Pushup exercises with the hands are resistance training movements that require pushing your body off the floor with your hands. Hand pushups exercises are compound movements because they involve multiple joint articulations that activate several upper-body pushing muscles. Muscles in your torso, shoulders, arms, abdominals and lower body contribute to hand pushups. You can also target different primary muscles by altering your hand placement.
Standard
Standard pushups with the hands involve lying face down with your palms flat on the floor at shoulder-level, fingers pointing forward. You then push your body off the floor by extending your arms and keeping the rest of your body straight. Pushing up onto your toes, and keeping the entire length of your body straight, is more difficult than pushing up onto bent knees. A partner can help add resistance to standard hand pushup exercises by balancing a weight plate on your back. Performing hand pushups with your feet on an elevated surface also increases the difficulty.
Stability
Pushup exercises with hands can help enhance stability when you combine the movement with a stability or exercise ball. Performing hand pushups with your feet elevated on an exercise ball destabilizes the movement, and requires more help from additional muscle groups. According to the American Council on Exercise website, stability ball hand pushups require additional support from core muscles including the inner abdominals, glutes and inner thigh muscles. Your quadriceps and hamstrings also work harder to control your body during hand pushups with a stability ball.
Plyometric
Plyometric hand pushup exercises, including a clap and depth pushups, help produce faster and more powerful upper-body muscular and skeletal movements. Athletes use plyometric exercises to enhance nervous system functioning and elasticity in working muscles. You must push your body hard enough to lift both hands off the floor for plyometric hand pushups. You rapidly clap your palms together, then reposition them on the floor to catch your body as it falls back down during clap pushups. Depth pushups stretch your torso as you descend between your hands, which are elevated on platforms. You rapidly alternate placing your hands on platforms and on the floor between the platforms each time you push off.
Muscles and Hand Placement
The target muscle group for hand pushup exercises depends on your hand placement. Positioning your hands a little more than shoulder-width apart targets the pectoral muscles. The lower and larger sternal heads of the pectoralis major muscles are particularly active when your hands are farther apart. Hand pushup exercises increasingly activate the triceps muscles by placing your hands closer together. Keep your elbows close to the sides of your body, if you want to target your triceps with a narrower hand placement.
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