Pushups can be challenging, especially for beginners. However, once you learn how to do pushups the right way, you can do more reps and boost strength and endurance. In this guide, you will learn about the proper way to perform pushups, what muscles are used in this exercise and the different types of pushups that you can add to your workout routine.
What Is a Pushup?
The pushup is a type of bodyweight exercise1 that is traditionally "used to strengthen the torso or upper body,"2 but it engages the muscles in your lower body as well. According to an article in Harvard Health Publishing, a pushup "works several muscle groups at once: the arms, chest, abdomen (core), hips and legs. Pushups also can be modified as needed."3
As with other bodyweight exercises, pushups may help improve your flexibility, mobility and performance while lowering your risk for injury.4 It may help improve your heart health, too. In fact, one study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found that men who can do at least 40 pushups within 30 seconds have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular problems in the next 10 years compared to those who were only able to do fewer than 10 pushups.5
How to Do Pushups Correctly
If you have always wondered how to do a pushup properly, follow these instructions on standard pushup form:6
1. Get on your knees and place your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor. Flatten your palms and point your fingers forward.
2. Rise on your toes. Keep your elbows straight and not locked. Your knees, hips, back and shoulders should be straight as well.
3. Bend your elbows until your chest is an inch or so from the ground. Make sure your head is in a neutral position, chin tucked in. Look no more than 6 inches in front of your body.
4. Straighten your elbows and push your body back into your starting position. Your knees, hips and back must be aligned and straight.
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What Muscles Do Pushups Work?
Numerous muscles are engaged when you perform pushups, which is why this exercise can deliver a number of health benefits. These muscles include:7
- Pectorals (chest)
- Triceps and biceps (arms)
- Deltoid (shoulder)
- Serratus anterior (ribs)
- Rectus abdominis or abs
- Glutes
Apart from knowing the muscles that pushups target, you should also learn how to place them in the correct position to help lower your risk for injuries and maintain proper form. For more information, read "Are You Doing Pushups Correctly?"
What Are the Benefits of Pushups?
Apart from helping improve strength, stability, endurance and power, the advantages of pushups include:8,9
• Can act as a full-body workout — Pushups may help increase abdominal and back muscle strength, and decrease osteoporosis and fracture risk.10,11 This is because the move applies stress on the wrists and long bones in your upper arms. Pushups may also help promote better muscle balance by letting you have free range of motion during your workout.
• Can be performed anywhere and anytime — Most varieties of pushups require no equipment and can be done anywhere, such as your house or even your office.
• Can be tailored to your fitness level — You can tweak and determine how many pushups a day you are able to do. Don't worry if you aren't able to do many pushups at first. You can start by doing a few reps, and then gradually increase them once you feel stronger.
What Makes a Perfect Pushup Workout?
You'll know you're performing this type of exercise correctly if your upper body, lower body and torso are moving in a cohesive manner. Take note, however, that a "perfect" pushup workout begins by ensuring you maintain proper form. Only then can you intensify workouts or challenge yourself with difficult variations. Pay attention to these body parts in particular:12,13
• Fingers — Your fingers must be spaced wide enough to allow your lower arms to work more and gain strength for better movement.
• Elbows — Your elbows should be able bend at a 45-degree angle. Position them right above your wrists and keep them near your body as you push up and down to provide more leverage. Avoid putting them out at 90-degree angles or letting them move past your wrists because doing so may cause injuries.14
• Shoulders — Draw your shoulder blades and shoulders backward to firmly plant your hands and elbows on the surface and aid in targeting back muscles. Don't tense your shoulders or move them upward to your ears.
• Back — Keep your back straight to help reduce lower back pain risk. First, tighten your quadriceps muscles to help straighten your legs from feet to hips, buttocks and abdominal muscles. After contracting these muscles and ensuring that your hands are firmly in place, move your body away from the ground.
If lower back stress or tension due to a deeper lumbar curve occurs, address this by pushing the hips forward as you squeeze the buttocks. This will prevent further back pain.
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How to Improve Your Pushup Workout
If you want to know how to improve your pushups and take them to another level, Men's Health provides some tips:15
• Grab and try to "rip" the floor. Drive your palms downward and, in a simultaneous motion, twist as if trying to tear the floor between them apart. The biceps and elbows should rotate in such a way that they face forward.
• Imagine doing a pushup as if a business card were stuck in your armpit. This will encourage lat muscle activation, help with movement and promote upper body stability.
• When your upper body is in the correct position, draw your palms toward your toes by compressing your core.
