Knee Close-Grip Push-Up

Knee close-grip push-ups provide a twist on this classic exercise that allows beginners to target their triceps better. The narrower grip emphasizes the triceps muscles more than traditional push-ups. Additionally, going from the knees makes the movement easier, making this part of some great tricep workouts for beginners.

Beyond targeting the triceps, knee close-grip push-ups have the usual benefits of traditional push-ups. This movement can be done anywhere and strengthens the chest, core, and shoulders.

Read on to learn how to do knee close-grip push-ups and incorporate them into your training plan.

How To Do

  1. Start in a kneeling plank position with your hands slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart and your arms fully extended.
  2. Keep your core engaged and a neutral spine (to avoid letting your hips sag) throughout the movement. Maintain a straight line from your knees through your head.
  3. Inhale while in the starting position.
  4. Exhale as you lower your body towards the ground, bending your elbows as you descend. Be sure to keep your elbows close to your body.
  5. Lower yourself as low as you can comfortably go without your chest hitting the ground.
  6. Briefly pause at the bottom of the movement.
  7. Exhale as you straighten your arms to push yourself up to the starting position. Keep your elbows close to your body as you push upward.
  8. Repeat for the desired number of reps in your set.

Tips From Expert

  • Keep your hands close together, directly beneath your chest, to emphasize triceps engagement.
  • Avoid letting your elbows flare out; keep them close to your body to prevent shoulder strain.
  • Keep your core engaged and maintain a straight line from your head to your knees to avoid arching your back.
  • Lower yourself with control, focusing on bringing your chest close to the ground without collapsing or losing form.

Optimal Sets and Reps

The table below outlines general volume recommendations for different training goals. As a body weight exercise, this may target strength or endurance more depending on how difficult it is for you.

Training Type Sets Reps
Strength Training 4–6 1–6
Hypertrophy 3–4 8–12
Endurance Training 2–3 12+
Power Training 3–5 1–5 (Explosive)
Optimal Sets & Reps of Knee Close-Grip Push-Up

How to Put in Your Workout Split

The close-grip knee push-up is an accessible, efficient compound movement that can be integrated into many workout programs. It is especially useful during upper-body and chest-focused workouts.

  • Chest And Triceps — Close-grip knee push-ups target the chest and upper arms, as in a traditional push-up. They can build upper-body strength and endurance. Add this exercise to a chest and tricep split with dips and bench presses.
  • Full-Body Bodyweight — The aim is to improve muscle balance and functional strength with more repetitions and less resistance. Program it along with other bodyweight moves like squats, lunges, and planks for a balanced routine.
  • Push-Day — In this split, we follow the training approach of separating pushing and pulling movements to different days. The close-grip knee push-up is a great way for beginners to try this routine. Perform them as a primary exercise or finisher after other push movements, like bench presses.

Primary Muscle Groups

Triceps Lateral Heads

Muscles located on the back of your arm between your shoulder and elbow.

Triceps Medial Heads

Small muscles located at the back of your arms. Deep to the triceps long heads between the shoulder and elbow.

Triceps Long Heads

Large muscles located at the back of your arms between your shoulder and elbow. Most outside portion of the tricep.

Triceps Lateral Heads

The triceps brachii is a muscle group on the back of the upper arm that primarily extends (straightens) the elbow.

The triceps consists of three heads — the lateral head, the medial head, and the long head. The lateral head starts at the top of the upper arm bone (the humerus). It then attaches to the elbow through the same tendon as the other two heads.

One study found the triceps are 16.5% more activated with a narrow-grip push-up than a traditional push-up. The lateral heads of the triceps are considered the strongest of the triceps, thus being particularly important in this movement.

Triceps Medial Heads

Like the other triceps, the triceps medial head extends the elbow. The triceps medial heads are also on the back of the upper arm, beneath the lateral and long heads. During a knee close-grip push-up, the triceps medial heads stabilize and extend the elbow.

Research has shown that the medial head is more involved when the arm is at or above shoulder height. During this exercise, the shoulder stays at 90 degrees or below. Thus, the middle portion of the triceps is active, although less than the other heads in the close-grip push-up.

