How to do the push-up

The push-up is a bench press you carry around with you. It trains your chest, the front of your shoulders and your triceps, and because you're holding a plank the whole time, your core works too. It's the obvious pick when you don't have a gym, and it's still useful when you do: as a warm-up, as extra chest volume at the end of a session, or as a test of whether your pressing strength carries over to moving your own body. Most people can do more push-ups than they think once the form is right. They also do worse ones than they think.

How to do a push-up

1. Place your hands slightly wider than your shoulders. Fingers point forward or turned out a touch, and your hands sit roughly under your shoulders when your arms are straight, not out in front of your face.
2. Walk your feet back into a plank. Feet together or hip width apart. From the side, your body should make one straight line from your head to your heels.
3. Squeeze your glutes and brace your stomach. Pretend someone's about to poke you in the belly. This is what stops your hips sagging halfway through the set.
4. Lower your chest toward the floor. Bend your elbows so they angle back about 45 degrees from your body, making an arrow shape with your torso rather than a T. Stop when your chest is a fist's height from the floor, or lightly touching it.
5. Push the floor away. Press back up until your arms are straight, moving your whole body as one piece. At the top, let your shoulder blades spread slightly apart so your upper back rounds a little.

That last point is where a push-up differs from a bench press. On the bench your shoulder blades stay pinned; here they should move, sliding together as you lower and apart as you push up. Your chest and triceps should be doing most of the work, and you'll feel your abs holding the plank. If your lower back aches, your hips are sagging.

Cues that fix a sloppy push-up

"Screw your hands into the floor." Try to turn your hands outward without moving them, as if you're opening two jar lids. Your elbows tuck into a better angle and your shoulders feel more stable.

"Move like a plank of wood." Your chest and hips should reach the bottom at the same time. If your hips hit the floor first, you're sagging; if your chest does, you're piking.

"Look at the floor a foot in front of your hands." This keeps your neck in line and stops your chin reaching for the ground before your chest does.

If none of those help, film one set from the side. The fault is usually obvious once you see it.

Common mistakes

Letting the hips sag. From the side it looks like a banana, with the lower back dipping toward the floor. It happens when your core tires before your arms do, and it usually shows up in the last few reps. Squeeze your glutes harder and end the set when your hips start to drop.

Piking the hips up. The opposite fault: your butt rises and you end up doing a half push-up, half downward dog. It shortens the range for your chest and shifts work onto your shoulders. Lower your hips until your body forms a line, even if that means fewer reps.

Doing half reps. Stopping halfway down lets you rack up a big number, but it's not the same exercise. Get your chest within a few inches of the floor on every rep. If you can't, make the push-up easier (see below) and do full reps.

Flaring your elbows straight out. Elbows at 90 degrees to your body, forming a T, puts your shoulders in a worse position and is a common reason push-ups feel pinchy at the front of the shoulder. Tuck them to about 45 degrees.

Hands too far forward. If your hands sit out in front of your head, your shoulders take over and the bottom of the rep feels unstable. Bring them back so they're under your chest at the bottom.

Dropping your head. Reaching the floor with your chin first makes the rep look deeper than it is. Keep your neck in line with your back and let your chest lead.

Breathing

Breathe in on the way down, out on the way up. On long sets of 20 or more, you can find a rhythm of one breath per rep. What matters more is keeping your stomach braced while you breathe, so your hips don't sag every time you exhale.

Sets, reps and how to progress

If you can do 10 or more good push-ups, do 3 or 4 sets, stopping each one with a couple of reps left in the tank. Rest about 90 seconds. Once you can do 3 sets of 15 to 20, the easy version stops doing much for muscle growth, and it's time to make each rep harder rather than keep adding reps.

If you can't do one yet, the fix is an incline push-up with your hands on a bench, a table or a kitchen counter. The higher the surface, the easier it gets. We'd pick this over push-ups on your knees, because it keeps you in the full plank you're working toward and you can lower the height in small steps. Do 3 sets of 8 to 12, and when that's easy, drop to a lower surface. Getting from the counter to the floor takes anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months, training two or three times a week.

Once floor push-ups get easy, you have several ways to keep progressing:

• Pause at the bottom for two seconds, chest just off the floor.
• Slow the lowering to three or four seconds.
• Raise your feet on a step or bench. The higher your feet, the more of your bodyweight you're pressing.
• Add weight with a weighted vest, or a plate on your upper back if someone can place it for you.
• Use a deficit, with your hands on two sturdy books or push-up handles so your chest can sink below hand level.

For progress to be visible, you need a record of what you did. Logging your sets and reps for each variation in Helthy lets you check last week's numbers before you start and aim to beat them. The same idea behind progressive overload on a barbell works here: a rep more or a slightly harder version every week or two.

How often? Push-ups are low-stress enough that two to four times a week is fine for most people. As for results, for chest growth, push-ups work about as well as bench pressing as long as the sets are hard. The catch is loading. Once 30 reps is easy, you'll need weight or harder versions, and at that point a bench or dumbbells are simply more convenient.

Variations and alternatives

• Incline push-up: hands raised on a surface. The standard way to build up to a floor push-up.
• Close-grip push-up: hands under your shoulders, elbows tight to your sides. More triceps, a little less chest.
• Decline push-up: feet raised. More load, with a bit more work for the upper chest and shoulders.
• Dumbbell bench press: the easiest step up to loaded pressing if you have gym access.
• Barbell bench press: the heavy version of the same pattern, and the best option once push-ups stop being a challenge.

Push-up questions

How many push-ups should I be able to do?

There's no single standard, but 10 clean reps is a good first target for most adults, and 20 to 30 is solid for someone who trains regularly. Quality matters more than the number: 15 full reps beat 40 half ones.

Are push-ups on your knees bad?

They're not bad, just limited. They take a lot of weight off and let you practice the arm movement, but they don't train the full plank. If you like them, use them as a finisher after your harder sets. For building up to a full push-up, incline push-ups carry over better.

Can push-ups build muscle on their own?

Yes, especially if you're new to training, as long as you take sets close to failure and keep making them harder. Most people eventually need to add load to keep growing, which is where raised feet, a vest or gym pressing come in.

Why do my wrists hurt doing push-ups?

Having your wrists bent back at 90 degrees under your full bodyweight bothers some people. Try push-up handles or a pair of hex dumbbells to keep your wrists straight, or turn your hands out slightly. If it still hurts after a couple of weeks of that, get it looked at.