• Have both ankles reach each other and your feet close together. Think of it as if you're attempting to crack a nut between your ankles.
• Squeeze your glutes tightly when pushing up to rotate your hips in the correct position and take away stress from your spine.
• Move your body as one strong unit. Engage and tighten your muscles, not allowing them to relax.
There are also other ways you can enhance your form and execute a proper pushup. Check out "Pushups: The Simple Exercise That Can Banish Your Bulging Belly" for more information.
Basic Errors Can Keep You From Doing the Perfect Pushup
Proper pushup form is important in your success, but sometimes mistakes are inevitable. Greatist highlights some of the common errors when performing this exercise and ways to address them:16
1. Sagging or arching of your lower back — Pay attention to your glutes and legs, and try to squeeze them, especially the glutes, while working out. This will avoid arching or sagging of the lower back.
Move the chest toward the ground first and ensure your hips are aligned with your shoulders. Don't let your hips flop to the floor.
2. Arm flaring — Hold elbows closer to your body, at a 20- to 40-degree angle toward your torso. Most people mistakenly position their elbows outward at a 90-degree angle, forming a "T" — this puts strain on your shoulders.
3. Improper breathing — Don't hold your breath when doing pushups. Inhale as you near the ground and exhale once you push back up.
4. Focusing on the number of reps and not the quality of the movement — Doing pushups improperly may reduce their effectiveness and impact fewer muscles. Ensuring that each movement has a full range of motion is a must: Make your chest reach the floor as closely as possible, and then extend the elbows fully when moving up.
5. Lowering forehead to the ground — This is often done by people who don't have enough strength to push their chest toward the ground or surface, thereby increasing their risk of a painful neck strain.
When doing a pushup, ensure that your neck is in a neutral position by staring at a specific spot on the floor a few feet away. Keeping your head in a neutral position that's not too close to the floor may help reduce neck pain risk. Should your neck still feel weird, do pushups on your knees until your form improves.
6. Failing to stack wrists — If you don't position your wrists directly under your shoulders, this negatively affects your form. Before doing a pushup, move the body slightly forward and check that the shoulders are right above your wrists.
How to Do More Pushups
Before you attempt to increase the amount of reps you perform, you need to determine your limits by counting how many pushups you can do at the moment. Adam Bornstein, bestselling author and CEO of Born Fitness, tabulated the average number of pushups his online coaching clients are able to perform (for women, scores may be five to 10 pushups lower compared to these numbers):17
• Below average — Less than 15 pushups
• Average — 20 pushups
• Good — 30 to 35 pushups
• Excellent — 40 to 45 pushups
• Extraordinary — Anything more than 50 pushups
Bornstein also suggests a protocol for improving your routine. Each routine involves performing each pushup as quickly as possible. After doing all the workouts, take a five-day rest and assess your "score" by performing as many repetitions as you can in one minute:18
• Week 1 (two workouts) — Do 10 sets of eight reps and rest for two minutes between sets. If you aren't able to perform eight pushups, rest accordingly.
• Week 2 (two workouts) — Do eight sets of 10 reps and allot a minute of rest between sets.
• Week 3 (two workouts) — Do six sets of 15 reps and allot a minute of rest between sets.
• Week 4 (two workouts) — Do four sets of 20 reps and allot two minutes of rest between sets.
Pushup Variations You Should Know About
There are different variations of pushups that you can incorporate in your workout routine, if you want to deviate from the standard type. Here are examples of modified pushups you can challenge yourself with:
• Incline pushups — If you want to focus on improving chest and abdominal core muscle strength, an incline pushup may help. This involves placing your hands on a stable chair or bench and planting your feet on the floor:19
1. Get into standard pushup position and place your hands, which must be shoulder-width apart, on an elevated surface, chair or bench. Ensure that your elbows remain in place.
2. With a straight body, move your chest toward the surface or bench.
3. Pause, and while engaging your core muscles, move back into starting position.
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• Decline pushups — This has the same goal as an incline pushup, although this time, your feet are propped up on a bench or stable chair, while your hands are on the floor:20
1. Get into a standard pushup position, and place your feet on an elevated surface. Place your hands, which must be shoulder-width apart, on the floor, and tuck elbows into place.
2. Move your chest toward the floor, while keeping your body in a straight position.
3. Pause, and while engaging core muscles, move back into starting position.
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• Triceps pushups — You may target your chest, core and triceps with this move:21
1. Lie down on your stomach. Keep your legs together and direct your hands forward, holding them close to your body, right under your chest.