Triceps Long Heads

The triceps long head is the largest of the triceps and is located along the inside of the upper arm. Unlike the other two triceps, the long head crosses the shoulder joint. This adds shoulder stabilization to its functions, along with elbow extension like the other two heads.

Secondary Muscle Groups

Clavicular Head of Pectoralis Major

Muscles located at the top of your chest, running from your armpit to collar bone. Smaller portion of your chest muscle.

Sternal Head of Pectoralis Major

Large muscles located underneath your clavicle head. Makes up most of your chest area

Abdominal Head of Pectoralis Major

Muscles located at the bottom of your pectoral region, just above your abdominal muscles.

Erector Spinae

Muscles that span the entire length of your spine on either side.

Upper Rectus Abdominis

Muscles located just below the lower chest and above the lower abdominals. Between your ribs and pubic bone.

Lower Rectus Abdominis

Muscles located below your upper abs and above your public bone between your ribs.

Obliques

Muscles located on the sides of your rectus abdominals. Runs on the sides of your trunk.

Wrist Flexors

Muscles that span the inside of your lower arm, between your elbow and wrist palm side up.

Wrist Extensors

Muscles that make up the back portion of your lower arm, between your elbow and wrist.

Anterior Deltoid

Muscles located at the front of your shoulder region

Pectoralis Major

The pectoralis major is key in any upper-body push movement like a bench press or a punch. The pecs work to straighten your arms to push your body back up from the bottom of the knee close-grip push-up.

It is a large, powerful muscle group on the chest consisting of three heads: clavicular, sternal, and abdominal. Similar to the triceps, the pectoralis major is 15.0% more activated in narrow grip push-ups than in traditional push-ups.

Anterior Deltoid

The anterior deltoid raises your arm, is utilized in pushing actions, and is located on the front of the shoulder. During a knee close-grip push-up, this muscle assists the pectoralis major in lowering the body and pushing it back up. The anterior deltoid also helps stabilize the shoulder.

Upper And Lower Rectus Abdominis

The rectus abdominis, commonly known as the abs and six-pack muscles, is important for core stability throughout this movement. In a normal push-up, the activation rate is 23.85% for the rectus abdominis. The lower rectus abdominis, in particular, stabilizes your hips during any push-up movement.

Push-ups can be a great way to work your abs often while also targeting other muscles.

Obliques

The obliques, commonly known as the side abs, are important for core stability and strength, in addition to torso rotation. The external and internal obliques are located along each side of your torso.

The oblique muscles stabilize the core during a knee close-grip push-up. These can be considered oblique exercises.

Erector Spinae

The erector spinae goes along the length of the back and flexes the spine while maintaining a proper, erect posture. There are three erector spinae groups: the spinalis, longissimus, and iliocostalis. During a knee close-grip push-up, the erector spinae work together to maintain a good athletic posture.

Wrist Flexors And Extensors

The wrist flexors and extensors are on either side of the forearm and flex and extend the wrist. These two muscle groups work to stabilize the wrists and keep the hands in a stable position throughout the movement.

Equipment

Bodyweight

Bodyweight

Requires bodyweight resistance and additional equipment for proper execution.;

Variations

Exercises that target the same primary muscle groups and require the same equipment.

Diamond Push-Up

Overhead Triceps Stretch

Chair Tricep Dip

Close-Grip Push-Up

Crab Walk

Knee Diamond Push-Up

Side Lying Tricep Press

Tricep Dip On Bench

Forearm Push-Up

Wall Tricep Press

Alternatives

Exercises that target the same primary muscle groups and require the different equipment.

Ez Bar Lying Triceps Extension

Triceps Dip

Barbell Lying Triceps Extension

Dumbbell Skull Crusher

Cable Reverse Grip Tricep Pushdown

Ring Dip

Cable Tricep Pushdown

Overhead Cable Tricep Extension

Rope Tricep Extension

Dumbbell Close-Grip Press

Who Should Do?

Beginners

Push-ups are a classic exercise as they target most muscles involved in upper-body and core workouts. Doing knee push-ups provides more support for the lower back, helping beginners improve their strength, endurance, and form. As beginners increase strength and improve form they can shift to doing push-ups from their feet. 

