A Step by Step Guide to Mastering the Push-Up
Ahhh the push up.
It’s one the first exercises we learn, usually in P.E class (do those things still exist anymore??) Maybe you had to do them as a form of punishment or maybe you do them because you saw someone else doing them or you’ve always wanted to do a push up.
Regardless, push ups are a fantastic upper body exercise. In fact, the push up is a foundational movement in any strength training program and everyone should be able to do. The push up requires little to no equipment and can progress and challenge in numerous ways. Being able to do a push is important to control and master bodyweight movements before doing more complex or advanced exercises.
However, what if you are unable to do push ups?
Don’t worry, that’s where I’m here to help!
Today, I want to show you how you can master push ups from start to finish. I’ll go over EVERYTHING you’ll need to know to get your first push up. After reading today’s blog, you’ll be able to know exactly how to do a push up with ease and perfect form.
I will show you how you can get your first push up, even if you can barely get one or cannot do one at all.
How to do a Proper Push Up:
An often overlooked aspect of the push up is how to effectively set up for a push up. When it comes to the push ups (just like any other exercise really), your form and technique is crucial. Each push up should look exactly the same from your first rep to your last rep, so your total reps measured from each workout are equal.
For example, if you did 10 pristine, perfect push ups, then you’re doing 20 push ups with your hips up in the air or only going halfway done, then it’s very difficult to know if you’re actually making progress or getting stronger. This is one reason why spending time on form and technique is so important - it allows us to standardize and effectively evaluate your progress.
Proper Pushup Form
On the ground, set your hands slightly outside your shoulders. Your hands should be straight ahead or slightly angled.
Your feet should be set in a way that feels right, and comfortable for you. Usually, shoulder width works best, yet find what works best for you. Just know - the wider your stance, the more stable you’ll be for the push up.
You want to maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Your butt shouldn’t be up in the air or staging towards the ground. Think squeeze your butt and brace your core - like someone is going to punch you in the stomach. This will ensure you’re staying in a straight line.
Your head should be looking slightly ahead, not straight now. By looking slightly ahead, this will ensure your body stays in a straight line.
With your arms straight, squeezing your glutes and bracing your core, slowly lower yourself until your elbows are roughly at a 90 degree angle. Don’t allow your elbows to flair outside. You want to keep them relatively close to your body at a 45 degree angle.
Once you reach the bottom position (elbows at 90 degrees, or chest/chin touching the ground), slightly pause and explosively drive yourself upwards to your starting position.
Fair warning - if you've been doing your push ups wrong with flaring your elbows outside, then you'll be fine doing a proper push up to be more challenging so don’t skip this part!
How to Get Your First Push Up
That’s how you do a proper push up! However, what if you are struggling with your push up form or you cannot get your first push up? Don’t worry, you’re not alone and I have the plan for you to help you get there.
You’ll need to start with an easier movement and progressively work your way up to more challenging types of movements that will eventually result in you doing true push ups.
This is the type of progressions I use when helping somebody in our coaching program to develop the proper strength to start doing push ups
Building the Foundation - The Straight Arm Plank
If you are new to training or have difficulty controlling the push up motion, then we will start by building your foundation for the push up. You see, the push up is basically a moving plank variation. You’re staying in a plank position while slowly lowering yourself to the ground. The push up requires your stabilizer muscles (core and upper back muscles) to support our bodies while performing a push up so we’ll need to work on owning the plank position first.
Here’s a few technique pointers to keep in mind while performing the plank
Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to ankles. There should be no sagging in your lower back.
Focus on creating whole body tension by squeezing your glutes and shoulder blades.
Your arms should be slightly outside your shoulder
Before moving onto our push up progressions, I strongly recommend that you master developing whole body tension (i.e.squeezing your glutes, bracing your core, and upper back) By learning how to master whole body tension, this will make the following push up progressions much easier.
How to train the Straight Arm Plank:
Your goal is to hold the straight arm plank position for 60 seconds max while actively creating as much whole body tension as possible (squeezing glutes, bracing core) . Once you are able to do so while maintaining whole body tension, you’ll progress into our push up progression sequence.
Wall Push ups
Depending on your current strength level, you’ll need to start with wall push ups Hey! Everyone has to start somewhere!
How to do Wall Push Ups:
When starting at the wall, the set-up is a bit different. You need to start in the bottom position to accurately find the best hand placement.
