The Best Push Day Workout Plan for Building Your Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

The push muscles include the Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. Out of all these three push muscles, the pecs are mostly very hard to grow. The triceps are small muscles, and the shoulders get worked up during any and every chest exercise.

Many people who struggle with developing chest, or any other muscles, for that matter, usually amp up the number they’re doing for the struggling muscle.

However, that’s not the right approach. Understand, Quality beats Quantity. The exercise selection is more important than the number of exercises you perform.

Put the push workout mentioned below in your fitness regime and make the most of your time in the gym. Let’s get it!


Push Muscles In Our Body

As discussed above, there are three push muscles in our body. Let’s take a brief dive and look at them from up close before we get on with our push-day workout plan.

Push Muscles:-

  1. Chest- Upper, Middle, and Lower Chest
  2. Shoulders- Front, Side, and Rear Delts
  3. Triceps- Long, Medial, and Lateral Head

Push Day Workout Plan

1) Incline Dumbbell Bench Press-

This exercise is placed first on this push-day workout plan as it would help you grow the upper chest muscles. You have to perform 2-3 warm-up sets of this exercise so your form is on point when you lift heavy.

After this, you have to do 3-4 working sets. Remember to go as heavy as you can while maintaining good form. Aim for about 8-15 reps and 2-3 mins of rest in-between sets.

As you progress through the exercise, your reps should decrease. By the end of the exercise, your pecs should be pumped up.

The goal of this exercise is to build the strength of push muscles, mainly the chest.

How To Perform:

  • Lie On The Incline Bench With Back Arched And Both Feet Landed On The Ground, Although Heels Could Stay Up.
  • Maintain A 45° Angle In Your Elbows.
  • Push The Weight Up Through Your Elbows And Squeeze Your Chest.
  • Don’t jerk the weight on the way down. Neither, bring the DB below the shoulders.

2) High-To-Low Cable Chest Fly-

This exercise is placed second on this push-day workout plan as it would help exhaust pecs muscles entirely and push the maximum volume of blood in them.

Do at least 1 warm-up set of this exercise before performing 3-4 working sets of it.

Aim to do 10-20 reps in each set and execute every rep at a normal and controlled pace. With each set, increase the weight the decrease the no. of repetitions you perform.

To reap the benefits of this exercise, limit your rest time in-between sets to 60-90 seconds only.

How To Perform:

  • Grab The Handles Tightly Inside Your Palms And Lean Your Body Forward While Also Arching Your Back Just A Bit.
  • Then, Bend Your Arms Slightly And Initiate The Movement By Bringing Your Hands In Front Of Your Chest.
  • Now, Slowly Let Your Arms Go Back And Repeat The Movement.

3) Seated Dumbbell Press-

The front delts must be already exhausted by now from previous chest lifts. As a result, a fair portion of stress is going to be put on the medial and rear delts of the shoulders.

With this exercise, the goal is to push maximum blood flow into the shoulders as much as possible. On top of this, Seated DB Press lets you hit all 3 heads of shoulders.

Aim to do 2-3 sets on this exercise. Keep the rep range between 8-15. Also, limit your rest time in-between sets to 45-60 secs only.

How To Perform:

  • Grab The Dumbbell And Sit Straight.
  • Then, Bring Your Arms Slightly In Front Of You And Push The Weight Up By Extending Your Arms.
  • Now, Bring The Weight Down By Lowering Your Elbows.
  • To Avoid Any Injury, Try Not To Bring Your Hands Below Your Chin.

4) Leaning Cable Side Raises-

The weight that can be lifted on side delts is very less. So, growing them is a difficult task.

With this exercise, the aim is to put constant tension on the side delts as free weights don’t allow that.

Leaning on this exercise lets you control your weight more efficiently. Aim to do 3-4 sets of this exercise. Keep the reps high on this exercise, somewhere around 10-20.

Also, don’t take too much rest in-between sets.

How To Perform:

  • Keep Your Legs Straight And Lean Your Body Left Or Right, Depending On Which Side You’re Hitting.
  • Keep Your Hands Slightly In Front Of Your Body And Maintain A 45° Angle In Your Elbows.
  • Push The Weight With Your Elbows And Don’t Bring Them Above Shoulder Level.
  • Don’t Go Too Slow On This Exercise. Just Maintain A Normal Pace.

5) Parallel Bar Dips-

Finally, the last exercise on this push-day workout plan is triceps focused. The goal of this exercise is to hit all three heads of the triceps and make them strong.

One of the benefits of doing this exercise is it helps to increase strength on other upper body exercises like bench presses.

Aim to do 2-3 sets of this exercise. Keep the rep range somewhere between 8-15.


Also Read: 10 Most Searched Fitness Questions On The Internet, Answered


If you feel like you can do more, try doing weighted dips. Also, limit your rest time to 60-90 seconds.

How To Perform:

  • Grab The Bar/Handles And Get Your Body Up In The Air. Keep Your Body And Neck Straight.
  • Now, Tuck Your Elbows To Your Sides And Start Lowering Your Body Down Slowly.
  • When You’ve Reached The Bottom, Push Your Body Up With The Help Of Your Elbows.
  • Be Careful With This Lift. Don’t Go Below The Shoulder Level.

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