Push-Up

The push-up is the most accessible pressing exercise there is and can be done anywhere. With sensible progression it builds impressive chest and triceps strength without equipment.

Muscles worked

The push-up gets dismissed as a beginner exercise, which misreads it. It is a closed-chain movement — your hands are fixed and your body moves — so the shoulder blades are free to travel naturally, something the bench press does not allow. That makes it easier on the shoulders, and with the right progressions it stays hard indefinitely.

Technique

1. 1Hands just outside shoulder width, fingers pointing forward
2. 2Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels — do not pike your hips
3. 3Lower your chest to the floor, elbows about 45° from your body
4. 4Brace your core and squeeze your glutes for the whole set
5. 5Progressions: extend one leg, add weight on your back, or use rings

Common mistakes

• Hips sagging or piking up

  Fix: Squeeze the glutes and brace the abs so the body forms one line. A sagging push-up loads the lower back and shortens the range.

• Flaring the elbows straight out to 90°

  Fix: Keep them around 45° from the torso — the same rule as the bench press, and for the same shoulder reason.

• Only lowering halfway

  Fix: The chest should nearly touch the floor. Half push-ups are the most common way people plateau at high rep counts without getting stronger.

• Doing endless easy reps instead of progressing

  Fix: Past about 20 clean reps you are training endurance. Move to feet-elevated, weighted, or single-arm progressions.

Sets and reps

How to progress

Once 3×20 is comfortable, stop adding reps. Elevate the feet, add a weight vest or a plate on the back, slow the tempo to a three-second lowering, or progress toward archer and one-arm variants. Push-ups also make an excellent high-volume finisher after pressing.

Variations

• Feet-elevated push-up

  Raising the feet shifts load toward the upper chest and increases the percentage of bodyweight lifted.

• Deficit push-up

  Hands on blocks or dumbbells lets the chest travel below the hands for a deeper stretch.

• Archer push-up

  Shifting weight onto one arm — the practical stepping stone toward a one-arm push-up.

Frequently asked questions