Step up to the wall, toes touching the wall and place your hand on the wall with your thumbs just under your chest.
Step back from the wall, straighten out your arms, and go up on your toes.
Inhale as you row yourself toward the wall keeping your elbows in, close to your ribcage. Pause, then exhale as you press yourself back away from the wall, keeping your whole body tight and moving as one unit for the desired number of sets and reps.
How to train Wall Push Ups:
As you can see wall push ups can be done anywhere. However, I want you to do 4 sets of 10-20 reps of wall push ups with 1-2 minute of rest between sets. Keep track of how many quality repetitions you can do with proper form for each set for easy comparison between previous workouts.
Once you’re able to complete 4 sets of 20 reps of wall push ups, you can progress to the next push up variation.
Hand Elevated Push Ups
Once you are able to own the wall push ups, your next step is to do hand elevated push ups. Hand elevated push ups are exactly what they sound like, your hands are on an elevated surface (think kitchen counter, desk, couch, boxes, stairs, etc.)
If you just progressed from the wall push ups, pick something that will be at the right level for you. Just be aware that the more elevated you are, the easier it becomes and the lower you are, the more challenging it will become. Start easy (aka higher elevation) before slowly lowering the elevation.
How to train Hand Elevated Push Ups:
After you select an appropriate elevation, it’s time to get to work! I recommend staying at a set elevation until you can do 2-3 sets of 12 reps with solid technique. Once you’re able to do that, then it’s time to lower the elevation.
It’s important to own every inch of the push up, from start to finish. As you find a “sticking point”, you can make that your new push up position until you get stronger in that position. Continue slowly lowering the elevation until you are just slightly off the ground.
Eccentric Bodyweight Push ups
Now that we have built our foundation with some strength and muscle along the way, we are going to do push ups from the ground. These eccentric push ups will be identical to a normal push up except we are going to focus on the lowering aspect of the push ups.
By doing eccentric push ups, this will be excellent for working on building the necessary strength for owning the push up from start to finish AND mimicking the actual push up movement. Just like other push ups, make sure you’re actively squeezing your glutes and bracing your core.
How to Train Eccentric Push Ups:
Do 3 sets of 6-10 repetitions with a 5 second eccentric (lowering). So, you’ll get into your properly set up push up position and slowly lower yourself towards the ground for a full 5 seconds. Just like the other push ups, make sure you are owning every inch of the movement. Once you reach the ground, use your knees to “reset” and return to your starting position.
Bodyweight Push Ups
Ahhh the main event! By now, you have been progressing and making progress on the elevated push ups and your comfortable with eccentric push ups. It’s now time to do them from the ground!
Your setup should look identical to the eccentric push ups, except you are doing them from the ground (like… duh). Aim to complete 2-3 sets at 1-6 reps. The reason why I’m giving you a rep range is because I want you to focus on the following:
1) focus on quality reps over quantity,
2) keep your self honest
3) monitor and assess your progress
When you first attempt this, you may only get 1-2 quality push ups and that’s absolutely fantastic!! By continuously challenging yourself, you’ll start seeing your push up increasing from 1-2 to 4-6 reps. That’s fantastic progress!
How to Get Better at Push ups:
By now, you should be able to get 1-2 push ups, however you probably want to do more!
Here are a few tips and tricks to help you improve your push up.
When starting out, don't do push ups on back to back days!
You’ll need to give your muscles a chance to recover, rebuild, and grow. Take 48 hours between your push up workouts to give your muscles enough time to adequately recover.
Don’t cheat on the last few reps
When you’re tired, it's very tempting to start cheating on your last few reps by slacking on your form and technique. Don’t allow your ego to dictate your training. Stay disciplined and as soon you do 1 bad rep, you’re done. Always record your reps and aim to beat your rep totals next time.
Get plenty of Protein Post workout
Protein is essential for building muscle and recovering from your workouts. Protein is the literal building blocks of your muscles so by prioritizing protein, you’ll allow your muscles to grow stronger.
Get Healthy!
This may seem obvious, but since the push up is a bodyweight exercise the more you weight, the more force you’ll need to apply. As you lose weight, you’ll have to move less weight around than before which will make pushups easier to do.
And there you go! Your step by step guide to how to get your first push up! If you follow this program from start to finish, and progressively challenge yourself with each workout, you’ll soon find yourself cracking out push ups like it’s nothing!