Exercise
Diamond Push Up (On Knees)
How to Perform - Diamond Push Up (On Knees)
- Position yourself on your hands and knees with your hands placed directly beneath your shoulders and your knees hip-width apart.
- Bring your hands together to form a diamond shape with your thumbs and index fingers touching each other.
- Engage your core and maintain a straight line from your knees to your head, avoiding any sagging or arching in your lower back.
- Inhale as you slowly bend your elbows, keeping them close to your body rather than flaring outward.
- Lower your chest toward your hands until your elbows form approximately a 90-degree angle.
- Exhale as you push through your palms to straighten your arms, returning to the starting position.
- Squeeze your chest muscles at the top of the movement while maintaining the straight line from your knees to your head.
- Keep your neck in a neutral position throughout the exercise, avoiding the tendency to drop your head forward or look up excessively.
Important information
- Make sure your diamond hand position remains stable throughout the movement to effectively target your triceps and inner chest muscles.
- Keep your elbows tucked close to your ribcage rather than flaring out to the sides to protect your shoulders and maximize triceps engagement.
- If you feel wrist discomfort, try performing the exercise on your knuckles or with push-up handles to maintain a more neutral wrist position.
- Focus on quality over quantity, performing each repetition with proper form rather than rushing through the movement.
Primary Muscles
Muscle Groups
Mechanic
Risk Areas
Built for progress
Take the guesswork out of training
Create personalized AI-powered workout plans that evolve with you. Train smarter, track every rep, and keep moving forward, one workout at a time.
The Diamond Push Up (On Knees) offers beginners an excellent entry point into one of the most effective upper body exercises, particularly targeting the pecs and triceps. This modified version maintains the core benefits of standard diamond push-ups while reducing the load, making it accessible for those still developing upper body strength.
By positioning your hands close together in a diamond or triangle shape beneath your chest while supporting yourself on your knees rather than your toes, you create a more manageable leverage system that still effectively engages the target muscle groups. The closer hand position significantly increases triceps activation compared to traditional push-ups, making this a valuable addition to any bodybuilding routine focused on arm definition.
For beginners pursuing strength goals, this variation serves as an ideal progression step. The modified stance reduces the body weight load by approximately 30-40%, allowing you to master proper form while gradually building the necessary strength to advance to the full version. Research shows that consistent practice with proper form yields better results than struggling through more advanced variations with compromised technique.
The Diamond Push Up (On Knees) also shines in HIIT workouts, where it can be incorporated as a strength-building station that elevates heart rate while developing muscular endurance in the chest and arms. The exercise's scalability makes it particularly valuable in circuit training, where you can adjust repetition ranges to suit your current fitness level.
As your strength improves, you'll notice enhanced definition along the inner chest and the lateral head of your triceps – areas that respond particularly well to this movement pattern. This targeted engagement makes the exercise especially valuable for bodybuilders seeking balanced development across all aspects of these muscle groups, creating that coveted separation between chest and arm musculature that signifies a well-designed training program.
FAQ - Diamond Push Up (On Knees)
This exercise primarily targets the triceps (especially the lateral head) and the inner portion of the chest muscles. It also engages the anterior deltoids and core muscles as stabilizers during the movement.
Position your hands in a diamond shape directly under your chest, keep your elbows close to your body during the movement, and maintain a straight line from your knees to your head. Lower until your chest nearly touches your hands, then push back up while maintaining core tension throughout.
Start by increasing your rep count with perfect form on the knee version until you can perform 15-20 repetitions comfortably. Then practice an elevated standard diamond push-up (hands on a bench), gradually lowering the height of the surface until you can perform the exercise from the floor.
Include this exercise 2-3 times weekly with at least 48 hours between sessions to allow for proper muscle recovery. For beginners, aim for 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions; as you build strength, you can increase volume before progressing to more challenging variations.
Avoid bending your elbows to compensate for limited shoulder mobility, as this negates the stretching benefits. Don't rush through repetitions or use momentum—move slowly and deliberately. Also, never force the movement beyond the point of mild discomfort, as this could lead to shoulder strain.
