Incline Push-Up Close-Grip

How to perform

1. 01Stand facing a Smith machine bar or sturdy elevated platform at an appropriate height.
2. 02Place your hands next to one another on the bar.
3. 03Position your feet back from the bar with arms and body straight. This will be your starting position.
4. 04Keeping your body straight, lower your chest to the bar by bending the arms.
5. 05Return to the starting position by extending the elbows, pressing yourself back up.

Form cues

• —Brace your core before the first rep and keep it braced.
• —Drive through the full range — do not cut the lockout short.
• —Control the lowering phase — that is where most of the growth stimulus lives.

Common mistakes

• —Using momentum instead of the target muscle.
• —Cutting the range of motion short to add load.
• —Adding weight before the movement pattern is clean.