these, as we will get more in-depth with more complicated exercises and begin talking about different workout routines. ☺

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Photos: Jeyson Paez (@jeysonpaez)