The humble push-up is one of THE best exercises you can do for developing the chest, shoulders and triceps using just your bodyweight.
You can use it for building a base level of strength (when you're starting with the exercise), upper-body endurance (as you get stronger with the exercise and can perform more and more reps) and for muscle development.
However...it's likely that you've NEVER thought of the push-up as a way to build top-end, high-threshold strength...the kind of strength that can actually help increase your 1 rep max bench press weights substantially.
Which is what THIS exercise is going to do for you...
Partial Range Training IS Good For You and for Building Strength...
Now, in order to get the most out of this exercise, you're going to have to accept the fact that partial range of motion training is actually good for you.
I sometimes get a lot of resistance on this point from the "range-of-motion police."
Here's the thing, though...in serious strength circles, partial-range training is a widely accepted way to develop connective tissue strength and increase nervous system activation in the high-threshold motor units of your muscles (the nerves and muscle fibers that fire when moving extremely heavy loads).
When done properly (and not just to show off using heavy weight), partial-range training is INCREDIBLY effective for increasing full-range strength. I've used it very successfully in my own training for more than 20 years.
It's NOT targeted for building muscle mass...that's not the purpose for doing it. It's all about strength.
Let's move on...
Why Use Weighted Push-Ups Instead of Lockout Partials for Barbell Bench Press?
Partial-range lockout bench press is an excellent exercise, especially if you're after exercise-specific lockout strength (for example, if that's the weak point of your bench press and it needs fixing).
The drawback? It's an OPEN kinetic chain exercise.
Basically, this means that your body is "locked down" while your limbs (and the weight) are moving. The bench press is the perfect example of this...your body is on the bench while your arms move the weight.
Open-chain exercises don't activate as many muscle fibers and motor units as CLOSED kinetic chain exercises...such as the push-up. When you do a push-up, your extremeties (e.g. hands or feet) are locked down while your body moves through space.
When doing closed-chain exercises, you actually get greater muscle fiber activation in your target muscle groups.
Keep that in mind...
The Barbell-Weighted Lockout Push-Up
We've established that partial-range training is excellent for developing connective strength and increasing nervous system activation.
We've established that push-ups activate more muscle fibers than bench press.
That logically means that in order to activate the ABSOLUTE most muscle fibers and motor units, we want to do a lockout movement with a closed-chain exercise like the push-up.
Which is exactly what I've got for you here.
This exercise is going use a "free" barbell in the power rack to perform a lockout push-up with the barbell on your back.
And I will tell you right up front, if you've got access to a Smith machine, use that. It'll make the exercise a fair bit easier to set up and perform as it will totally stabilize the bar for you. I don't have a Smith machine, so the method I came up with is a bit more creative, by necessity.
Set up a power rack with the safety rails a couple of feet off the ground. Start with just an empty bar until you get an idea of how the exercise works and the height you'll need to use for rails. I would also recommend using a barbell pad for this (or a rolled-up towel, if you don't have a pad).
Shift the pad over to one side of the bar and shift the bar itself over as well. Get on your hands and knees and get your back under the bar. You DON'T want to be in a regular push-up position for this (body straight) or it will limit the amount of weight you can use. You need your knees down to provide the strongest support so that core strength doesn't limit the loads you can use.
The bar itself should be sitting just below your shoulder blades, with your body at a slight downward angle. I've also got the bar pushed up against the uprights of the rack, to give it just a bit more stability. When you do add weight to the bar, make sure both sides are loaded equally, to prevent tipping.
Now do the lockout of the push-up. The bar will come up off of ONE SIDE of the rails. The other side will be the fulcrum (pivot point).
And this why it's useful if you have a Smth machine...you don't need to balance anything. You can just start with the bar on the safety stops (unhooked) and do the lockout push-up without any balance issues.
Hold this lockout position for a few seconds then lower the bar back down.
Aim for about 4 to 6 reps per set. Start with a fairly light weight on the first set, then start adding plates until you get to the point where you ALMOST reach failure in that rep range. That's the range you'll want to work in for maximum loads and strength gains (when training for strength, we never want to hit failure - taxes the nervous system too much).
When you're completed your reps on one side, rest at least 90 seconds to 2 minutes (or more) then go again. The longer rest periods are necessary here for the nervous system and fast-twitch muscle fibers to recover.
So even though it might FEEL like a long time to rest, just remember, we're training for nervous system activation and strength here, not for muscle growth or fat loss. Taking too little rest will defeat the purpose of the exercise.
When doing sets, always stick to even numnbers of sets (e.g. 2 sets, 4 sets, 6 sets, etc.) so you keep the loading even. Because the bar is coming up at an angle, you're not working each side equally during each set, so you want to make sure you're matching the workload with the other side as well.
Perform 4 to 6 reps on this side.
Bottom line, if you're not a fan of bench press lockouts because they don't seem "functional"...this "closed-chain" version of the lockout is going to be right up your alley. The strength you develop will carry over to bench press and will develop upper body strength in a very practical way.
This is a great strength-building approach. If you'd like to use the bench press to focus on building muscle, try the 1 and 1/4 Rep Method for Bench Press. It helps keep tension on the chest very effectively.
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Want more unique and challenging exercises to work your entire body with simple equipment? All you need is just a barbell, dumbbells and a bench. Check out The Best Home Gym Exercises You've Never Heard Of!
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