Push-Up Wide
The wide push-up is a standard push-up done with your hands set wider than shoulder width, which shortens the range your arms travel and shifts more of the work onto your chest rather than your triceps. It's a simple variation for anyone whose bodyweight pressing has plateaued on a standard push-up and wants to bias the movement toward chest development.
Why it works
Moving your hands further apart changes the angle your arms travel through as you lower and press. A wider hand placement shortens your range of motion at the elbow and puts your chest muscles in a better position to generate force across the shoulder joint, while your triceps do comparatively less of the work than they would in a standard or narrow push-up. It's the same fundamental movement, just with the emphasis shifted by hand position alone.
Set up
- Get into a plank position with your hands set noticeably wider than shoulder width, fingers pointing slightly outward.
- Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels, with your core and glutes braced.
- Set your feet together or slightly apart for a stable base.
- Keep your head in a neutral position, looking at the floor a short distance ahead of your hands.
How to do it
- Lower your chest toward the floor by bending your elbows out to the sides, keeping your body rigid the whole way down.
- Go as low as your shoulders comfortably allow, ideally until your chest is close to the floor.
- Push through your palms to press yourself back up to the starting plank position.
- Keep your elbows tracking roughly in line with your wrists throughout the movement rather than flaring uncontrolled.
- Reset your core brace at the top before starting the next rep.
Form cues
- Keep your hips in line with your shoulders and ankles, without sagging or piking up.
- Let your elbows flare out wider than a standard push-up, since that's part of the chest emphasis.
- Keep your neck relaxed and your gaze down rather than craning your head forward.
- Press evenly through both hands so one side doesn't do more work than the other.
Breathing: Inhale as you lower toward the floor, exhale as you press back up.
Common mistakes
Letting the hips sag toward the floor as fatigue sets in.
Fix: Keep your core and glutes actively braced through the whole set, and stop the set once you can't maintain a straight line from head to heels.
Only lowering halfway down instead of using the full range the wide hand position allows.
Fix: Lower until your chest is close to the floor on every rep; a shallow range trains a smaller portion of the muscle and limits the benefit of the wider stance.
Placing the hands so wide that the shoulders feel pinched or strained.
Fix: Widen your hand placement gradually across sessions rather than jumping straight to an extreme width; a slight increase from shoulder width is often enough to feel the shift toward the chest.
How to program it
- This is a bodyweight chest exercise, so three to four sets taken close to a challenging but controlled failure point builds strength and size effectively.
- It pairs well in the same session as narrower-grip or triceps-focused push-up variations, since together they train the pressing muscles from a few different angles.
- Two to three sessions a week with a day of rest between them lets the chest and shoulders recover between sets of pushing volume.
Safety notes
- Keep the hand width within a range where your shoulders feel supported rather than strained; an excessively wide placement can put unnecessary stress on the front of the shoulder.
- Stop the set once your form starts to break down rather than grinding out reps with sagging hips or a partial range.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Push
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- Strength
Frequently asked questions
How many reps of wide push-ups should I do?
Aim for sets that challenge you within roughly eight to fifteen reps; if you can easily do more than that with good form, add a harder progression like a decline version.
Can I do wide push-ups at home without any equipment?
Yes, they need nothing beyond floor space, and leaning against an elevated surface like a couch or step works as an easier regression while you build strength.
Wide push-up vs standard push-up, what's the difference?
Both train the chest, shoulders, and triceps, but the wider hand placement shortens the elbow's range of motion and shifts more emphasis onto the chest, while a standard grip spreads the work more evenly across chest and triceps.
Why do my shoulders feel strained during wide push-ups?
That often means the hand placement is wider than your current shoulder mobility supports comfortably. Bring your hands in closer to a width where your shoulders feel stable, and widen gradually over time instead of all at once.