The challenge of building serious muscle and strength with at-home, no-equipment bodyweight workouts is this: How do you create challenge once your muscles have gotten comfortable moving your bodyweight? And there are two solutions. First off, you can increase the unilateral challenge, essentially asking only one side of your body to do the lifting (and, in a roundabout way, doubling the load your body has to lift). The other option: Using tempos and partial reps to help fatigue your muscles.
Or, you can blast your chest by combining both approaches, which is what Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., has you doing in this bodyweight chest blast move. The pulse post pushup dropset is a move designed to push major chest growth, even though all you’re using is your bodyweight. “We are only using bodyweight here,” says Samuel, “but we’re using it in a way that’s challenging just one side of your pushing muscles to essentially lift the entire load.”
It’s a stiff challenge, and it’s blended into a dropset that forces precision. It does this with no equipment and no gear, making it a perfect at-home workout solution. Samuel introduced you to the post pushup several months ago, and it’s a challenging move that’s just a few steps from a one-arm pushup. “We’re adding to that here,” says Samuel, “forcing greater focus and execution of the pushup.”
The addition is a pulse at the bottom of the first 6 to 8 reps that you do, and it seems small, but remember: You’re already executing a challenging move. “Now you need to hold your form longer,” says Samuel. “You also need more overall body control.”
And after you’re done with that, you still have to push through a few more reps. “By adding mechanical dropset work, we’re pushing your chest that much farther,” Samuel says. The best part: You don’t need any equipment or gear, and you can do this at home. You only need a post you can grab.
The pulse post pushup dropset is a perfect way to build chest muscle at home, with no equipment. It’s your lead exercise at home, says Samuel, in a full-body workout or chest blast. And it can be more than that, too. “If you’re doing a hardcore chest lift,” says Samuel, “let this be your finishing move. It’ll crush you.”
For more tips and routines from Samuel, check out our full slate of Eb and Swole workouts. If you want to try an even more dedicated routine, consider Eb’s New Rules of Muscle program.
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