10 Best Push Up For Biceps: The Forgotten Exercises For Sculpting Your Arms

Discover how push-ups can effectively target your biceps and transform your arm workouts. Learn the best push up for biceps variations for building bigger and stronger pythons.

I have been a personal trainer for over seven years, and I’ve seen countless people label push-ups as a chest and tricep exercise. However, push-ups can be much more than this.

Changing your hand placement while performing push-ups can help bias your biceps and build bigger upper arms.

10 Top Push Up For Biceps Exercises

Some of these exercises might be brand new to you, while others might be a regular part of your training regimen.

Nonetheless, you must focus on contracting your biceps while performing these to load the target muscles optimally.

Without further ado, here are the 10 best push up for biceps:

Reverse Hand Push-Ups

This exercise is a staple in most calisthenics workouts. The unique hand placement of this exercise transfers the load from the back of the upper arms to the front.

I introduce this push up for biceps variation into my personal training clients’ regimens once they’ve mastered the conventional push-up.

How To:

1. Get into a high plank position with your hands under your shoulders and your legs extended behind you.
2. Your body should be in a straight line from head to toe.
3. Lift your right hand off the floor and externally rotate your hand so your fingers are facing the wall behind you. Return your hand to the floor.
4. Repeat on the left side.
5. Slowly lower your chest to the floor while keeping your elbows tight to your torso while contracting your biceps.
6. Extend your elbows and squeeze your biceps to return to the starting position.

Close-Grip Push-Ups

Although the close-grip push-up primarily trains the triceps, you can engage the biceps by slightly tweaking your hand placement and rep cadence.

How To:

1. Assume a high plank position.
2. Position your hands under your upper abs so they are parallel.
3. Slowly lower your chest toward your hands by flexing your elbows and shifting your weight on your biceps.
4. Pause and contract your biceps in the fully stretched position.
5. Reverse the motion to return to the starting position.

Read our in-depth close-grip push-up guide here!

Archer Push-Ups

This is an advanced push up for biceps variation that demands a mix of triceps, biceps, chest, shoulder, and core strength. I have my clients perform this exercise at the end of a strength training bicep workout to stretch out their pythons.

How To:

1. Get into the push-up position and place your hands and feet wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Turn your hands at 90 degrees so your fingers are pointing toward the side walls.
3. Brace your core, extend your left arm, and lower your chest toward your right hand while keeping your right elbow tight to your side.
4. Turn your head and look toward your extended side during eccentrics.
5. Reverse the motion to return to the starting position.
6. Repeat on the other side.
7. Alternate between sides for the recommended reps.

Typewriter Push-Ups

Typewriter push-ups take the archer push-ups up a notch. You need to change your hand placement during the exercise, so warm up your forearms and shoulders before performing this movement.

How To:

1. Get into a high plank position with your hands and feet placed wider than hip-width apart.
2. Your hands should be parallel at the starting position.
3. Flex your elbows to lower your chest until it is a few inches off the floor.
4. Extend your right elbow while flexing your left, and bring your left shoulder over your left hand. Turn your gaze toward your right hand during this movement.
5. Externally rotate your right hand to 90 degrees.
6. Squeeze your left bicep in the fully shortened position.
7. Now, extend your left elbow and flex your right so your right shoulder is above your right hand.
8. Return to the starting position.

Clapping Push-Ups

Plyometric exercises are a great way to build overall strength. Pushing your hands off the floor results in significant biceps recruitment, which can help you build bigger and stronger guns.

How To:

1. Start in a high-plank position with your hands placed shoulder-wide.
2. Slowly lower your chest toward the floor by bending your elbows.
3. Think of the eccentrics as a spring compressing under pressure.
4. Once your chest is a few inches off the floor, explosively extend your elbows.
5. Pull your hands off the floor just as your elbows reach full extension.
6. Clap your hands. Contract your biceps as hard as possible during this part for optimal stimulation.
7. Return your hands to the floor.
8. Repeat for recommended reps.

One-Arm Push-Ups

Unilateral exercises are incredibly effective for fixing strength and muscle imbalances. Performing single-arm push-ups allows you to better focus on your biceps.

How To:

1. Begin in a high plank position with your arms shoulder-width apart.
2. Position your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart for better balance.
3. Lift your left arm off the floor and place your hand on your left leg for improved stability.
4. Slowly lower your chest toward the floor by flexing your right elbow.
5. Focus on contracting your bicep during eccentrics.
6. Squeeze your pythons on concentrics.
7. Repeat for recommended reps before switching sides.

Master the one-arm push-up with this guide!

Slow Negative Push-Ups

If you think bodyweight push-ups are for beginners, this push up for biceps variation will definitely challenge that view. I regularly employ this exercise as a superset in my client’s biceps workouts to smoke their biceps and achieve a muscle-ripping pump.

