Push Day Routines for Muscle, Strength, & Fat Loss

Never play guessing games with your chest, shoulders, or triceps again

In this article:

• What is Push Day?

• Reasons to include a Push-focused day in your training routine

• Criteria for an effective Push Day

• Common Push Day exercise options

• Multiple sample Push Day routines

• Let’s hear from subscribers!

What is Push Day?

I swear, the most cared about exercise on the planet is the Barbell Bench Press. If you’ve never been asked ‘whaddya bench?’ then I don’t think you’ve ever actually talked training with anyone. And if you look at the nature of that exercise, it’s a push, which leads me into my definition of Push Day.

To me, Push Day is a training day that focuses on the muscles we use to press or push something away from our body.

These muscles include the pecs (chest muscles), front and medial delts (shoulder muscles), and the triceps (the muscles on the backsides of the upper arms). These three major areas of muscle are all used to push things away from our bodies, hence the term Push Day.

To give you a visual idea of what Push Day looks like, here are a few pictures of common applicable compound exercises:

Bench Press (Pecs, Front Delts, Triceps)

Incline Bench Press (Pecs, Front Delts, Triceps)

Barbell Overhead Press (Front/Medial Delts, Triceps)

Close Grip Bench Press (Pecs, Front Delts, Triceps)

The theme with all of the exercises above is the motion of holding a weight, bringing that weight toward the body, and then pushing it away from the body. This can be done through a variety of angles, as the pictures illustrate.

Push Day compound exercises are part of the equation, but isolation exercises also make up the most popular training day. Monday isn’t known as International Bench Day for nothin!

Isolation exercises take a single muscle group used during a compound exercise and work it exclusively. In the case of Push Day isolations, the targets are the pecs, front delts, medial delts, or the triceps. To give you a visual idea of what Push Day isolations look like, here are a few pictures:

Pec Deck Chest Flye (Pecs)

Triceps Pressdown w/ Rope Attachment (Triceps)

Dumbbell Front Raise (Front Delts)

Now that you’ve read my definition and seen what Push Day looks like, I want to go over why I feel it’s important to include this day in your training split.

Three Reasons Why Push Day is Important

Being Able to Do What You’re Supposed to Do

In reality, our upper bodies are designed to push things away or pull things toward us. This is why, when it comes to upper body training, you’ll commonly come across Push/Pull setups.

Pushing is 50% of what our upper bodies are designed to do.

This fact alone speaks to the importance of a Push Day for gaining upper body muscle and strength.

Strength Balance and Joint Integrity

Outside of the monstrous reason above, strength balance is hugely important when it comes to injury prevention. Strength imbalance between antagonist (opposing) muscle groups causes abnormal/uneven stress on joints and the inability of a joint to maintain its integrity during physical work.

This abnormal/uneven stress and loss of integrity leads to a higher potential for injury during everyday activities, as well as focused training.

An example of antagonist muscle groups is the biceps and triceps. The biceps are responsible for bending the elbow (think of a bicep curl), while the triceps are responsible for straightening the elbow (think of a tricep kickback). Both of these muscle groups cause movement at the same joint, but in opposing directions, which is why they’re antagonists.

Ensuring joint integrity is important for everyone, not just athletes. If you’re going to take part in strength/resistance training, make sure your program is balanced.

Including both pushing and pulling compound and isolation exercises in your routine, at even levels, is how you do it right. This is another great reason for including Push Day in your training split.

Aesthetics and Symmetry

My last reason for including Push Day in your regimen is for aesthetics and symmetry. You’ve seen the pictures of guys with huge upper bodies and skinny legs; I know you have. Well, it would be equally as strange if they had undeveloped upper bodies sitting on a pair of tree trunk legs.

They’d look like a pear and nobody wants to look like a pear.

So obviously, you’re not likely to skip an upper body day, but it’s important to note that balanced development throughout the entire upper body is what produces the ultimate physique, visually.

