Push-Up
oec:push-up
A foundational bodyweight exercise that builds upper-body pressing strength and trunk stability.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: pushup, press-up, press up
How to do it
Setup
- Place your hands flat on the floor slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, directly under your shoulders.
- Extend your legs behind you with feet together or hip-width apart, supporting your weight on your hands and toes.
- Brace your core, squeeze your glutes, and establish a rigid straight line from your head to your heels.
Movement
- Lower your chest toward the floor by bending your elbows, keeping them tracking at roughly a 45-degree angle to your torso.
- Descend until your chest is an inch off the floor or lightly touches it, maintaining full-body tension.
- Press through your palms to extend your arms, returning to the top plank position.
- Push fully through the floor at the top to complete scapular protraction without rounding the lower back.
Breathing
Inhale smoothly as you lower your body toward the floor; exhale forcefully as you press back up to lockout.
Cues
- Body like a plank.
- Arrow shape with your elbows, not a 'T'.
- Push the floor away.
Common faults
- Sagging hips and hyperextended lumbar spine.
- Brace your abdominals and squeeze your glutes to maintain a neutral spine throughout the set.
- Elbows flaring excessively out to ninety degrees from the torso.
- Tuck your elbows to roughly 45 degrees, forming an arrow shape with your head and torso.
- Cutting the range of motion short by nodding the head rather than lowering the chest.
- Keep your neck packed in neutral alignment and lower until your chest nearly touches the floor.
Safety
- If wrist discomfort occurs, perform the push-up with hands on parallettes, dumbbells, or closed fists to keep wrists neutral.
Muscles
Joints
- Shoulder: Horizontal adduction, Flexion
- Elbow: Extension
- Shoulder blade: Protraction, Retraction
- Lumbar spine: Isometric stabilization
Details
- Movement
- Horizontal push, Anti-extension
- Modality
- Calisthenics, Strength, Hypertrophy
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- push
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- closed
- Level
- beginner
- Equipment
- None
- Record
- Repetitions
- Load
- bodyweight
Related
- progression of Incline Push-Up
- progression of Wall Push-Up
- part of Burpee
Sources
- wger: Push-Up, by Settebello (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.