Exercise library
Push-Up
The plank-first setup that makes push-ups work, elbow angle that protects the shoulder, and progressions in both directions when they are too easy or too hard.
How to do the push-up
- 01Set your hands slightly wider than your shoulders, roughly under your collarbone rather than under your face.
- 02Extend your legs and build a plank: glutes squeezed, ribs down, a straight line from ear to ankle.
- 03Lower with your elbows at about 45 degrees from your torso until your chest is an inch off the floor.
- 04Keep the line — hips do not sag, and they do not pike upward.
- 05Press back up and, at the top, push the floor away so your shoulder blades spread apart.
Coaching cues
- Squeeze your glutes. It is the fastest fix for a sagging lower back.
- Screw your hands into the floor to create external rotation and stable shoulders.
- Full lockout at the top with the shoulder blades protracted — that part trains the serratus.
Common mistakes
FaultHips sagging toward the floor
FixSqueeze the glutes and brace before you lower. A push-up is a moving plank; if the plank fails, the push-up is not doing its job.
FaultElbows flared to 90 degrees
FixTuck to about 45. Full flare puts the shoulder at end-range internal rotation under load, which is the same problem the bench press has.
FaultHead dropping to the floor first
FixThe chest should touch first. Leading with the nose shortens the range and hides how far you actually went.
FaultKnees-down as the only regression
FixElevating your hands on a bench keeps the full-body plank and is a better scaling option for most people.
The push-up is a moving plank. Everything that makes it worth doing comes from that, and everything that makes it useless comes from letting the plank go.
Build the plank first
Before your elbows bend, you should be rigid: glutes squeezed, ribs pulled down, a straight line from ear to ankle.
The sag is the giveaway. When the hips drop, the lower back takes the load, the abs stop working, and the range you appear to achieve is partly your spine bending rather than your arms. Squeezing the glutes hard fixes it more reliably than any cue about the abs.
Hand position and elbow angle
Hands slightly wider than the shoulders, positioned roughly under your collarbone rather than under your face. That puts you in a position to lower the chest between your hands rather than pressing at an awkward angle.
Elbows at about forty-five degrees from the torso. Flared to ninety is the shoulder-unfriendly position; tucked hard to the sides makes it a triceps exercise. The same trade-off as the bench press, for the same anatomical reasons.
Scale up, not down to the knees
Knee push-ups are the default regression and they remove the thing that makes the exercise valuable — the full-body plank.
Elevate your hands instead. A wall, a countertop, a bench, a low box: as you get stronger, lower the surface. You keep the whole-body tension the entire way and the progression is continuous rather than a jump from knees to toes.
Making them hard again
Past about twenty-five clean reps you are training endurance.
Slow the lowering to three or four seconds. Pause an inch off the floor. Elevate your feet. Add a weight vest or ask someone to set a plate on your upper back. Any of those returns the exercise to a strength stimulus without needing a gym.
Common questions
What is the correct push-up form?
Hands slightly wider than shoulders and roughly under the collarbone, a straight line from ear to ankle held by squeezed glutes and braced abs, elbows at about 45 degrees, and a chest that touches before anything else does. Full lockout at the top with the shoulder blades spreading.
Are knee push-ups a good regression?
They work, but elevated push-ups are usually better. Putting your hands on a bench or a wall keeps the full-body plank that makes a push-up worth doing, and you can lower the surface progressively until you reach the floor.
Why do my wrists hurt during push-ups?
The position demands a lot of wrist extension. Try push-up handles or gripping a pair of dumbbells so the wrists stay neutral. Spreading your fingers and gripping the floor also distributes the load better than flat palms.
How many push-ups should I be able to do?
Twenty to thirty strict reps is a reasonable benchmark for a trained adult. Beyond about twenty-five, adding reps trains endurance more than strength — that is the point to make them harder rather than longer.
How do I make push-ups harder?
Elevate your feet, slow the lowering to three or four seconds, pause at the bottom, or add a weight vest or a plate on your back. Diamond and archer variations shift the demand rather than simply adding to it.
Swap it out
Same training effect, different demand on the joints.