How To Get Better At Push Ups

The push-up is one of the best upper body exercises there is, and one of my favorites. If you want a strong chest, defined arms, and a stable core, push ups will help you get there.

Don’t think of push ups as an exercise, think of them as a goal. If you can achieve a full, good form push up from the floor, you will be in great shape!

Why Are Push Ups Such A Great Exercise?

Push ups work your chest as well as your shoulders and triceps. They also activate your core muscles to keep your body stable during the movement.

Because it uses so many muscles at once, the push up translates well to a lot of other activities, and learning good push-up form is important for building a foundation of strength and motor control.

It’s also a very versatile exercise. You can do it anywhere with no equipment, and you can make it easier or more difficult in many ways.

Learning to perform proper push-ups should be one of the first things you work on when starting your training program, but for many people (especially women) doing a good floor push-up can be tough.

Don’t worry, if you practice and follow a simple progression, everyone can master the push-up.

Standard Floor Push Up

Here is your goal, the floor push up:

How to do it:

1. Put your hands on the floor with your fingers spread for a greater base of support

One common mistake is placing your hands too high and too wide. Your hands should be slightly wider and lower than your shoulders (towards your feet).

Another common mistake is letting your elbows flare out to the sides. Instead, your upper arms should at 45 degrees to your body. Think about forming an arrow shape with your hands, head and body, not a T shape.

2. Extend both legs with your feet about hip width apart, putting your weight on your toes.

3. Brace your core. This is a crucial step. Without a rigid mid-section, your hips and lower back will sag towards the floor. Think of the push-up as a moving plank. Keep your abs tight and engaged throughout the entire movement.

To learn how to brace your core properly, check out my article HERE.

4. Lower your body as a solid unit (no sagging at the hips or lower back) by bending your elbows. Keep your elbows at a 45 degree angle to your body as you lower yourself. Continue to lower your body in a slow and controlled manner until your chest is within 2 inches or less of the floor.

5. Pause for a moment at the bottom.

6. Push through your palms to bring your body back up to the starting position, moving your entire body as a rigid unit. Your hips and shoulders should move upwards at the same time.

It’s really important that you do the full movement (all the way to the ground) without your hips sagging or your elbows flaring out to the sides.

If you can’t do that yet, here’s how to train for it.

Incline Push Up

Perform the exact same movement as in the standard push-up, but with your hands on an elevated surface, like a bench or counter top.

Ideally, use an adjustable surface such as the bar in a power rack or smith machine so that as you improve you can slowly lower the bar until you can perform push-ups from the floor.

Practice incline push-ups at the same level each time, aiming for 8-12 repetitions in each set.

When you can do 12 perfect reps in each of your sets, lower the bar a few inches. It will be harder so you’ll probably have to drop the number of reps.

Work your way back up to 12 reps in each set and lower the bar again. Soon, you’ll build up the strength for floor push ups.

If you don’t have access to a power rack, you can use furniture at different heights. You might start with a counter top, then the back of a couch, then a table, then a chair, then an ottoman, and then the floor. Look around and get creative.

How will this help?

If you want to get better at push-ups you need to train the full movement. That means using all the muscles involved so they get stronger, and so your brain learns how to coordinate the movement correctly.

Incline push ups are exactly the same as a full push up, you’re just making them easier so you can complete the full exercise and get better and stronger over time.

I see a lot of people do knee push ups when they can’t do a full push up. That’s a mistake.

Knee push ups don’t activate your core muscles the way full push ups do, and they don’t use the same coordination pattern as a floor push up. That means they won’t help you progress to a full push up the same way that incline push ups will.

Negative Floor Push Up

Get into the floor push-up position. Perform only the lowering (“negative”) part of the push-up by bending your elbows to slowly lower your body to the floor.

Emphasize that movement by fighting gravity and lowering yourself as slowly as you can. It should take you at least 2-3 seconds to lower yourself all the way to the floor.

Get back into the starting position any way you want. Complete as many reps as possible in a slow and controlled fashion, aiming to work up to 8-12 repetitions in each practice session.

How will this help?

The “negative” (or lowering) part of an exercise is known as an eccentric contraction, when the muscle resists force while lengthening. The other part of an exercise, when the muscle shortens as it produces force, is called a concentric contraction.

The negative part of almost any exercise is when you are fighting gravity to lower the weight, while the “positive” part is when you are actively pushing (or pulling) the weight. In a push up, the negative is when you lower yourself down to the floor, and the positive is when you push yourself back up.

Your muscles are between 20-60% stronger during the negative part of an exercise (Hollander et al., 2007). The reasons for this are complicated, but basically your muscles need to use less energy during the negative part, partly because they act like a rubber band that resists stretching. It’s easier for a rubber band to return to it’s starting shape than it is to stretch it out.

That means the “negative” will always be easier, and you can use that to your advantage by training the lowering part of your push ups.

The same muscles will be working, and the same coordination pattern will be used to control the movement. Training this way will increase your strength and body control, which will translate to the full push up.

Putting It All Together - How To Get Better At Push Ups

If you can already do at least 2-3 perfect floor push-ups, try practicing a few push-ups in every session or even a few times per day to fast track your progress. Aim to do just one more push-up in at least one set per session.

If you can’t do a floor push-up yet, practice incline push-ups and negatives a few times per week or even a few times per day. Again, aim to do just one more rep in at least one set per session.

Push ups are tough, but with some dedicated practice you’ll be pumping out sets of perfect push ups before you know it. That will improve your fitness, your motor skills, and your confidence, and you might even decide to go beyond the floor push up and try even more advanced versions, like one of these 82 different push-up variations.

My favorites are the single leg push-up, spiderman push-up, decline push-up (the article calls them feet-elevated push-ups), and clap push-up.

Now you know what it takes to perform a perfect push-up, so get out there and start practicing!

If You Need Help

If you want to start getting stronger and working your way towards a full push up right now, check out my Strength Training For Anxiety Program. This 12-week, app-guided workout program includes push up progressions and other strategies to help you get physically stronger. It also includes unique features that help you improve your mental health, so you can feel more confident!