How to Do a Push-Up: A Hinge Health Guide
Learn how to do a push-up to strengthen your upper body with variations for all levels. Discover how this exercise benefits your arms, shoulders, and chest.
Table of Contents
Push-ups: whether you love them, tolerate them, or dread them, they’re a well-known exercise that many people believe they can’t do. If that’s you, it might be time to reconsider. Push-ups are a versatile bodyweight exercise that involve raising and lowering your body by using your arms while keeping your body in a straight line, parallel to the ground.
While they may sound challenging, there are many ways to modify this exercise to meet your needs, so you can reap the benefits they offer. Push-ups build strength in your core, chest, shoulders, and triceps, and they help make everyday tasks like lifting easier. They also don’t require any equipment or much space, making them a convenient way to boost cardiovascular health, muscle endurance, and even help with joint and muscle pain.
Read on to learn how to do a push-up and discover modifications to suit your fitness level.
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What Muscles Do Push-Ups Work?
Push-ups are a compound exercise, which means they engage multiple muscle groups at once. Here are the primary muscles that push-ups work:
Pectoralis major. This is the primary chest muscle. It's heavily engaged when you do push-ups.
Triceps. Located on the back of your upper arm, the triceps help you extend your elbow.
Anterior deltoid, or the front part of the shoulder muscle. It's activated when you push your body up and helps you flex your shoulder.
Serratus anterior, which is sometimes referred to as the "boxer's muscle." It’s located along your ribs, beneath your armpits. It helps stabilize your shoulder blade against your rib cage.
Rectus abdominis. Often known as the "six-pack" muscle, this helps stabilize your core and keeps your body straight during a push-up.
Obliques, which run along the sides of the abdomen and help you rotate your trunk. They assist in stabilizing your core during push-ups.
Erector spinae, which are the muscles that run along the spine and help keep your back straight during a push-up.
Push-Up Variations and Exercises
How to Do a Push-Up for Beginners
Start on your hands and toes, lifting your knees off the ground while keeping your legs straight.
Your hands should be under your shoulders, located a bit wider than shoulder-width apart. Your hips should be raised to about the same height as your shoulders.
Bend your elbows and move your chest toward the floor, stopping at a height that is comfortable yet challenging for you.
Focus on keeping your hips from dipping toward the floor.
Push your hands into the floor as you straighten your arms to return to your starting position.
Push-Up Modifications
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To make a push-up easier:
Push-up from knees: Drop your knees to the floor and then perform the push-up. This decreases the total load on your upper body.
Wall push-up: Stand facing a wall and perform push-ups by pushing your body away from it. This takes most of your body weight out of the equation, making it easier for beginners.
Incline push-up: Place your hands on an elevated surface like a bench, table, or wall. This reduces the angle and decreases the resistance, making the push-up easier.
Modified range of motion: Limit how far you move your chest toward the floor.
To make a push-up harder:
Diamond push-up: Position your hands close together in a diamond shape under your chest. This places more emphasis on your triceps and increases the challenge.
Decline push-up: Elevate your feet on a bench, chair, or box. This shifts more of your body weight onto your upper body.
Plyometric push-up: Add an explosive movement by pushing off the ground with enough force to lift your hands off the floor between reps, improving power and intensity.
One-arm push-up: In this advanced variation, you perform push-ups with one hand behind your back or placed at your side. This significantly increases the demand on your core, shoulders, and chest.
The information contained in these videos is intended to be used for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice or treatment for any specific condition. Hinge Health is not your healthcare provider and is not responsible for any injury sustained or exacerbated by your use of or participation in these exercises. Please consult with your healthcare provider with any questions you may have about your medical condition or treatment.
Benefits of Push-Ups
Push-ups are a foundational exercise that help improve overall upper body strength, core stability, and endurance. This translates to enhanced performance and increased efficiency in many daily activities, such as:
Lifting objects, such as groceries, kids, or boxes.
Pushing motions (e.g., a heavy door, a lawn mower, or a stroller).
Carrying loads, like heavy bags.
Getting up from a lying position. The motion of pushing yourself up from a bed or the ground might become more effortless with regular push-up practice.
Activities requiring balance, whether it’s a sport or even simple tasks like standing on one foot to put on a shoe.
Repetitive tasks. Jobs or chores that require repetitive upper-body movements, such as scrubbing, painting, or hammering, can become easier due to increased endurance from regular push-up practice.
Why Are Push-Ups So Hard?
Push-ups are a challenging exercise for many people because they require significant upper-body strength, as well as coordination. The movement engages multiple muscle groups, including your chest, shoulders, triceps, and core, all of which must work together to lift and lower your body.
If you don’t have enough upper body strength or core stability, maintaining a straight body line while pushing through your arms can be difficult, especially if you're not used to supporting your body weight. The mechanics of a push-up also demand good shoulder and wrist mobility, which can add to the challenge.
However, push-up variations like incline push-ups or knee push-ups can make the exercise more manageable. By decreasing the amount of body weight you need to lift, these modifications allow you to build strength gradually. As your upper body and core become stronger, you can progress to more challenging variations, eventually working up to a standard push-up.
Push-Ups Common Mistakes
The idea of "perfect form" in exercise is a common myth, as there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to movement. Everyone’s body is different, so variations in how to do a push-up are natural and often necessary to suit your individual strength, mobility, and comfort levels. That said, there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to get the most benefit from push-ups. Here are some common modifications people make to push-ups without intending to that may affect how much benefit they get from the exercise.
Sagging hips. Letting your hips drop toward the ground can take pressure off your core and focus it on your low back. This means you don’t get as much core engagement and may feel some strain in your back. Try to remain in a straight line from head to heels.
Flaring elbows. Allowing your elbows to flare out too wide (at 90 degrees) may not feel great for your shoulders. Aim to keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle from your body.
Changing hand placement. Placing your hands too far forward or too wide makes the push-up less challenging for your muscles and can cause wrist discomfort. Try to keep your hands just slightly wider than shoulder-width and aligned under your shoulders.
How Hinge Health Can Help You
If you have joint or muscle pain that makes it hard to move, you can get the relief you’ve been looking for with Hinge Health’s online exercise therapy program.
The best part: You don’t have to leave your home because our program is digital. That means you can easily get the care you need through our app, when and where it works for you.
Through our program, you’ll have access to therapeutic exercises and stretches for your condition. Additionally, you’ll have a personal care team to guide, support, and tailor our program to you.
See if you qualify for Hinge Health and confirm free coverage through your employer or benefit plan here.
This article and its contents are provided for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice or professional services specific to you or your medical condition.
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References
Azeem, K. (2015, February). The Push–Up. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275023773_The_Push_-up
Lillis, C. (2019, August 23). Pushups every day: Benefits and risks. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326149#muscle-tone-and-strength
Solan, M. (2019, February 18). The rise of push-ups: A classic exercise that can help you get stronger. Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/rise-push-ups-classic-exercise-can-motivate-get-stronger-2019021810165
Yang, J., Christophi, C. A., Farioli, A., Baur, D. M., Moffatt, S., Zollinger, T. W., & Kales, S. N. (2019). Association Between Push-up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men. JAMA Network Open, 2(2), e188341. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.8341