ATHLEAN-X founder Jeff Cavaliere has a unique push-up variation to try out. In a YouTube video from June 18, 2026, he explained how the prisoner push-up can help you grow a bigger chest.
“If you want to build a bigger chest with just push-ups, then you might want to try changing the type of push-up that you’re doing and adopting a technique that the prisoner workouts have been famous for.”
With over 14.3 million YouTube subscribers, Cavaliere has become one of the most trusted resources in the fitness industry. Whether it’s achieving fat loss or forcing muscle growth, he has science-backed methods for getting the job done. This led him to explore a popular exercise commonly performed in penitentiaries around the world.
Jeff Cavaliere Explains How Prisoner Push-Ups Can Help Build a Bigger Chest
In the video, Cavaliere shared that prisoner push-ups are performed in the lower range of motion.
“I know you’re thinking, those look like half reps, Jeff; those aren’t even full range of motion. That’s the point. These are actually called prisoner push-ups, and they are done in the lower range of motion.”
During traditional push-ups, he stressed that the top range of motion involves the triceps.
“We know one thing: when we do a full range of motion push-up as I always advocate for building the entire upper body, it’s that last bit of extension here that really works the triceps, and it’s responsible for helping complete the development of the upper body beyond the shoulders and chest.”
According to Cavaliere, mechanical tension is lower with bodyweight exercises, which is why he recommends higher volume.
“When we’re looking to build any muscle with just bodyweight exercises, your volumes are going to have to be higher because your overall mechanical tensions are going to be lower. It’s not going to be the same amount of tension that you would have under a heavy dumbbell bench press or heavy barbell bench press.”
“If we stay here, and again, this is the prisoner push-up, and we try to go a little faster, we take advantage of the metabolic stress that we can drive to the pecs specifically here, or in large part, you’re getting 75% contribution towards the chest in this portion of the range of motion versus a drop down to around 60% in the upper portion of the range of motion, then we can focus more of that effort [for more repetitions],” he said.
He added that most individuals can perform around one and a half to two times more prisoner push-ups than the traditional variation.
“You’ll find doing this half-rep prisoner push-up is going to get you around one and a half to two times the number of repetitions you could do in any single set of a traditional push-up.”
If you haven’t given prisoner push-ups a try, Cavaliere stands by them. Between metabolic stress and a lower range of motion, he believes these can unlock a bigger chest over time.
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