Push Up

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If you had to pick just one exercise that everyone in the world has most likely done, the push up would be a very good guess. They are one of the first formal exercises that many kids learn in physical education, are commonly used in tests of physical fitness, and are widely used by many different fitness programs. So, what is it about push ups? The simple answer to this is just how accessible and effective they are. They require absolutely no equipment, are easily modified to change their difficulty, and are a highly functional movement.

The Basics

The push up is primarily used as a strength exercise. It is classified as a horizontal upper push movement. It is more generally classified as a upper push movement. Since it involves significant activation of multiple muscle groups, it is considered a compound exercise.

Form

Set Up

• Get down on all fours and extend your legs back so that you're in plank position
• Place your hands roughly shoulder width apart
• Arms should be straight but not locked
• Make sure that your shoulders are above or slightly in front of your hands
• Place your feet about hip width apart
• Brace your core, keeping a neutral spine
• Your shoulders, hips and legs should form a straight line

Execution

• Lower yourself under control by bending your arms at the elbows
• Lower your entire body as a straight line, keeping your core engaged
• Keep your arms about 45 degrees out from your body
• Go as low as comfortable, allowing the chest to open up and the shoulder blades to come together
• Push back up by pushing the ground away
• Allow the shoulder blades to come apart as you rise
• End with your arms straight but not locked

Common Mistakes

Arms Flaring Out

Many people do push ups with their hands out too wide. While this can make the exercise easier, it puts undue pressure on the shoulders and can lead to issues down the line. Place your hands shoulder width or slightly wider apart and keep your elbows about 45 degrees out from your body as you do your push ups.

Hips Too High or Low

While the push up is a upper body pushing exercise, keeping a braced neutral core is important. Allowing the hips to sag is not good for your lower back and is a sign that you should work on your core strength. Holding the hips too high, while not harmful, makes the push up more difficult by shifting emphasis from the larger chest muscles to the smaller front delts.

Shoulder Blades Together at the Top

While it's good form to have your shoulder blades come together at the bottom of the rep, it's not as stable of a position at the top of the rep. So, as you lower yourself down and your elbows come more in line with your torso, you can let your shoulder blades come together. As you come up though, focus on protracting them as your arms straighten out.

Additional Info

How much of my bodyweight am I moving?

When doing a push up with your hands and feet level, you're pushing about 70% of your bodyweight. You can decrease this to about 54% by doing knee pushups, or increase this to 75% by elevating your feet about 30cm. This would be with your body parallel to the ground at the top position of the push up.

Adding Weight

Adding weight to push ups is challenging. There have been a lot of attempts over the years, but none have really caught on. It's fairly easy to put weight on your lower back or wear a weight vest. However, this becomes less viable to do as the weight gets higher.

If you're serious about adding lots of weight to your push ups, a dip belt and a way to elevate your feet and hands is needed. Check out this video by FitnessFAQs.

There are other options though. Rather than adding weight, there are several more difficult push up variations that can be used, as well as alternative exercises once you've mastered the standard push up.

Making It Easier

If you're still working towards doing standard push ups, there are many ways to build your strength. The two common ways of making the push up easier are by doing them on your knees rather than feet and by performing them with your hands on a higher surface than your feet.

No Equipment Needed

All you need to do push ups is enough floor space. As such, they can be easily done when you don't have access to a gym but still want to work on your pushing.

How many reps should I do?

Push ups are often trained using high reps and progress is measured by maximum reps. This is great for developing muscular endurance. However, if you want to develop your strength you'll need to switch to an alternative or find a way to make push ups harder once you're able to do more than about 20 reps.

Related Articles

• The Way of the Weighted Push Up | Making a Good Exercise Great: Most people would agree that the push up is a good exercise. However, it suffers from one major flaw in that it's not readily apparent how to add more weight to it. Let's take a look at the best ways to make the push up great.
• One Arm Push Up Progression | Minimal Equipment, Maximal Strength: Working towards a one arm push up is a great way to get your upper body pushing power to the next level. No additional weight or equipment needed, all you need is some floor space to train for this impressive skill.
• Planche Push Up Progression:

Related Exercises

Reviews

Performance Standard Ranks

The ranks assume that you are generally healthy, with no underlying health conditions or injuries and have the mobility to perform the exercise correctly. You can determine your rank by comparing your numbers to the tables below. Your rank is also tracked automatically when using our Workout Log feature.

Strength Standards

The tables show the one rep max* in pounds needed to reach each rank at different body weights (also in lbs). The 1RMs on the table are based on world records, balanced ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized strength standards for every exercise, check out the Strength Standards page. You can also find your Strength Score to see how you rank as part of our Fitness Score System.

*Added weight if positive, assistance if negative. The planche and levers are also notable exceptions as they show the moment at the shoulder, not weight. For more info, check out the Moment Calculator page.

Muscular Endurance Standards By Body Weight

The tables show the reps or isometric hold times (in seconds) needed to reach each of the muscular endurance ranks at different body weights. The reps on the table are based on world records, ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized standards for every exercise, check out the Muscular Endurance Standards page.

The amount of weight used to test for muscular endurance of some of the exercises is a percentage of body weight. The percentage was chosen to be memorable and to require a Novice to Intermediate level of strength so that most trainees could reasonably use it while not having to do an excessive amount of reps.