Diamond Push-Up Exercise: How-To, Benefits, and More

Compared to a standard push-up, the diamond push-up exercise is more challenging.

We all understand why push-ups are beneficial. However, when it comes to the diamond variant, the exercise is slightly more difficult and provides additional advantages by bringing the hands closer together and making a diamond shape.

Diamond push-ups can be a useful addition to a person's exercise program for a number of reasons. This entails a rise in triceps and chest activity, a strengthening and stabilizing of the core, and an improvement in shoulder strength as well.

How to Do Diamond Push-Up Exercise Correctly

The arm and hand position distinguishes a diamond push-up from a regular push-up. It can be performed on any flat surface.

Here’s how to perform the diamond push-up exercise correctly:

Get in the push-up position, keeping your hands together.
Bring the thumb and index finger of both hands in close contact, so as to form a diamond shape.
Your hands ought to be placed just below your lower chest.
While balancing your legs on your toes, engage your core and lengthen your body.
Pull back your shoulder blades and contract your glutes and abs to align your spine.
Breathe in and lower yourself by bending your elbows.
Drop until your chest is only a few inches from the ground, then halt.
Return to the top position by extending your elbows and fully straightening your arms.
Complete the appropriate number of reps.

Diamond Push-Ups: Muscles Worked

It is imperative that you know about the muscles worked by diamond push-ups. This will help you keep your form and give you perspective on the activity. You'll have no trouble reaping the rewards of the workout if you know what you're aiming for.

When performing a diamond push-up, maintaining balance is difficult. (Image via Pexels/ Maksim Goncharenok)

In most aspects, a diamond push-up exercise is comparable to ordinary push-ups. Although you are still targeting some of the muscles in your arms and some muscles in your chest, the posture in which your arms are held causes you to focus on significantly different muscle groups with distinct roles.

Diamond push-ups have your triceps do the majority of the heavy lifting while shifting the emphasis from your pectoralis major to the pectoralis minor.

This means that while the diamond push-up is commonly thought of as a triceps-dominant exercise, it actually works the chest muscles better.

Push-ups generally work the core, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calf muscles in addition to the muscles of the upper extremities. These muscles support maintaining a tight body while performing the exercise in a plank position.

Benefits of Diamond Push-Up Exercise

Check out these few of the many benefits offered by the diamond push-up exercise, when executed correctly:

1) Chest muscles activation

The diamond push-up apparently uses less chest muscles than the traditional push-up. However, research has found that while the triceps are activated during diamond push-ups, the pectoralis muscles also become more active. As a result, this exercise is excellent for developing bigger pecs.

Doing diamond push-ups might give you stronger, more developed shoulders. (Image via Pexels/ Mikhail Nilov)

2) Improved balance and core strength

When performing diamond push-ups, maintaining balance is difficult due to the narrow base the hand position creates. The exercise activates core muscles, particularly the ones involved in trunk rotation, such as external and internal obliques, which are necessary for balance. Strength and stability are both enhanced by using core muscles to maintain balance.

3) Improved shoulder strength

The anterior deltoid, in particular, is put under higher stress when the hands are close together during a push-up. As a result, doing diamond push-ups might give you stronger, more developed shoulders.

The diamond push-up exercise is also a fantastic warm-up exercise you can incorporate in your routine before moving on to workouts that focus more on the anterior deltoid, like one-arm push-ups. This is because it can strengthen this muscle.

Make sure to keep your body aligned in a straight line while doing push-ups. (Image via Pexels/ Ketut Subiyanto)

Conclusion

The diamond push-up exercise is a fantastic bodyweight exercise that has the advantage of better chest and tricep activation. While diamond push-ups are more difficult to complete than standard push-ups due to their advanced nature, they may still be worth the effort due to their additional advantages.