Hip Push-Up Exercise for Men

The hip pushup is a quality exercise for men on the hunt for a more challenging way to work their chest, shoulders and triceps. It’s similar to the traditional pushup except for a slight difference in hand placement. This difference in hand position makes the hip pushup significantly more difficult to complete and changes how the load is distributed over your upper body muscles.

  1. Exercise Technique

    • During the traditional pushup, the hands are positioned slightly wider than the shoulders and in line with the chest. As a result, when men lower down, their elbows flare out to their sides. For the hip pushup exercise, the hands are positioned on the floor directly underneath the hips. This will keep the upper arms and elbows in tight to the torso as you perform the pushup. Men who struggle at performing the hip pushup can build up strength by completing the exercise from the knees instead of the toes.

    Muscles Worked

    • During the traditional pushup, the chest is the primary muscle involved, while the shoulders and triceps assist. With the hands positioned under the hips instead of at the chest, the shoulders move in a different way. Instead of the shoulders performing horizontal adduction, which means the upper arms squeeze together as men press up off the floor, you're performing shoulder flexion. As you push off the floor, your upper arms move upwards in front of you, similar to how they move during dips. Because of this, the shoulders become the primary muscles worked. In addition, the elbows perform a greater degree of extension during the hip pushup, which means the triceps have to work harder.

    Additional Considerations

    • With the hands positioned under the hips, a greater percentage of the man’s body weight is placed on the hands. Unlike the traditional pushup, which places more of a man’s weight onto their feet, the hip pushup places a greater load onto the arms. This makes the hip pushup significantly more challenging than the traditional pushup. The difficulty of the exercise will cause you to want to lift your hips up in the air, which puts more weight onto your feet -- special attention needs to be paid to ensure the hips stay down and the torso and thighs remain in a straight line.

    Wrist Safety

    • The hip pushup can place a significant amount of stress on the wrist. With the hands under the hips, the wrists are placed in a position of severe hyper-extension. Therefore, avoid doing the hip pushup on your palms. Instead, use a pair of pushup handles or complete the exercise from your knuckles with closed fists.