A push-up that hammers the back of your arms instead of your chest.
Elbows brush your sides the whole way. Flared elbows steal the work from your triceps.
Bringing the hands close and dragging the elbows down your ribs turns an ordinary push-up into an elbow-extension exercise, the triceps have to straighten the arm against most of your bodyweight every rep. The chest and shoulders still assist, they cannot not, but the narrow, tucked position hands the triceps the biggest share. It earns its place as the go-to bodyweight arm builder, and a natural progression once standard push-ups stop being hard.
Cousins in the same family. The diamond forces the hands together into a triangle, the tricep push-up keeps hands shoulder-distance or slightly closer with elbows brushing the ribs. Both bias the triceps, the tricep push-up is usually kinder on the wrists.
The tucked, narrow position takes leverage away from your chest and makes the smaller triceps do work the pecs normally handle. Fewer reps than your regular push-up is expected. Elevate your hands on a bench to build up if the floor version breaks down early.
Slow the descent to three seconds, pause just off the floor, or elevate your feet. When those get easy, added load like a backpack is the next step, but strict tempo alone humbles most people first.
