Pushups
The push-up is a full-body pressing exercise done flat on the floor, using nothing but your own bodyweight. It builds pressing strength through the chest, shoulders, and triceps while your core and legs work to keep your body rigid in a straight line. It's one of the most useful exercises to own well because it needs no equipment and scales from a few reps to dozens as you get stronger.
Why it works
A push-up is a horizontal press: you're lowering and raising your own torso against gravity while your hands stay fixed on the floor. The chest and front shoulders do most of the work of moving your body away from the floor, the triceps lock out your elbows at the top, and everything from your shoulders to your ankles has to stay rigid so that force travels efficiently through your arms instead of leaking out through a sagging hip or a bent lower back. That full-body bracing is what separates a push-up from an isolated chest exercise.
Set up
- Get into a high plank with your hands flat on the floor, slightly wider than shoulder width.
- Set your feet together or hip-width apart, toes tucked under.
- Line your body up from shoulders to heels in one straight plane.
- Brace your core and squeeze your glutes before the first rep.
How to do it
- Bend your elbows and lower your chest toward the floor, keeping your elbows at roughly a 45-degree angle from your torso.
- Continue lowering until your chest is close to the floor or your shoulders reach a comfortable stretch.
- Pause briefly at the bottom without letting your hips drop or your lower back arch.
- Press through your palms to straighten your arms and return to the starting plank.
- Keep your head in a neutral position, eyes just ahead of your hands, throughout the rep.
- Repeat for the set, resetting your brace between reps if your form starts to break down.
Form cues
- One straight line from shoulders to heels, no exceptions.
- Elbows at roughly 45 degrees, not flared straight out.
- Chest leads down, chest leads back up.
- Squeeze your glutes to keep the hips from sagging.
Breathing: Inhale as you lower your chest toward the floor, exhale as you press back up to the starting plank.
Common mistakes
Letting the hips sag toward the floor, especially in the last few reps of a set.
Fix: Brace your abs and squeeze your glutes before you start, and stop the set once you can no longer hold a straight line rather than finishing with a sagging hip.
Flaring the elbows straight out to the sides like a T shape.
Fix: Keep the elbows closer to a 45-degree angle from your torso; this protects the shoulders and keeps more tension in the chest and triceps.
Only lowering a few inches instead of reaching a full range of motion.
Fix: Lower until your chest nears the floor, even if that means doing fewer reps at first; a shorter range trains a smaller portion of the movement.
Craning the neck to look up or down instead of keeping it neutral.
Fix: Keep your gaze on a spot on the floor slightly ahead of your hands so your neck stays in line with your spine.
How to program it
- Push-ups are low-fatigue enough as a bodyweight movement that most people can practice them often; 3 sets of 8 to 15 reps most days, or every other day if you're also doing other upper-body training, builds strength without much recovery cost.
- If you can't yet get 8 clean reps, do the incline version until that number comes easily, then move to the floor.
- Balance the volume with a pulling exercise, like a row or a pull-up, so your pushing and pulling strength develop together.
Safety notes
- Stop the set if you feel sharp pain in the wrists, shoulders, or lower back rather than general muscle fatigue.
- If your wrists are sensitive, try push-up handles or lightly bent wrists on fists instead of a flat palm.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Push
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- Strength
Frequently asked questions
How many push-ups should a beginner be able to do?
There's no single number that applies to everyone, but starting with 3 sets of as many clean reps as you can manage, even if that's just 3 to 5, is a reasonable place to begin. Progress comes from adding reps over weeks, not from hitting a specific target on day one.
What's an easier version if I can't do a full push-up yet?
The incline push-up, done with your hands on a step, bench, or wall, reduces the amount of bodyweight you're pressing. Work on that version until you can do a comfortable set, then lower the surface gradually until you're on the floor.
Why do my wrists hurt during push-ups?
A flat palm on the floor puts your wrist into a deep bend. Push-up handles, or making light fists and resting on your knuckles, keep the wrist in a more neutral position and often solve the discomfort.
Do push-ups work the same muscles as a bench press?
They target the same main muscles, chest, front shoulders, and triceps, through a similar pressing pattern. The core also has to work much harder in a push-up to keep your body rigid, which a bench press doesn't require in the same way.