Clap Push-Up
What Is the Clap Push-Up?
Clap Push-Up is a compound exercise that primarily targets the chest and also engages the triceps, front shoulders and core. It is an advanced-level movement in which you press out of the bottom of a push-up hard enough to lift your hands off the floor, clap once in front of your chest and catch yourself before the next rep. Because the upper body leaves the ground and has to be caught on the way down, it is a plyometric exercise rather than a plain strength one.
The point of the clap push-up is upper-body power, the ability to produce force quickly, rather than the slower strength a regular Push-Up builds. The quick drop into each landing stretches the chest and triceps under load right before the next press, training them to turn that stretch into a fast push. That makes it popular with athletes in combat and contact sports and with anyone who wants more pop in their pressing, and it is usually done early in a session for short, crisp sets while you are fresh.
It also doubles as a readiness check. The NSCA's personal-training guidelines list five clap push-ups in a row as one way to show a client has the upper-body strength for more demanding plyometric work. Among plyometric push-ups it sits toward the hard end: a study of 22 active men found the clap push-up built force faster on both the landing and the push-off than drop push-ups from boxes up to 11.4 cm high.
The chest does most of the pushing, the triceps snap the elbows straight and then control the landing, and the front of the shoulders assists throughout. A narrower hand position shifts more of the work to the triceps, while the core has to hold the body rigid so none of the force leaks through sagging hips. Before trying it, build up to a solid set of about 20 strict push-ups, then practice explosive push-ups where the hands leave the floor without a clap. If those are still too hard, explosive reps from an Incline Push-Up or Kneeling Push-Up position train the same fast push with less load, and the Medicine Ball Wall Chest Pass trains it with no landing on the hands at all.
Muscles Worked
- Pectoralis Major
- Primary
- Deltoid
- High
- Rectus Abdominis
- Medium
- Serratus Anterior
- Medium
- Gluteus Maximus
- Minimal
Instructions
- Start in a high plank with your hands on the floor slightly wider than shoulder width, fingers pointing forward, arms straight and feet together on your toes.
- Brace your core and squeeze your glutes so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
- Lower your chest toward the floor with your elbows angled back about 45 degrees from your sides until your chest is just above the floor.
- Without pausing, push into the floor as hard and fast as you can so your hands leave the ground, keeping your body straight and your toes on the floor.
- While your upper body is in the air, bring your hands together for one quick clap in front of your chest.
- Return your hands to the starting width before you come down.
- Land on your palms with your elbows slightly bent and let them keep bending to absorb the landing as your chest lowers.
- Flow straight from the landing into the next rep, or reset in the plank first if you need to, exhaling on every push.
Common Mistakes
Landing with locked elbows
Catching yourself on straight arms sends the impact into the wrists and elbows instead of letting the chest and triceps absorb it.
Sagging or piking hips
Letting the midsection drop or the hips rise breaks the rigid plank, leaks force from the push and strains the lower back.
Clapping without enough height
Forcing a clap when your hands barely leave the floor leaves no time to get them back, which means you need more clapless explosive push-ups first.
Slow or wide clap
A big clap far from the body wastes airtime, so keep it quick and close in front of your chest.
Flaring the elbows
Pressing with the elbows out at right angles to the body loads the front of the shoulder and makes the landing less stable.
Grinding out tired reps
Continuing once each rep gets lower and slower turns a power drill into sloppy conditioning with a higher chance of a bad landing.
Injuries
Clap Push-Up is a medium risk exercise when performed with proper technique. The main strain points are the wrists, which take the landing while bent back, the elbows and triceps tendon, which brake the drop, and the front of the shoulders. The risk a regular push-up does not have is the catch itself: a late or uneven landing, or a clap that leaves no time to get the hands back, can drop the chest or face toward the floor.
Warm up the wrists and shoulders first and work on a firm, non-slip surface. Land with your hands back at their starting width and your elbows already slightly bent, so the chest and triceps absorb the impact rather than the joints. Keep sets short and rest fully between them, and end the set as soon as your reps get lower or your landings get louder.
If you cannot get enough height to clap and still land in control, regress to explosive push-ups without the clap, explosive reps with your hands on a bench or box, or an explosive Incline Push-Up or Kneeling Push-Up. Once single claps are easy and controlled, progressions include a double clap or a clap behind the back, but add height before you add complexity.
Stop if you feel sharp wrist pain, pain at the back of the elbow or sudden triceps weakness, or a pinch in the front of the shoulder. Anyone with a recent wrist, elbow or shoulder injury should stick with controlled pushing work like the Push-Up until the joint tolerates impact again.
- Primary Focus
- Chest
- Equipment
- Body weight
- Modality
- Plyometrics
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Alternative Exercises
Other Names for the Clap Push-Up
The Clap Push-Up is also known as:
- Clapping Push-Up
Frequently Asked Questions
- Q: How many push-ups should I be able to do before trying clap push-ups?
Coaching advice varies, but a set of about 20 strict push-ups with a rigid body is a common benchmark. After that, practice explosive push-ups where your hands leave the floor without a clap until you can get several inches of air and land softly.
- Q: What is the difference between a clap push-up and a plyo push-up?
Plyo push-up is the umbrella term for any push-up where the hands leave the floor. The clap push-up is one version of it, and the clap demands more height and quicker hands than simply lifting off and landing.
- Q: How many sets and reps of clap push-ups should I do?
Treat them as power work: 3 to 5 sets of 3 to 6 fast reps with about 2 minutes of rest between sets works well for most people. Do them early in the workout after a warm-up, and stop each set once your height drops.
- Q: Do clap push-ups build chest size?
Only a little, because the sets are short and the goal is speed rather than time under tension. For chest growth, higher-rep Push-Up sets and loaded presses like the Dumbbell Bench Press do more, with clap push-ups added for power.
- Q: Can I do clap push-ups from my knees?
Yes, an explosive push-up from a Kneeling Push-Up position with a clap cuts the load and the landing force. Pushing explosively off a bench or box with your hands elevated is another way to scale it down.