Knee close-grip push-ups are also useful for beginners as they often lack access to weight rooms. These require only body weight and can be performed anywhere, even without equipment or a proper facility.

Individuals Targeting Specific Muscles

Push-ups are a fantastic upper-body strength movement with several variations that emphasize certain muscles more than others. The narrower grip of this movement puts more emphasis on the triceps, biceps, pectoralis minor, pectoralis major, and infraspinatus. 

The pecs, biceps, and triceps are common locations for individuals to want to add muscle mass. The knee close-grip push-up can be great for beginners to target these muscles. More advanced individuals should consider doing these from their feet. 

Who Should Not Do?

Individuals With Joint Issues

As a compound movement, the knee close-grip push-up utilizes several joints. If an individual has upper body joint injuries they should consult a physical therapist before proceeding with this exercise. 

Notably, the shoulders, wrists, lower back and elbows can be problem areas for this movement. Knee close-grip push-ups could exacerbate rotator cuff injuries, tendonitis, sprains, strains, and other upper body ailments. 

Advanced Athletes

Athletes with sufficient strength and endurance should steer clear of this exercise in favor of more challenging movements. While knee close-grip push-ups won’t put healthy people at risk, their time is better spent doing this from their feet. 

If you can easily do dozens of repetitions of this movement it won’t help you improve strength. Doing these from your feet or with a weight on your back will increase the load. 

This exercise will adequately challenge some, but not all athletes. Be sure to choose the right push-up variation and load for you. 

Benefits Of The Exercise

Easier Version Of The Close-Grip Push-Up

The knee close-grip push-up is a beneficial exercise for beginner athletes to develop a proper technique for the traditional push-up. Beginners should focus on perfecting their form to execute movements safely to minimize injury risk. 

For most newcomers to training, this exercise will be sufficient to provide a progressive overload. As you gain strength and endurance you can add repetitions to continue to challenge yourself with progressively greater training loads.

This push-up variation is an easy-to-implement option for new strength athletes, effectively targeting most muscles used in strength workouts. It is gentler on the lower back to help reduce injury potential. As you increase in strength and improve form, you can progress to the traditional close-grip push-up to further maximize results.

Improves Muscular Endurance

One study found traditional push-ups enhance muscular endurance allowing you to perform pushing tasks for longer periods without fatigue. The same is likely true for close-grip push-ups since it is a very similar movement. By doing this movement from your knees you can better target muscular endurance by being able to do more repetitions. 

This type of training increases the stamina of your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Consistently doing push-ups not only improves athletic performance in sports like wrestling and football but also benefits everyday activities. Enhanced upper body endurance supports tasks like working construction and putting objects onto shelves. 

Improves Posture

The knee close-grip push-up improves posture by increasing spinal stability via strengthening the upper-back muscles. This movement uses the shoulder and back muscles to maintain a neutral spine and postural alignment. 

One study found postural improvements with calisthenics exercises. These are bodyweight exercises, such as the knee close-grip push-up. By engaging and strengthening the muscles surrounding the vertebral column (spine) this exercise also improves spinal stability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are knee push-ups still good?

Knee push-ups provide more value than traditional push-ups for beginners who struggle with maintaining proper push-up form. They are also valuable for people who want to do more repetitions to target muscular endurance.

How often can I do the knee close-grip push-up?

Take some rest days. Recovery is when the body adapts to training and gets stronger. The physical adaptations in our muscles and tendons take time and only occur during recovery.

How many reps should I do for the knee close-grip push-up?

It depends on your experience and goals. Beginners should ease into the volume slowly. More reps will target endurance and fewer reps will emphasize strength. Consult the table in this article for more specific recommendations.

Who should not do the knee close-grip push-up?

Folks who are injured or recovering from injury should be cautious with this exercise. This is particularly true with upper body injuries. Additionally, advanced athletes should consider doing normal push-ups instead of knee close-grip push-ups to sufficiently challenge themselves.

Resources

Endomondo.com refrains from utilizing tertiary references. We uphold stringent sourcing criteria and depend on peer-reviewed studies and academic research conducted by medical associations and institutions. For more detailed insights, you can explore further by reading our editorial process.

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