Push Day Workout - Exercise examples & progression tips

A push day workout focuses on all movements where you push the weight away from your body. This means you train your chest, shoulders, and triceps. By combining these muscles in one workout, you get better recovery, clearer progression, and an effective structure to your training program.

Push Day Workout Exercises

Bench Press

Muscles worked. Chest, front deltoids, triceps.
Technique tips. Retract your shoulder blades, keep your feet firmly planted, and lower the bar with control.
Why it’s good. One of the best compound exercises for upper body strength.
Sets & reps. 4 sets × 5–8 reps

Incline Dumbbell Press

Muscles worked. Upper chest, shoulders, triceps.
Technique tips. Move the dumbbells in a slight arc and avoid letting the elbows flare too far out to the sides.
Why it’s good. Builds the upper chest for a more balanced and defined chest shape.
Sets & reps. 3–4 sets × 8–12 reps

Shoulder Press

Muscles worked. Front and middle deltoids, triceps.
Technique tips. Press straight upward, avoid overarching the lower back, and keep your core engaged.
Why it’s good. Builds strong and stable shoulders.
Sets & reps. 3–4 sets × 8–10 reps

Push Ups

Muscles worked. Chest, shoulders, triceps, core stability.
Technique tips. Keep a straight line from head to heels and use a full range of motion.
Why it’s good. Highly versatile and can be adapted for all fitness levels.
Sets & reps. 3 sets × 12–20 reps (or 1–2 reps from failure)

Triceps Pushdowns

Muscles worked. All three heads of the triceps.
Technique tips. Keep the elbows still, press all the way down, and add a brief pause at the bottom.
Why it’s good. Isolates the triceps and improves strength in all pressing movements.
Sets & reps. 3 sets × 12–15 reps

Chest Press Machine

Muscles worked. Chest and triceps.
Technique tips. Adjust the seat so the handles are chest-height and maintain a steady, controlled tempo.
Why it’s good. Ideal for beginners or for adding high-volume work at the end of the session.
Sets & reps. 3 sets × 10–15 reps

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Benefits of push exercises

There are many benefits with push exercises in your workout routine - here are a few of them:

  • Clearer progression in pressing movements - Since you work similar movement patterns in the same session, you can progress more effectively in weight, reps, or intensity.

  • Better weekly training balance - Push, pull, and leg training creates a structured split, making it easy to avoid overtraining specific muscle groups.

  • Easy to tailor to your goals - If you want to build your chest, you include more chest-focused exercises. If you want to build shoulders, you increase shoulder presses and isolation movements.

  • Effective for muscle growth -The muscles trained on a push day respond well to high volume. The session is ideal for hypertrophy because you can combine heavy compound lifts with isolation exercises.


  • Enhanced functional strength - Pressing movements are used often in daily life, for example when pushing, lifting overhead, or carrying things. A push day session strengthens these everyday actions.

How do you structure a good push day workout?

How many exercises are good to do during a push day workout?

- 5–7 exercises per session provide a good balance of volume, quality, and recovery. Adjust based on your training level.


Recommended Structure for a Push Day Workout


- Exercise 1. Heavy press (for example bench press or overhead press)

- Exercise 2. Secondary press (incline press, dumbbell press)

- Exercise 3. Shoulder-focused exercise

- Exercise 4. Triceps isolation exercise

- Exercise 5–6. Chest or shoulder isolation exercises depending on your focus

So in the workout example in this article, you get:


- 2 heavy compound lifts (bench press and incline dumbbell press)

- 1 heavy shoulder press

- 1 bodyweight exercise for extra volume and variation

- 1 triceps isolation exercise

- 1 machine exercise as a finisher for controlled chest volume


Complement your push days with pull days. Check out our Pull Day Workout for more inspiration.

Week by week progression

A great tip to get stronger is to Use a Reps-in-Reserve (RIR) Model.

This means you don’t train to failure on every set. Instead, you stop with 1–2 reps left in the tank. This makes progression easier to track and reduces injury risk. It's also important that you can perform the exercises with good form before you add more weight to them.

• Heavy compound lifts (bench press). RIR 1–2
• Secondary presses (incline dumbbell press, shoulder press). RIR 1–2
• Isolation exercises. RIR 0–1

This is how the progression cycle can look like:

  • Week 1. Start – choose weights that feel moderately challenging (RIR 1–2).

  • Week 2. Increase the weight slightly on bench press, incline dumbbell press and shoulder press. For isolation exercises go for an increase of 1-2 reps.

  • Week 3. Keep the weight, increase reps with +2,5-5% on main lifts and 1-2 reps or one machine step up for isolation exercises.

  • Week 4. Increase the weight again, with +2,5-5% on main lifts and 1-2 reps or one machine step up for isolation exercises.

  • Week 5. Deload which means that you cut the weights in half or do half the usual training volume and instead focus on flawless technique. This you do to avoid plateaus in your workouts.

  • Week 6. New cycle based on Week 4’s working weights

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