2. Straighten your elbows and tuck them into place. Once your body is aligned in a straight line, use your knees or toes as a pivot point to push up from the ground.
3. Return to starting position without your stomach touching the ground
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• Close grip pushups — According to Muscle and Strength magazine, these pushups mainly work out your triceps, and can be done by beginners too:22
1. Place your palms on the floor and allow your thumbs to touch each other.
2. Extend your legs backward, straighten your body and ensure that only your toes are hitting the floor.
3. Bend slightly at the elbows to maintain tension in the triceps.
4. Slowly lower yourself as far as you can without touching the floor. While doing this move, straighten your body.
5. Pause, and without locking the elbows out, move upward to the starting position.
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Consider these three more advanced types of pushups:
• Plyometric pushups — Start in the standard pushup position. When your sternum reaches the ground, hold the position before pushing upward forcefully so that your hands leave the floor. Clap them together before returning them to their initial position.23
• Diamond pushups — Put your hands together under your chest, with the thumb and index fingers forming a diamond shape once in the standard pushup position.24
• Weighted pushups — Perform 30 reps of the standard pushup to help prevent bad form or poor posture. Then place a weight plate, sandbag or weight vest that's around 10% of your total body weight on your back and perform more pushups. Once you're ready, you can add more items or weights that are 5% to 10% more than your current threshold.25
There are other different types of pushups you can incorporate into your routine, provided that you sustain correct form. Before doing so, however, learn how the move should be done properly and perform it under the watchful eye of a trainer or coach (especially if you're doing it for the first time):26,27
- Clap pushups
- Handstand pushups
- Pike pushups
- Dive bomber pushups
- Fingertip pushups
- Shoulder tap pushups
- Knuckle pushups
- Planche pushups
- Triangle pushups
- TRX pushups28
- Wide pushups
- Elevated pushups
- Hindu pushups
- Superman pushups29
- Spiderman pushups or spider pushups
- Dumbbells pushups
How Many Pushups Should I Be Able to Do?
According to Born Fitness, an average person should be able to perform around 20 pushups.30 However, this may vary depending on your fitness level.
One way to check your fitness level is by knowing if your core is strong enough to keep your back straight. Doing a one-minute plank may help you with this, and will help you identify if you can do pushups properly, along with how many you can do. It's very important to maintain proper form before increasing the number of reps in your routine.
However, some people may find out that when it comes to their core and upper body strength, one area may be stronger than the other. If you have maintained the plank, you can begin doing pushups. For people with a weak core, adding planks to your set may assist you in speeding up the pace of your pushups. Additionally, it may be more effective to perform several sets of pushups throughout the day, instead of all at once.
Pushups for Beginners
If you still lack strength to do a standard pushup, consider planting your knees on the floor instead of lifting them off the ground. While keeping the body straight, move your heels up toward the buttocks.31
You may do this exercise slowly, but still make sure that you utilize full range of motion and let your chest gently touch the floor. This enables you to pull your elbows toward your sides and lets you target chest muscles more. Wall pushups are another good addition to a pushup workout for beginners. Here's how those are done:32,33
- Stand a little farther than arm's length away from a wall. Place your palms flat on the wall and lean against it.
- Do a pushup by using your arms to push backward and then slowly move forward.
Personally, I find it more effective to do several sets scattered throughout the day instead of doing all sets at one time. By doing so, you may add more movements into your daily routine and enjoy more of their benefits.
Types of Pushups That Target Specific Body Areas
Here are some of the best pushups to help tone your chest, biceps and abs. These may be helpful if you want to focus on these specific areas of your body. If you're unfamiliar with how these pushups work, talk to a physical trainer first in order to learn about the proper form so you can minimize your risk of injury.
Pushups to Build Chest Muscles
Some upper chest pushups and lower chest pushups you may want to try include:
- Plyometric pushup34
- Suspended pushup35
- Incline pushup36
- One-armed incline pushup37
- Decline pushup38
- Pike pushup39
Pushups for Better Biceps
Pushup variations like the single-arm40 and diamond41 pushups may help build your biceps better. If you want the benefits of improving your core along with your arms, try doing plank pushups:42
- Assume a plank position and straighten your arms and legs. Place your hands under the shoulders and see to it that your feet are hip width apart. Suck navel in toward the spine.
- Move your right forearm toward the floor or surface, followed by the left, and move into an elbow plank position. Ensure that your torso remains parallel to the floor.
- Once done, plant both your hands on the floor, and push back upward to a plank position. Do not move the torso from side to side while doing this.
