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Performing Beginner Push Ups

1.

1
Start with wall push ups. Stand three to four feet away from a wall and face the wall. Lean toward
the wall and place your hands shoulder-width apart. Slowly bend your elbows to lower yourself to
the wall. Once your chest touches the wall – or nearly does so – push up until your arms are straight
but slightly bent. This is one wall push up.[1]
 Do three sets of five to twenty wall push ups. Practice this three times a week.

2
Try tabletop push ups. Place a mat on the floor. Get on your hands and knees. Your arms and back
should be straight and your knees bent. Slowly lower your upper body toward the floor. Once your
nose almost touches the mat, slowly push up with your arms back to the starting position. This is one
tabletop push up.[2]
 Do three sets of five to ten tabletop push ups. Practice this three times a week.
 Make sure your back is straight throughout the whole exercise.

3. 3
Attempt an incline push up. Place your hands shoulder-width apart on a sturdy, elevated surface like
a sofa arm, bench, chair or table. Stretch your legs and place your feet straight out behind you. Your
back should be straight and your body should be positioned diagonally relative to the floor. Slowly
lower your upper body toward the elevated surface until your elbows are bent at a 90-degree angle.
Then slowly push back up to the starting position. This is one incline push up. [3]
o Make sure your elbows are close to your body and not sticking out when performing
this exercise.
o Do three sets of five to ten incline push ups. Practice this three times a week.
Method 2
Making Further Progress
 1.

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Attempt a knee push up. Place a mat on the floor. Get on your hands and knees. Move your hands
forward until your body is positioned diagonally relative to the floor. Crisscross your calves and raise
your feet up until they are suspended in the air. With your back straight, slowly lower your upper
body to the ground until your elbows are bent at a 90-degree angle. Then slowly push back up to the
starting position. Your arms should be straight with a slight bend at the elbow. This is one knee push
up.[4]
 Make sure to keep your back straight and tighten your core as you perform this exercise.
 You can place a towel or pillow under your knees to cushion them.
 Do three sets of five to ten knee push ups. Practice this three times a week.
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Try a negative push up. Place a mat on the floor. Start in a high plank position as if you are about to
do a real push up. Do not lock your elbows; they should be slightly bent. Then slowly lower your
body all the way to the ground until it is resting on the mat. This is one negative push up. [5]
 Do three sets of five to ten negative push ups. Practice this three times a week.
 Make sure to tighten your abdominal muscles while you perform this exercise.

3. 3
Do a positive push up. Place a mat on the floor. Lie stomach-down on the mat. Place your hands flat
on the floor slightly under your chest. Slowly push up to the high plank position. Hold this position
for five seconds and then lower yourself back to the ground. This is one positive push up.[6]
o Do three sets of five to ten positive push ups. Practice this exercise three times a
week.
o If you cannot push yourself all the way up to the high plank position, then push up to
a height you are comfortable with.
Method 3
Strengthening Your Muscles
 1.

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Try a one-arm tricep extension. Stand straight with your feet slightly apart. Grab a dumbbell with
one hand and raise it above your head. Your arm should be straight with your elbow slightly bent.
Slowly lower the dumbbell behind your head until your elbow is bent at a 90-degree angle. Then
slowly raise the dumbbell above your head back to the starting position. This is one extension. [7]
 Start with a three to five pound dumbbell.
 Do three sets of five to ten tricep extensions for each arm. Practice this three times a week
and work up the number of reps per set to 15.
 Then, gradually increase the weight and reduce the amount of reps per set until you can only
do between 6 to 10 reps with good form.
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Do a palms-in shoulder press. Grab two dumbbells and stand with your feet slightly apart. Raise the
dumbbells to shoulder level and hold them there. Your palms should be facing each other at this
point. Slowly raise the dumbbells above your head until your arms are straight with your elbows
slightly bent. Then slowly lower them back down to shoulder level. This is one shoulder press. [8]
 Start with a three to five pound dumbbell.
 Do three sets of five to ten shoulder presses. Practice this exercise three times a week. As
with the one-arm tricep extension, work up to 15 reps per set, then increase the weight and
reduce your reps.

