Why Are Diamond Pushups So Hard?

Push-ups are a great exercise, but when you bring hands closer together and form a diamond shape, this exercise becomes much more difficult and produces more benefits.

Diamond push-ups are also known as close hand push-ups or triangle push-ups.

When done correctly, most find diamond pushups hard. Diamond Pushups are hard because they rely on triceps and limit the involvement of the shoulders and chest. The triceps are also in an awkward position and unable to exert its full strength.

How to Do Diamond Push-ups Correctly?

Set up yourself, as you do for a regular push-up and set your body tight and straight. Your hands must be on the floor and right underneath your chest. Bring your feet in line with hips. Bring your forefingers and thumb together directly underneath the chest to form a diamond shape. For more stability, squeeze your thighs. Lower your chest towards the ground and make sure that your elbows are pointing towards your feet. 

Lower your chest until you are six inches away from the ground, then push-up the floor away from you and return to the top. Perform this as many times as you can. It would be great to start with two sets, and you can take the rest of 60 to 90 seconds between sets. 

Diamond Push-up Variations

Diamond push-up isn’t an easy exercise, and you will find it tough most of the time. You can drop your knees to complete a few more reps if you are struggling to revert to this classic strategy, there is another savvy strategy. Moreover, if diamond push-ups are not hard for you, you can try to do them with elevated feet. Put your feet on a gym ball, tougher still, and bench and do this exercise. 

Benefits of Diamond Push-Ups

It is a hard exercise but yields some excellent results such as:

In this exercise, the hand’s position is narrower, so more load is put on the tricep. According to a study conducted by ACE, a diamond push-up is the most useful tricep exercise followed by tricep kickbacks and dips. People who want to strengthen their triceps; it is the best and ideal choice for them. 

Diamond push-ups are an excellent workout for chest. When the hands are in narrower position, it puts more stress on pec minor and pec major as compared to the wide position. A wide position isn’t effective for activating chest. The wide position puts your shoulders in an awkward position and results in an injury. 

Many people are interested in one arm push-ups because it is badassness personified. Only a few people how to progress towards one-arm push-ups. When you are comfortable with normal push-ups and can do 20 perfect repetitions, then the next step is triangle push-up. After triangle push-up, the next step is archer, and finally one-arm push-ups. Don’t worry about the size of your triceps. 

In diamond push-ups, the hands are closed, and the base of support is smaller. If you can do the same with your feet, then it can be an excellent exercise for a balance component. Moreover, it will tax your core more, especially the muscles responsible for trunk rotation and internal and external oblique. 

These push-ups are useful for shoulders, especially for the anterior deltoid. Diamond push-ups put more pressure on shoulders than regular push-ups and prepare you for further variations. These push-ups prepare you for pseudo planche push-ups, and these pushups have the highest anterior deltoid requirements. 

Diamond Push-up Form

When performing this workout, focus on the following things. 

• Form a triangle shape with your palms. 
• Place your hands directly under your shoulders. 
• Keep your elbows more closely to your body.
• Keep your body straight from head to toes.
• After each repetition, extend your arms.
• When going down, go slow and explosive on the way up. 

Common Mistakes That People Make During Diamond Push-ups

Keep your elbows close to your body, and don’t flare them much. In diamond push-ups, there is less space between arms, so keep your form strict. In this way, you can get good results. You should aim for a 45-degree angle between your body and arm. 

Never allow your hands to come in front of shoulders. When you are down, your hands must touch with your sternum. If you want more tricep activation, then you can move your hands more closely to your face. These push-ups are known as tricep push-ups, and these are more advanced and different bodyweight exercises. 

People start with diamond push-ups quickly and suffer elbow pain. Elbow pain is common because of a narrow hand position. If you are experiencing elbow pain, rest for some time, and start normal push-ups. Do this for some days, and then slowly brings your arms closer for diamond push-ups after a few weeks. Remember, it’s not easy to achieve your goals, and sometimes you will have to face some injuries as well. 

We also wrote a post about several researches into whether diamond push-ups are bad, compared to other workout and the research shows you should continue with diamond push-ups. 

Make Diamond Push-ups Part of Your Workout

Make diamond push-ups part of your workout routine and do this two to three times a week. To increase definition and strength, you can place them at the start of your workout because muscles feel the strongest during that time. Push-ups are pushing moves, and you can pair them with pulling moves to use the muscles on both sides of arms and shoulders. You can try an overhead triceps extension and it is a great way for muscle growth. Once you are comfortable with triangle or diamond push-ups, move towards an elevated approach. 

Conclusion 

It is important to start with regular push-ups, and if you can perform 20 reps at a time, then moves towards diamond push-ups. The advance pose requires more focus and skills; that’s why diamond push-ups are hard.

While attempting these, a good deal of attention is required. For targeting the right muscles, there must be an alignment of the head's spine with the lower body. Moreover, excess stress on shoulders or knees can result in injuries.