Can Pushups Really Tone Your Arms & Chest?

by M.L. Rose; Updated April 16, 2018
Elevating your feet during pushups put greater emphasis on your chest.

Elevating your feet during pushups put greater emphasis on your chest.

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Even if you’re new to exercising, you’re most likely familiar with the pushup, or at least you know how it’s performed. You can probably also see that the exercise works the arms, but the chest’s involvement isn’t as obvious at a glance. Try a pushup, however, and you’ll feel and understand that pushups work both the arms and chest. The extent to which you develop your arm and chest strength depends on which pushup variety you perform.

Standard Pushup Form

Get down on your hands and knees to perform standard pushups. Position your palms flat on the floor below your shoulders and straighten your arms. Extend your legs back so your feet are close together and you’re balanced on your hands and toes. Your body should form a straight line from the top of your head to the middle of your feet. Maintain that alignment throughout the exercise. Begin by bending your elbows and lowering your chest slowly until it grazes the floor. Push back up to the starting position to complete one repetition.

Chest and Arm Muscles to Tone

Pushups target the sternal head of your pectoralis major, which is the muscle that covers most of your chest. You also work the upper pecs, near your collarbone. The triceps muscles in your arms assist with your movements, while the other major upper-arm muscles, the biceps, engage as a stabilizer.

Pushup Variations

You can work your chest even harder during pushups by elevating your feet so you lift a higher percentage of your body weight. To focus on your arms, position your hands close together, below the upper middle chest. These close-grip or triangle pushups -- so called because your thumbs and index fingers form a triangle -- target your triceps. Work both your chest and arms harder by using outside resistance like a weight plate on your back or a weighted vest. Make the exercise easier by elevating your hands or by balancing on your knees rather than your toes.

Workout Plans

To tone your arms and chest, do pushups as part of a total-body or upper-body workout two or three times each week, with at least one day off between sessions to rest your muscles. The number of repetitions will vary widely, depending on your fitness level and the intensity of your pushups. As a general guideline, try to do three sets of 10 to 20 pushups per set.

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