How To:

1. Position yourself in a high plank, ensuring your hands are placed shoulder-width apart.
2. Slowly flex your elbows and lower your torso to the floor over a span of five seconds.
3. Focus on contracting your biceps on the eccentrics.
4. Pause at the bottom and flex your guns.
5. Return to the starting position over a span of two seconds.

Isometric Hold Push-Ups

Contrary to what most people think, you don’t always need to be flexing and extending your joints to work your muscles.

An article published in the Journal of Applied Physiology explored how different exercise modes (isometric, lengthening, and shortening) can lead to skeletal muscle hypertrophy. It concluded that isometric training produces similar hypertrophic results as isotonic training. (1)

How To:

1. Get into the high plank position with your hands placed shoulder-width apart.
2. While keeping your elbows tight to your sides, slowly lower your torso until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
3. Squeeze your biceps as hard as possible and hold the isometric contraction for as long as possible, preferably 60 seconds.
4. Repeat for the desired number of sets.

Hand Release Push-Ups

This push up for biceps variation might look easy, but it will leave you with a sick muscle pump. I recommend slightly modifying this exercise for better bicep activation, so read the step-by-step instructions carefully.

How To:

1. Begin in a high-plan position with your hands under your shoulders.
2. Lower your chest to the floor by flexing your elbows.
3. Take your hands off the floor and place them next to your thighs with your elbows fully extended and palms facing down.
4. Press into the floor to fire up your biceps.
5. Return your hands to the conventional push-up position.
6. Focus on contracting your biceps during concentrics.

Check out our complete hand-release push-up guide here!

Staggered Push-Ups

This is one of the most overlooked push up for biceps variation. While performing this exercise, the extended arm will be the supporting arm. You must focus on contracting the other bicep.

How To:

1. Assume a high-plank position with your hands placed shoulder-wide.
2. Take your left hand off the floor and place it at your ear level.
3. Flex your right elbow to lower your chest to the floor while squeezing your bicep.
4. Extend your elbow and contract your bicep to return to the starting position.
5. Repeat for recommended reps before switching sides.

Tips For Push Up For Biceps

Here are some of the most important tips to ensure maximum bicep stimulation during these exercises:

Focus on Contracting the Biceps

Muscle memory is a beautiful thing, but not when you are performing push up for biceps. Keep your reps slow, controlled, and deliberate to ensure optimal target muscle stimulation.

Going through the reps without actively contracting your biceps can shift the tension to the triceps and chest.

Hold the contractions in the fully shortened position for at least one second to maximize bicep fiber recruitment.

Wear a Weighted Vest

As per a study published in Sports (Basel), performing 8-12 reps of an exercise promotes hypertrophy (2). However, advanced trainers might find this rep range for bodyweight exercises insufficiently challenging.

Using added resistance can help achieve greater muscle activation. I recommend using a weighted vest for these exercises as weight plates can fall off, resulting in an injury.

Don’t forget to warm up and loosen your forearms and shoulders before performing these exercises.

Feel Free To Cut a Set Short

If you can’t feel your biceps firing during a set, don’t hesitate to end the set without completing the recommended sets. Once your triceps and chest take over, engaging your biceps in the subsequent sets can be very challenging.

Start afresh with a slower and controlled rep range and focus on contracting the biceps throughout the range of motion.

Next Read: 13 Next-Level Push-Up Variations For Mass, Strength, and Performance

Adjust Your Angle and Position

Each individual is built differently. What works for you might not work for your training partner.

I encourage you to take these exercises and experiment with your hand placement and body angle to load the biceps better.

For example, some people might experience better biceps engagement while performing these push-up variations on an incline or decline. On the flip side, others might notice greater target muscle stimulation using a narrow grip where a wide grip is prescribed.

Make these small adjustments to find what works best for you.

Conclusion

Push-ups are considered primarily a chest and triceps exercise, and the biceps play a stabilizing role. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to train your biceps. The push up for biceps variations listed in this article will help you develop bigger and stronger upper arms with just your body weight.

If you have any questions about any of the exercises mentioned in this article or need help with any other bodyweight workout, let me know in the comments below, and I’ll be happy to help!

References

1. Adams, G. R., Cheng, D. C., Haddad, F., & Baldwin, K. M. (2004). Skeletal muscle hypertrophy in response to isometric, lengthening, and shortening training bouts of equivalent duration. Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md.: 1985), 96(5), 1613–1618. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.01162.2003
2. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Van Every DW, Plotkin DL. Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports (Basel). 2021;9(2):32. Published 2021 Feb 22. doi:10.3390/sports9020032

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