- Perform this for a total of 10 reps, switch directions and do another set of 10 reps.
Pushups to Tone Your Abs
Pushups are effective and possibly even more efficient than situps for ab toning, as they may help burn fat and enhance the strength of your rectus abdominis muscle.43 If you want to build your abdominal muscles better and increase their strength, I suggest doing the following techniques while you're performing pushups:
• Pull in your belly button — When you plank, try to suck in the muscles around your belly button to help tighten the deep inner transverse abdominis muscle. This muscle, which the belly button is attached to, is responsible for keeping the gut in place and delivering support to your spine and vertebrae.
• Perform a Kegel squeeze — Pull the lower pelvic muscles upward and clench them tightly to concentrate on the abdominal muscles. A Kegel squeeze can be likened to stopping urine mid-flow.
You can also do the advanced pushup renegade row to target abs and deep core muscles, once you have appropriate weights for your strength and fitness level:44
- Assume the standard pushup position. Put the dumbbells at a 45-degree angle away from you.
- Pull in your belly button, do the Kegel squeeze and inhale once you move toward the floor. As you go up, exhale.
- When your arms are fully extended, grab the right dumbbell and pull it toward your chest to do a row. Let go of the dumbbell, do another pushup, and take the left dumbbell and lift it.
Safety Tips for Doing Pushups
Having poor pushup form is a recipe for disaster. Incorrectly doing pushups can raise your risk for certain injuries like wrist pain, rotator cuff injuries and lower back pain. Wrist stretches between sets may help mitigate risk for wrist pain while doing pushups. Place your knees and hands on the floor. With the backs of your hands on the surface and your fingers angled toward your toes, stretch the muscles often targeted during pushups.45
You may also stretch your wrist muscles by intertwining your fingers and making sure both palms are touching, forming a "ball." Then, roll hands clockwise and counterclockwise for 15 to 30 seconds each.46 Apart from alleviating wrist stress, work on releasing built-up tension in your core, back and legs while doing pushups.
Injuries can develop if tension remains in the body post-workout. Doing a bridge stretch over a Swiss ball after a set may aid in lowering injury risk. Rest your head and upper back on the Swiss ball. At the same time, stretch your arms perpendicularly to your body and allow hips to relax toward the floor. Maintain this position for one minute.47
Pushups Are a Good Addition to Your Fitness Arsenal
There is a sense of accomplishment when you know you're able to properly perform pushups. For some, it may be satisfying to increase the difficulty level with each routine, and for others, it's enough to reap some of the health benefits that are vital for your body. Either way, you can initiate some positive health changes just by doing some reps of this low-cost exercise.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Pushups
Q: How can you get better at doing pushups?
A: Improving at pushups does not happen overnight. Start by determining the number of pushups you can properly perform, and doing workouts with that number of reps. Once you feel your strength increasing, you can perform more reps or do more advanced pushups, while making sure you get sufficient rest too.48
Q: What is the difference between doing pushups vs. bench press?
A: What sets a bench press apart from a pushup is the method utilized to target various muscles. People can bench press using a machine dedicated to this move, or improvise by lying down on a bench and lifting a barbell or dumbbells.49,50
On the other hand, pushups involve a person lying down face first on a floor or surface and using your arms to move upward and downward. Most of the time, only bodyweight is involved in a pushup, except for cases wherein dumbbells or weights are added. A major advantage of pushups is the opportunity to utilize free range of motion, unlike weights, which tend to restrict your shoulder blades.51,52
Despite their differences, both exercises require correct posture and form, not just for increased workout efficiency and success, but for decreased injuries too.53
Q: Can I do pushups every day?
A: If your body has gotten used to doing pushups, you can do them every day provided that:
• You are aware of your fitness level and know the number of pushups you can perform.54
• You remember the proper pushup form and ensure that you stick to it to prevent injuries.
• You perform pushups staggered throughout the day instead of doing them all at once.
• You allot a rest period to promote muscle recovery.55
Q: How many pushups should I do during a workout?
A: As Adam Bornstein of Born Fitness highlights, most people can perform about 20 pushups on average. However, the answer to this question ultimately depends on your personal fitness level. Ideally, your "baseline" should be the number of pushups you can do with proper form.56
Q: What are other effective pushup alternatives I can try?
A: If you're looking for alternatives to pushups, consider the following exercises:57,58
• Overhead press
• Dumbbell bench press
• Machine chest press
• TRX chest fly
• Heavy med ball push