How many Push-Ups should I do per workout?

Three to four sets, each stopped two or three repetitions short of failure, covers most strength goals, whatever rep number that turns out to be for you. If you are training muscular endurance, do more sets and take them closer to failure. The count matters far less than whether the last repetition holds the same body line as the first.

Does the Push-Up build muscle?

Yes, as long as the sets are taken close to failure. Once bodyweight sets start running past fifteen or twenty clean repetitions, add a band across your back, a weighted vest or a plate between your shoulder blades so the sets stay demanding instead of just getting longer.

Can the Push-Up replace the bench press?

Not for heavy strength work. Eighteen young men trained twice a week for eight weeks on either a bench press set to 40% of their one-rep max or push-ups adjusted to that same load, and both groups gained similar pectoralis major and triceps thickness and similar bench press strength. That was a light bench press matched by an equally light push-up, though, and the Barbell Bench Press still loads far beyond anything you can hang on a push-up.

Where should I start if I cannot do a full Push-Up yet?

Put your hands on a bench, a counter or a wall and work the Incline Push-Up, lowering the surface as you get stronger. An incline keeps the whole-body line you are eventually training for, which is why most coaches prefer it to the Kneeling Push-Up, though kneeling is a reasonable option when no stable surface is available.

How do I make the Push-Up harder?

Elevate your feet for a Decline Push-Up, slow the lowering phase, or pause a second just above the floor. Adding resistance with a Band Push-Up or a plate between the shoulder blades works too, and shifting your weight onto one arm in an Archer Push-Up raises the demand without any equipment. Moving your hands wider is not one of the options.

Push-Up

What Is the Push-Up?

Push-Up is a compound exercise that primarily targets the chest, and also engages the triceps, the front of the shoulders and the trunk. It is a beginner-level movement that needs no equipment at all: you hold a straight line from head to heels, lower your chest to just above the floor and press back up.

The Push-Up is also one of the few strength exercises that doubles as a standard fitness test. A maximum-repetition set is used to score upper-body muscular endurance against age and sex norms in health-related fitness batteries, in school testing and in military and public-safety entry standards. In a training program it works as a warm-up before heavier pressing, as accessory volume after a bench session, or as the main pressing exercise for anyone training without equipment.

Hand position changes how hard the chest and triceps work, though not in the way it is usually described. An electromyography study of twenty young men found that the standard and diamond hand positions both produced more chest and triceps activation than a wide hand position, with no meaningful difference between standard and diamond. Going wider does not buy extra chest work, and the narrow Diamond Push-Up is the variation usually programmed when the triceps are the target. What really changes the load is height: hands raised makes the movement lighter, feet raised makes it heavier and shifts more of the work onto the upper chest and shoulders.

Because the load is only ever a portion of your bodyweight, and it scales with nothing more than the height of your hands or feet, the Push-Up suits almost everyone, from a first training session to an advanced program. If a full repetition is out of reach, start on a high Incline Push-Up and lower the surface as you get stronger, or use the Kneeling Push-Up. When long bodyweight sets stop being hard, a Decline Push-Up, a band across the back or a plate between the shoulder blades keeps the reps in a range that still builds strength.

Muscles Worked

MuscleActivation

Pectoralis Major: Primary
Deltoid: High
Triceps Brachii (Long Head): High
Serratus Anterior: Medium
Triceps Brachii (Lateral Head): Medium
Triceps Brachii (Medial Head): Medium
External Oblique: Low
Rectus Abdominis: Low
Gluteus Maximus: Minimal
Rectus Abdominis (Lower): Minimal

Instructions

Place your hands flat on the floor slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, fingers pointing forward and wrists under your shoulders.
Step your feet back until your body forms a straight line from head to heels, with your weight on your toes and your feet close together.
Squeeze your glutes and brace your abs so your hips neither sag nor lift, and keep your head in line with your spine.
Bend your elbows and lower your chest under control, letting your upper arms travel back at about 45 degrees from your torso rather than straight out to the sides.
Allow your shoulder blades to draw together as you descend instead of holding them locked in place.
Lower until your chest is just above the floor, with the line from head to heels still intact.
Press through your palms and drive the floor away, straightening your arms fully at the top.
Let your shoulder blades spread apart again at the top, then start the next repetition from the same body line.

