Push up · Bodyweight
How to do more push ups
How to do a push up properly, the ladder from the wall to one arm, how often to train them, and the 30-day chart to follow with friends.
The movement
How to do one properly.
Every rep the same shape, so the numbers mean the same thing on day thirty as on day one.
- 1
Hands flat under your shoulders, a little wider than them, fingers forward.
- 2
Body in one line from head to heels. Squeeze your glutes and brace your stomach so your hips do not sag.
- 3
Lower until your chest is a fist's height off the floor, elbows at about forty-five degrees, not flared.
- 4
Press the floor away until your arms are straight. That is one.
- 5
Breathe in on the way down, out on the way up, and keep your neck long, eyes on the floor ahead.
The way up
How to do more push ups
Rung 1
Wall
Hands on a wall, body straight. Learn the line before you learn the load.
Rung 2
Incline
Hands on a bench or a step. Lower the surface every week it feels easy.
Rung 3
Knees
Full range from the knees, hips still in line.
Rung 4
Full
From the toes, chest to a fist off the floor, every rep the same length.
Rung 5
Feet up, then weight
Feet on a bench, then a plate or a pack on your back. One arm is the end of the road.
Do fewer than you can. Several short sets through the day, each stopped two or three reps before failure, add up to far more clean push ups a week than one set to collapse, and you recover in time to do it again tomorrow.
Three harder sessions a week, easy sets on the days between. Add one rep to each set every week, and retest your single maximum set every two weeks, not every day.
When you pass twenty in a row, stop chasing numbers and make each one harder: feet up, a pause at the bottom, a slower descent. Thirty slow ones build more than sixty bounced ones.
How it is counted
On the board, however it got there.
No watch counts push up, so nobody's does. Say it out loud in the app or type it in, and it lands the same as a synced session.
Worth 1 point per rep in the app, so a challenge can weigh it against anything else you count.
Questions
Asked about push ups
How many push ups a day to improve?
Half your maximum, done as sets through the day, is a good starting number. If you can do twelve, do sets of six, five or six times a day. Add a rep per set each week.
I cannot do a single push up. Where do I start?
On a wall, then a bench, then your knees. Each step down keeps the same straight body and the same full range; only the load changes. Most people reach a full push up within a few weeks of daily incline sets.
Does it count from my watch?
No watch counts push up, so nobody's does. Say it out loud in the app or type it in, and it lands the same as a synced session.
Is there a chart to follow?
Yes. The 30-day push up challenge is written for exactly this: a number for every day, a rest when it is earned, and a way to run it with friends in the app.
Is it free?
Yes. The athlete app is free: logging, challenges and every guide on this site. Coaches pay for their workspace; the people they coach do not.
Other exercises
Everything else we count.
Pull up
How to do more pull ups
Squat
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Plank
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Sit up
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Dip
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Burpees
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Lunges
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Jumping jacks
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Skipping
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Extensions
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Battle ropes
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Running
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Cycling
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Swimming
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Rowing
How to row further
Steps
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Hiking
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Football
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Basketball
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Tennis
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Dancing
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Yoga
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Do more push ups.
Let someone see it.
Get the app, log what you did or let your watch send it, and hand your friends the code.