3. 3
Give a forearm plank a try. Place a mat on the floor and lie stomach-down on it. Place your forearms
on the floor and raise yourself up on your toes. In this position, your elbows should be under and
aligned with your shoulders. You can either place your palms flat on the floor, or clench them into
fists. This is the plank position. Hold this position for 15 to 30 seconds. [9]
o Make sure your forearms are shoulder-width apart, and your feet slightly apart as
well.
o Also make sure your back is straight and your abdomen tight. Your bottom should
not be sagging or sticking up in the air.
o Do three sets of 15 to 30 seconds. Practice this three times a week. Gradually try to
work up to doing 3 one-minute holds.
Method 4
Doing a Proper Push Up
 1.

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Begin in a high plank position. Place a mat on the floor and get on your hands and knees. Your arms
should be straight and your hands should be positioned underneath your shoulders. Then straighten
out your legs and ground your toes into the floor. Now you are in a high plank position.[10]
 Your feet should be slightly apart in the position.
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Tighten your abdomen and buttocks. Doing this will ensure that your back remains straight as you do
your push ups. If not, then make sure your back is straight. You do not want your bottom to be
sagging or sticking up in the air.

3
Lower yourself to the ground. Slowly lower yourself to the ground until your elbows are bent at a 90-
degree angle. As you lower yourself, do not look straight down. Instead, focus your eyes on a point
about two to three feet ahead of you. This will help keep your neck in a neutral position.[11]
 As you lower yourself to the ground, make sure your elbows are tucked close to your sides.
 Breathe in as you lower yourself to the ground.
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Push back up. Do this once your elbows hit the 90-degree angle. Slowly push back up to the starting
position. Congratulations, you just completed one push up! Start with three sets of five to eight push
ups. Practice this three times a week.[12]
 Remember to keep your back straight as you push up.
 Exhale as you push back up.

Mike Robertson tnation pushups for real strength

Why Do Push-Ups?
1. They're great for the shoulders. Push-ups not only improve timing between the scapulae,
shoulders and elbows, but they also work to open up the upper back. One of the reasons we
have so many shoulder problems today is because we don't put a strong enough emphasis on
proper push-up technique.
2. They're great for the core. If you want to get stupid-strong, you need to bench press. But one
of the downsides to the bench press is that it's performed on your back. In a push-up, you have
to unify or tie together your upper and lower body. Your core is the tie that binds, and if it's
weak, unstable, or imbalanced, it's going to affect your ability to do the push-up correctly.
3. They can be done anywhere. There's always enough space to get a quick and dirty push-up
workout in.
How Do You Do Push-Ups?
I can't tell you how many "experienced" lifters I've worked with who have absolutely no clue how to
perform a proper push-up. Seriously. No clue. Here are some areas that need focus:
1 – The Upper Body
Too many people want to think in absolutes. Either they want the elbows flared out to 90 degrees, or
they tuck them in hard by the sides. Neither option is great for your shoulders.
With the elbows flared excessively, a ton of stress is placed on the shoulder joint. It's also an incredibly
disadvantageous position biomechanically, so not only will it feel bad, but you'll perform poorly, too.
On the flip side, tucking the elbows in hard to your sides isn't a great idea, either. While most do this
with the intent of sparing the shoulders, what ends up happening is that this excessive tucking causes
the humerus to glide forward in the glenoid fossa. In normal people talk, you start to get an "owie" in
the front of your shoulder.
Instead, find a balance. Make a 45-degree angle with your elbows, or simply "make an arrow." This cue
works like a charm for shoulder health and performance.
2 – The Lower Body
This part is easy. Just keep the lower body tight. Sure, you can squeeze the glutes and flex the quads,
but you don't need to go full-blown high-threshold when you're doing a standard push-up. Instead, find
a normal amount of tension for the task at hand. Save all those high-tension strategies for when you're
doing those single-arm, blindfolded push-ups on a medicine ball.
3 – The Core
This is arguably the most important part of the body when performing a push-up. After all, tying
together the upper and lower body is the reason we perform push-ups versus bench presses. Find and
hold a neutral spine position throughout. If you laid a PVC pipe or broomstick on your back, you should
have three points of contact:

