Push-Up

What is the Push-Up?

The push-up is a bodyweight horizontal press: you lower and raise your body in a plank position by bending and extending the elbows. It needs no equipment, trains the same pushing pattern as the bench press, and doubles as a core-stability exercise because the trunk has to stay rigid throughout.

Muscles worked

Primary: Chest

The pectoralis major drives the body up by pushing the arms into the floor (horizontal adduction and shoulder flexion), just as it presses a bar on the bench.

Secondary: Triceps, Shoulders

The triceps extend the elbows to lock out each rep, and the front deltoids assist through the bottom of the range.

Stabilizers

The abs, glutes, and serratus brace hard to hold a rigid plank so the body moves as one straight line rather than sagging or piking.

How to perform the Push-Up

1. Start in a high plank with the hands planted slightly wider than shoulder width, fingers spread, and the wrists directly under the shoulders.
2. Brace the core and squeeze the glutes so the body forms a straight line from the heels through the head. No sagging hips, no piked hips.
3. Lower yourself by bending the elbows and letting them track back at roughly a 45-degree angle from the torso, not flared straight out to the sides.
4. Descend until your chest lightly touches (or hovers just above) the floor, maintaining the rigid plank line throughout.
5. Press back up by driving the floor away with the palms, finishing with elbows extended and the shoulders pulled down away from the ears.
6. If a full push-up is too hard, elevate the hands on a bench; if too easy, elevate the feet, add a weight vest, or pause at the bottom of each rep.

Suggested working range: 10–20 reps. Default progression: double progression.

Mechanics

A bilateral horizontal push against bodyweight: the shoulders and elbows move to lower the chest toward the floor and press it back up, making it a compound. Because the load is your own body, progression comes from adding reps, elevating the feet, or eventually adding external weight rather than loading a bar.

Form cues

• •Hold a straight line from heels to head: squeeze the glutes and brace the abs so the hips don’t sag.
• •Set the hands about shoulder-width and let the elbows travel back at roughly 45 degrees, not flared straight out.
• •Lower until the chest is an inch or two off the floor for a full range of motion.
• •Push the floor away and think about spreading it apart to keep the shoulders stable.

Common mistakes

• •Letting the hips sag toward the floor so the lower back arches under load.
• •Piking the hips up toward the ceiling to shorten the range and avoid having to press the full body weight.
• •Flaring the elbows out to 90 degrees from the torso, which loads the front of the shoulder rather than the chest and triceps.
• •Going through partial reps that never reach a real bottom position with the chest near the floor.
• •Letting the head poke forward to chase the floor with the chin instead of keeping the neck neutral.

Variations & alternatives

• •Wide-grip push-up: a wider hand position that biases the chest a little more.
• •Decline push-up: elevating the feet shifts load toward the upper chest and adds difficulty.
• •Diamond push-up, with hands close together to shift more of the work onto the triceps.
• •Dumbbell bench press, the loaded free-weight version once bodyweight reps get easy.

Barbell Bench Press

Chest · Barbell

Incline Barbell Bench Press

Chest · Barbell

Dumbbell Bench Press

Chest · Dumbbell

Incline Dumbbell Press

Chest · Dumbbell

Cable Fly

Chest · Cable

Programming: sets, reps & when to use it

The push-up suits higher reps (the library’s 10–20 range) and works as a warm-up, a chest finisher, or a primary press for home training. When a set of 20 clean reps gets easy, progress by elevating the feet, slowing the tempo, or wearing a weighted vest rather than just chasing endless reps.

Frequently asked questions