Anyone can build a stronger upper body—wide chest, big shoulders, and strong arms—just by doing push-ups. You need three key things:
- Correct form
- Progressive overload
- Consistent progress tracking
I’ve seen many people think they’re doing push-ups right, only to find out they’re not! Whether it’s the wrong hand placement or not going low enough, little mistakes can mess up your progress and even lead to injury. Getting your form right is the key to making push-ups work for you.
Pushup Form
First, begin with the proper setup. Position your hands in your pushup stance, ensuring your fingers are spread wide apart rather than close together. This positioning helps to boost strength and stability.
Make sure your hands are pointing straight ahead, not angled inward or outward. Incorrect hand positioning can lead to wrist injuries, so it’s important to maintain proper alignment.
Next, ensure that your forearms are aligned directly above your wrists in a straight line. Avoid letting your forearms bend at an angle, affecting your stability and form.
Now, let’s move on to your elbows. Lowering yourself, your elbows should bend to about a 45-60-degree angle. From a bird’ s-eye view, your elbows should form an arrow shape. Avoid a “T” shape, where your elbows flare out too much, as this makes the pushup more difficult and increases the risk of shoulder injury.
Now, find the ideal hand placement. Your hands should be positioned at the level of your mid-chest—neither too wide nor too narrow. Keep adjusting until your arms form the arrow shape I mentioned earlier. This “sweet spot” will allow you to maximize strength and minimize strain during the pushup.
Now that you’re in position, let’s focus on engaging the key muscles: your chest, triceps, core, and back. Begin by setting your hands in the sweet spot, with your fingers spread wide. Next, slide your shoulders down and away from your ears, actively pushing the floor away to engage your shoulder blades. This helps open up your chest and activate your back muscles.
At the same time, pull your chin slightly back to align your head with your body. This adjustment will prevent straining your neck and help place your mid-back muscles in a better position. By doing this, you’ll stabilize your body, ensuring proper posture throughout the movement.
We are done with the upper body. Now, to properly engage your lower body, focus on positioning your hips correctly and engaging your core.
Start by ensuring your hips are in a neutral position—your tailbone should be tucked slightly under, not sagging. This small adjustment helps to activate your core and maintain a stable foundation throughout the movement. To further engage your core, take a deep breath in and brace your abdominal muscles as if you’re preparing to get punched in the stomach. This will help protect your lower back and ensure a solid, controlled pushup. Keeping your core tight will also help maintain proper body alignment and improve the efficiency of each rep.
If your spine is not properly aligned—either arching upward or sagging downward—it can put unnecessary strain on your lower back, increasing the risk of injury.
Now, let’s focus on your leg position. Start by extending one leg fully, ensuring your thigh muscles are tight and engaged. Once that leg is in place, extend the other leg in the same way.
For your feet, you can position your toes either close together or slightly wider, but make sure they’re no more than 12 inches apart. This will help maintain stability while engaging your lower body and core during the pushup.
Now you’re ready to perform your first pushup. Get into the pushup position, making sure to squeeze your core and glutes. This will help align your body, ensuring that the back of your head, hips, and heels form a straight line.
As you settle into the position, take a deep breath in. When you lower your body, exhale. This breathing pattern will help improve your mind-muscle connection.
To begin the movement, bend your elbows and lower your body until your chest is just above the ground. Exhale as you descend. Then, push yourself back up, inhaling as you extend your arms. Make sure your elbows are fully straightened at the top, and that your head, hips, and feet remain aligned in a straight line throughout the movement.
Modification
If you found this push-up routine too easy or too challenging, don’t worry—I’ve got some great modifications to help you level up or make it more manageable!
For beginners or anyone finding the push-ups a bit too tough, start with kneeling push-ups or try incline push-ups. You can use a chair, bench, or even a wall to perform incline push-ups. These variations reduce the intensity and help you build strength before moving on to full push-ups.
Kneeling push-ups are also a great option if you’re comfortably completing 20 push-ups—consider them a “drop set.” After hitting 20 regular push-ups, drop to kneeling push-ups to push your muscles even further.
Try single-leg push-ups! By lifting one leg off the ground, you increase the load on your upper body, making the push-up significantly harder. This variation will fire up your chest, shoulders, and triceps. It is called progressive overload. Progressive overload is all about gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts over time. You start at a challenging but comfortable level, then push yourself a bit more each time to build strength and muscle.
For an extra challenge, you can also add some weight to your back while doing push-ups. Whether it’s a weighted vest, a backpack filled with books, or a sandbag, this added resistance will make each rep harder, pushing your muscles to work even harder.
Once you start adding weight and performing push-ups consistently, you’ll begin to see significant improvements over time. The added resistance challenges your muscles more, helping them grow stronger and more efficient. As a result, you’ll be able to do more push-ups than you could before—whether that means increasing your reps or performing more challenging variations.
If you’re ready to take things up a notch and target different muscle groups, consider these advanced push-up variations.
Spider-Man Push-ups: These hit your core hard as you bring your knee to your elbow with each push-up, engaging your abs and obliques more.
Diamond Push-ups: Placing your hands in a diamond shape underneath your chest focuses more on the triceps, helping you build arm strength.
Pike Push-ups: With your hips raised high, this variation shifts more of the work onto your shoulders, targeting the deltoids and upper chest.
By mixing up these variations, you’ll not only keep things exciting but also challenge different muscle groups, helping you break through plateaus and see even more progress. Keep pushing yourself!
How to Measure Real Progress
If you’re doing 4 sets of 6 reps on Day 1, 4 sets of 7 reps on Day 2, and then only 4 sets of 6 reps on Day 3, you are not progressing. Your goal should always be to increase the reps or sets to ensure that you’re challenging your muscles and continuing to improve.
For example, after Day 1’s 4 sets of 6 reps, aim for 4 sets of 7 reps on Day 2, and then 4 sets of 8 reps or even 5 sets of 7 reps on Day 3. This steady increase helps you track and see consistent improvements, which is the key to building strength and endurance.
Once you’ve hit your goal of 20 reps per set consistently, congratulations! You’ve built a solid foundation. Now, it’s time to take your push-ups to the next level by applying the progressive overload that I mentioned earlier.