1. The back of the head

2. The upper back
3. The buttocks
If you want extra credit, make sure that you only have a slight (1 inch) space in between your lumbar
spine and the stick. This will make sure your abs are optimally engaged.
Now getting into this position may be relatively easy, but the hard part is staying there when you
actually do the movement. What you tend to see is a lowering of the body, followed by deepening
lordosis, a caving of the upper back, and a head that droops towards the floor. Instead, lock the spine
in throughout and you'll not only get a great upper body workout, but a great core workout as well.
4 – Natural Movement
Most people make push-ups unnatural and unathletic. If you're thinking about "pulling" your shoulder
blades together when you lower yourself down, stop!
When most people think about pulling the shoulder blades together, they inevitably slam them
together at the beginning of the movement and run out of motion at the scapulae. At this point, they
continue to lower down, and all of that movement (and stress) moves to the shoulders.
To remedy this, think about making the movement athletic again. Don't think about pulling the
shoulder blades together. Simply think about moving the scaps, shoulders, and elbows at the same
time.
But if you're really patterned to first pull the shoulder blades together, you may need to think about
the opposite: bending the elbows first. It sounds counterintuitive, but thinking about bending the
elbows first will typically clean up the movement in a matter of reps.
5 – Reaching
The second critical element of a great push-up is to focus on reaching at the start and the finish. Many
athletes are locked into a poor position through their upper back and thorax:
 The thorax is pushed forward, which doesn't give the scapulae a place to rest.
 The scaps are looking for stability, so muscles such as the rhomboids become overactive and
"pin" the shoulder blades back and down.
Push-ups are a great tool to help remedy this, but only when done correctly. You may have seen that
bro on Instagram cranking out sets of 50, 75, or 100 push-ups, but you'll note that he never actually
finishes a rep. Sorry, but that's making things worse.
Instead, think about finishing each rep. Keep the chest out while simultaneously reaching long through
the arms, or thinking about pushing the body away from the floor.
When done correctly, it should feel like you're stretching the area in between your shoulder blades at
the start and finish of each rep.
How Do I Make Push-Ups Harder?
It's funny when someone says, "Push-ups are easy! Can't we find a way to make them harder?" Then
when you actually watch them do some push-ups, their hips are dragging the floor, their shoulders are
all over the place, and their neck is protruding like an 80-year-old with osteoporosis.
Once you do that, there are three routes you can typically take to make them harder:
1 – Strength-Focused Progressions

Use these if you want to go full-blown meathead and just get super strong. These include anything that
increases the external resistance:
 Bands
 Chains
 Weighted vests
 Plates loaded on your back
2 – Stability-Focused Progressions

These are great options if you want to bulletproof your body and make sure things are in balance. It's
not uncommon to see super strong guys who have shoulder or lower-back problems, so doing stability-
focused progressions can clean up those weak areas and fix them up for the long haul.
Stability-focused progressions would include any exercise where there are elements of instability
involved: unstable surface push-ups (TRX, Blast Straps, Jungle Gym, gymnastic rings, etc.) and push-ups
with the hands on medicine balls.
3 – Rotation-Focused Progressions
Strong and explosive athletes have a tendency to get locked in the sagittal plane (driven into
extension). If this becomes excessive, they lose access to their frontal and transverse planes, which can
cause injuries up and down the kinetic chain.
To remedy this, offset push-up variations can be crucial in getting trunk rotation back. Push-up
variations in this category can include: offset variations off a box (see video), offset variations with one
hand on a medicine ball, and push-ups to a single-arm support.
Based on your needs and goals there are tons of different options at your disposal. And if you want the
best of all worlds, simply rotate your emphasis every 2-3 months to help build a strong, well-balanced,
and bulletproof physique.