Common Mistakes

Sagging hips
Letting the hips drop out of line hands the load to the lower back and takes the trunk out of the movement.
Flaring the elbows out to the sides
Driving the upper arms straight out at 90 degrees to the torso crowds the front of the shoulder instead of keeping the press where the chest is strongest.
Leading with the head
Dropping the chin toward the floor ahead of the chest makes the repetition look deeper than it is and strains the neck.
Cutting the range short
Stopping halfway down keeps the chest out of the range where it does most of the work.
Letting the hips rise first
Pushing the hips up ahead of the chest breaks the straight line and skips the hardest part of the press.
Bouncing off the floor
Dropping onto the chest and rebounding replaces the bottom of the press with momentum.

Injuries

Push-Up is a low risk exercise when performed with proper technique. You never press your full bodyweight, there is nothing to drop, and the floor ends the descent before your upper arms travel far behind your torso, which is the position that exposes the front of the shoulder in deeper pressing movements like the Chest Dip.

The wrists are the usual complaint. With the palms flat the wrist sits near the end of its extension range for the whole set, and high volume can leave it sore even when nothing is wrong with it. Push-up handles, parallettes or a pair of light dumbbells, as in the Dumbbell Push-Up, keep the wrist straight and stacked over the forearm, and resting on the fists does the same if your knuckles tolerate it. Building volume gradually does more than any of them.

The shoulder and the lower back are the other two. Elbows driven straight out to the sides put the upper arm at 90 degrees to the torso and crowd the front of the shoulder, so keep them traveling back at about 45 degrees instead. Hips that sag hand the load to the lumbar spine rather than the trunk, which is why a set should end when the body line starts to break instead of grinding out extra repetitions.

If a full repetition forces the hips down, regress to an Incline Push-Up or a Kneeling Push-Up and come back to the floor once you can hold the line on every rep. Progress the other way with a Decline Push-Up or added resistance. A sharp pinch at the front of the shoulder, or a wrist that hurts rather than aches, ends the set; neither is something to work through.

Overview

Primary Focus: Chest
Equipment: Body weight
Modality: Strength
Difficulty: Beginner

Alternative Exercises

Other Names for the Push-Up

The Push-Up is also known as:

Press-Up

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many Push-Ups should I do per workout?: Three to four sets, each stopped two or three repetitions short of failure, covers most strength goals, whatever rep number that turns out to be for you. If you are training muscular endurance, do more sets and take them closer to failure. The count matters far less than whether the last repetition holds the same body line as the first.
Q: Does the Push-Up build muscle?: Yes, as long as the sets are taken close to failure. Once bodyweight sets start running past fifteen or twenty clean repetitions, add a band across your back, a weighted vest or a plate between your shoulder blades so the sets stay demanding instead of just getting longer.
Q: Can the Push-Up replace the bench press?: Not for heavy strength work. Eighteen young men trained twice a week for eight weeks on either a bench press set to 40% of their one-rep max or push-ups adjusted to that same load, and both groups gained similar pectoralis major and triceps thickness and similar bench press strength. That was a light bench press matched by an equally light push-up, though, and the Barbell Bench Press still loads far beyond anything you can hang on a push-up.
Q: Where should I start if I cannot do a full Push-Up yet?: Put your hands on a bench, a counter or a wall and work the Incline Push-Up, lowering the surface as you get stronger. An incline keeps the whole-body line you are eventually training for, which is why most coaches prefer it to the Kneeling Push-Up, though kneeling is a reasonable option when no stable surface is available.
Q: How do I make the Push-Up harder?: Elevate your feet for a Decline Push-Up, slow the lowering phase, or pause a second just above the floor. Adding resistance with a Band Push-Up or a plate between the shoulder blades works too, and shifting your weight onto one arm in an Archer Push-Up raises the demand without any equipment. Moving your hands wider is not one of the options.