If you have a developed back, you need developed chest and shoulder muscles to match. Large biceps would look strange next to small triceps. Of course, you also need a pair of built shoulders to cap everything off. The pecs, front/medial delts, and triceps are obviously major parts of your upper body.

Slacking on Push Day or leaving it out the equation would be a major mistake in your quest for the body of your dreams. Aesthetically and symmetrically, Push Day is a necessity.

Criteria for an Effective Push Day

Now that I’ve shared a few good reasons for press training, let’s move on and get into the criteria for an amazing Push Day. There are many combinations for Push Day exercise selections, simply because there are multiple angles to work with and different grip variations to choose from. Not to mention the multitude of resistance options (barbells, dumbbells, machines, bodyweight).

The criteria below will cover the basics and you can evolve your Push Day as you wish, while keeping the criteria and your goals in mind. Also, I’ll be providing you with multiple sample Push Day routines later on in this article.

• Include a Chest-Focused compound exercise.

• Include a Shoulder-Focused compound exercise.

• Include a Triceps-Focused compound exercise

• Include a Chest isolation exercise.

• Include a Triceps isolation exercise.

• Include a Front/Medial Shoulder isolation exercise.

As you can see, this list of criteria covers the major muscle groups responsible for pushing. The Pecs, Shoulders, and Triceps are activated through multiple exercise types.

Exercise Options

I’ve listed the criteria for an effective Push Day and now I’d like to list out a handful of exercise options that satisfy each criteria point. This will give you multiple options, which is helpful in creating variety and maintaining mental engagement in your programming over time.

Chest-Focused Compound Press Exercise Options

• Flat, Incline, or Decline Barbell Bench Press

• Flat, Incline, or Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

• Flat, Incline, or Decline Machine Press

• Flat, Incline, or Decline Pushup

Shoulder-Focused Compound Press Exercise Options

• Seated or Standing Barbell Overhead Press

• Seated or Standing Dumbbell Overhead Press

• Seated or Standing Machine Overhead Press

• Handstand Pushup

Triceps-Focused Compound Press Exercise Options

• Close Grip Flat, Incline, or Decline Barbell Bench Press

• Close Grip Flat, Incline, or Decline Dumbbell Press

• Close Grip Flat, Incline, or Decline Machine Press

• Close Grip Flat, Incline, or Decline Pushup

• Dip or Bench Dip

Chest Isolation Exercise Options

• Flat, Incline, or Decline Dumbbell Chest Flye

• Cable Chest Flyes (Multiple Angles)

• Pec Deck

Front/Medial Shoulder Isolation Exercise Options

• Barbell, Dumbbell, or Cable Shoulder Front Raise

• Dumbbell, Machine, or Cable Lateral Shoulder Flye

• Barbell, Dumbbell, or Cable Upright Row

Triceps Isolation Exercise Options

• Cable Triceps Pressdown with Straight Bar, V Bar, or Rope Attachment

• Cable Overhead Triceps Extension w/ Straight Bar, V Bar, or Rope Attachment

• Barbell or Dumbbell Skullcrusher

• Triceps Extension Machine

• Dumbbell Triceps Kickback

Of course, there are more exercise options than I’ve listed above. But again, this article is meant to provide you with basic foundational principles and options for putting together a great Pull Day and you can let it naturally evolve over time.

When the time comes to introduce exercises that aren’t included in my lists, just make sure they fit the category you’re placing them in.

For example, replace a Triceps-focused compound exercise with another Triceps-focused compound exercise.

Do you have a Push Day exercise you like, but it’s not on my lists? Leave me a comment and I’ll give you my thoughts on where it fits into your routine.

Sample Push Day Routines

It’s great to read an article and come away with something you can put to use. These sample routines are meant to provide you with that ‘something.’ I’ll give you a handful of possible Push Day routines and you can pick one and stick with it or try them all over time.

My advice is to stick with each one for a solid 8-12 weeks to give yourself time to progress in all of the exercises, letting them work for you.

Note: When possible, follow the order of the exercises as they’re listed for each routine.

The Trifecta Routine

I call this routine The Trifecta because it makes use of all three angles of activating your press muscles.