How Mike Tyson Pushups Builds Incredible Upper Body Strength

By
Terry Ramos
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push up

Mike Tyson pushups combine the downward dog pose with pushups. 

Pushups are a cornerstone exercise for enhancing muscle mass and strength. Research indicates that integrating pushups into your workout routine can significantly lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases, extending your health span (1). Mike Tyson pushups — coined after the legendary heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson — introduce a dynamic variation to the classic pushup, engaging the body in a comprehensive movement. This exercise, a hybrid of the downward dog pose and traditional pushups, effectively targets upper and lower body muscles for balanced strength development.

This guide offers an in-depth examination of Mike Tyson pushups, spotlighting the primary advantages and muscle groups engaged by this exercise. It provides a meticulous, step-by-step tutorial to ensure the exercise is performed with the correct technique. Moreover, the article suggests alternative exercises to diversify your training regimen and achieve similar muscle development. Let’s dive into the details.

Techniques & Muscles Worked

Mike Tyson pushups are compound exercises that target the following muscle groups throughout the body:

The Mike Tyson pushup is difficult, but it can give you loads of muscle and strength gains when mastered. It combines a regular pushup with a horizontal squat for the lower body, making it an effective two-in-one exercise. This exercise is excellent for working your trap muscles, often neglected when performing regular exercises. Depending on your training preference, you can also do this exercise in a standing or default pushup position.

Mike Tyson pushups are bodyweight exercises that require no equipment. This offers you the convenience of performing this exercise anywhere and anytime, as long as you have adequate floor space and a sturdy vertical surface (a wall). However, you can use resistance bands or a weighted vest for experts looking for extra gains.

It’s an effective exercise you can use to tweak your training goals. This exercise offers everything, whether your target is hypertrophy, endurance, or strength. Keeping your core and lower back engaged is essential when doing this exercise. This helps you with your form and reduces the chances of injuries. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to do Mike Tyson pushups. 

  1. Place your feet against the wall with your heels and toes touching the floor.
  2. Lie flat on the floor, assume the traditional pushup position, and brace your core muscles. This is your starting position.
  3. Next, bend your knee and hinge your hips slowly into a squat position as deep as possible, keeping your arms fully extended. Stay in this position for one to two seconds.
  4. Push explosively through your feet and extend your hips and knees as you return to the starting position.
  5. Finally, lower your chest to the floor for a pushup to complete a rep. 
  6. Do as many reps as you desire. 

Benefits

Mike Tyson pushups are calisthenics exercises that work multiple muscle groups, firing every part of your body. They also offer the benefit of a two-in-one movement for just one fluid motion. Here are the benefits of this exercise.

Builds the Upper & Lower Body Muscle Groups

The Mike Tyson pushup is a full-body routine that works not just your upper body muscles like traditional pushups but your lower body, too. This exercise helps build your strength and endurance and improves coordination. It also builds explosive power in your calves, hamstrings, and quads. Equally, it helps strengthen your shoulders and arms, making mobility easier.

Better Range of Motion

This compound exercise works the joints of your lower and upper body by causing full flexion and extension of your joints. By fully stretching your back and arms during the squat, you improve the movement of your shoulders. Likewise, the deeper you squat, the better your knees, hips, and ankle mobility, improving your range of motion.

Activates Core Muscles

Mike Tyson pushups require a lot of stability to execute. As you balance throughout the fluid movement, your core muscles and lower back are engaged. This builds and strengthens them, leading to better form for other exercises. A strong core also helps with better posture and equal load distribution and reduces the chances of injuries, especially when exercising.

Burns Calories

Mike Tyson pushups are high-intensity exercises that work the entire body. Because the core muscles are engaged throughout the movement, they’re also effective for burning belly fat. Combined with eating right, this workout burns ample calories, leading to weight loss. 

Mike Tyson Pushups Alternatives

The Mike Tyson pushup will test your upper and lower body muscle groups and is an effective way to increase the intensity of your workouts in just a short amount of time. However, experts have advised that incorporating other exercises to build similar muscles can prevent a training plateau (2). Here is a list of alternative exercises to enhance your training regimen.

Mountain Climber

The mountain climber is a core bodyweight exercise that engages your arms, back, and deltoids. It also targets the glutes and hamstrings in the lower body. Mountain climbers are a calisthenics move you can do anywhere with adequate floor space.

Full Snatch

The full snatch is a weightlifting exercise that uses a barbell to work multiple muscle groups. It’s popular within the CrossFit and Olympic weightlifter communities. This exercise can improve your coordination and conditioning while targeting upper and lower body muscles, like Mike Tyson’s pushups.

Overhead Squat

The overhead squat is a variation that targets your arms, shoulders, posterior chain, and core muscles. It can be challenging to execute because you have to balance a barbell overhead while trying to assume a squat position. However, this helps improve mobility and stability while strengthening the target muscles. 

FAQs

Are Mike Tyson pushups effective?

Yes, Mike Tyson pushups are effective. They build multiple muscle groups, including the chest, triceps, deltoids (posterior and anterior delts), traps, abs, obliques, and posterior chain muscles. This push-up variation also improves the range of motion in your hips, knees, and shoulder joints. 

How many pushups did Mike Tyson do?

Mike Tyson did as many as 500 hundred pushup reps daily during his calisthenics training routines. His training also included a colossal rep number of bench dips, sit-ups, and bodyweight squats. 

Who invented the Mike Tyson pushup?

Although it’s named “Mike Tyson pushups,” Dr. Leonard Schwartz, considered a Renaissance man, invented this calisthenics exercise. He had interests in music and painting and was an author who also focused the last years of his life on health and fitness.

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References

  1. Yang, J., Christophi, C. A., Farioli, A., Baur, D. M., Moffatt, S., Zollinger, T. W., & Kales, S. N. (2019). Association Between Push-up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men. JAMA network open, 2(2), e188341. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.8341
  2. Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897 
Terry Ramos
Terry Ramos
https://terrys-training.ck.page/b777772623
As a personal trainer and writer, Terry loves changing lives through coaching and the written word. Terry has a B.S. in Kinesiology and is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and ISSA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. He enjoys playing music, reading, and watching films when he's not writing or training.