Everyone thinks they know how to do a press up. You drop to the floor, shove the earth away, and repeat until your chest burns, right? Well, honestly, most people I see in the gym are doing a weird, jerky movement that looks more like a frantic caterpillar than a solid strength exercise. If your elbows are flared out like a bird's wings or your lower back is sagging toward the floor, you aren't just "doing it wrong"—you’re basically begging for a rotator cuff injury.
Let’s get real.
The press up is a moving plank. It is a full-body integration challenge that happens to murder your pecs and triceps. If you want to learn how to do press ups correctly, you have to stop thinking about your arms and start thinking about your toes, your glutes, and your grip on the floor.
Why Your Shoulder Position is Killing Your Progress
The biggest mistake? Flaring the elbows at a 90-degree angle to the torso. This creates massive impingement in the shoulder joint. Instead, you want your arms to form an arrow shape, not a 'T'. Your elbows should be tucked back at roughly a 45-degree angle.
Think about "screwing" your hands into the floor. This external rotation creates torque in the shoulder joint, which stabilizes the humerus. It feels different. It feels tighter. That’s because it’s actually working. When you descend, your forearms should remain relatively vertical. If they're tilting all over the place, your lever mechanics are off.
The Secret of the Active Plank
Most people forget that a press up is a core exercise. If your hips sag, you’re losing all the force transfer from your lower body.
Tighten your glutes. Seriously, squeeze them like you’re trying to hold a coin between your cheeks. This tilts your pelvis into a neutral position and protects your lumbar spine. Professional strength coaches like Dan John often talk about "tension" being the key to strength. If you're limp in the middle, you’re leaking energy.
You’ve got to stay rigid. From your ankles to your ears, you should be a straight line. If someone put a PVC pipe on your back, it should touch your head, your upper back, and your butt throughout the entire range of motion. If there’s a gap at the lower back, tuck those hips.
How To Do Press Ups Correctly Without Ruining Your Wrists
Wrist pain is the number one reason people quit doing floor work. Often, it’s because they’re dumping all their weight into the heel of the palm.
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Try this: Claw the floor.
Engage your fingertips and the knuckles at the base of your fingers. This distributes the load across the entire hand and takes the direct pressure off the carpal bones. If your wrists are still screaming, you can use dumbbells as handles or hex-style push-up bars. This allows you to keep a neutral wrist alignment, which is a total game-changer for anyone with previous injuries or limited mobility.
Depth vs. Ego
Stop doing "ego reps." You know the ones—where you move about two inches and tell yourself it counts.
A real press up requires a full range of motion. Your chest should get within an inch of the floor, or even lightly touch it, provided you can maintain shoulder stability. If you can’t get low without your shoulders shrugging up toward your ears, you’ve gone too far. Quality beats quantity every single time. It’s better to do five perfect reps than fifty "half-reps" that just make you look like you’re having a mild seizure on the mats.
Common Myths About Hand Placement
People love to say that "wide grip works the chest" and "narrow grip works the triceps." While there’s some scientific truth to muscle recruitment patterns—a study in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science confirmed that narrow-base push-ups increase activation in the triceps and pectoralis major—it doesn’t mean you should go to extremes.
Extremely wide grips put your shoulders in a mechanically weak position. Extremely narrow "diamond" push-ups can be brutal on the elbows for beginners. For most people, a hand placement just slightly wider than shoulder-width is the "sweet spot" for long-term joint health.
The Downward Phase Matters More Than You Think
Don’t just "drop." The eccentric phase (the lowering part) is where a lot of muscle building happens.
Control the descent. Count to two or three on the way down. This builds "time under tension." When you reach the bottom, don't bounce. Pause for a micro-second, then drive through the floor as if you’re trying to push yourself through the ceiling. Imagine you are trying to push the floor away from you rather than pushing yourself away from the floor. It sounds like a semantic trick, but it changes how your brain recruits the muscles.
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Troubleshooting Your Technique
If you find that you simply cannot do a full press up with good form, stop doing them on your knees.
I know, that’s controversial.
But knee push-ups change the lever length and often lead to "piking" at the hips, which doesn't translate well to the full movement. Instead, do incline press ups. Place your hands on a bench, a sturdy table, or even a wall. This allows you to maintain the full "moving plank" body tension while reducing the percentage of your body weight you have to lift. As you get stronger, lower the incline until you’re back on the floor.
Breathing Like a Pro
Don’t hold your breath. You’ll just get lightheaded and your blood pressure will spike.
Inhale as you lower yourself down. Exhale forcefully on the way up. This "forced exhalation" helps engage the deep abdominal muscles (the transverse abdominis), which further stabilizes your spine during the hardest part of the lift.
Advanced Variations for Constant Growth
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you have to keep challenging the nervous system.
- Pause Push-ups: Hold the bottom position for three seconds. It removes all momentum.
- Deficit Push-ups: Use blocks or handles to go deeper than the floor level. This increases the stretch on the pecs.
- Archer Push-ups: Shift your weight to one side as you descend. It’s a great bridge toward the one-arm push-up.
- Weighted Push-ups: Have a partner place a plate on your upper back (not your lower back!) or wear a weighted vest.
Actionable Steps To Own Your Press Up
To truly master how to do press ups correctly, stop treats them as a "burnout" move at the end of a workout. Treat them as a skill.
- Film Yourself: Set up your phone and record a set from the side. You will be shocked at how much your hips sag or your head "pecks" forward.
- The 3-Second Rule: Spend three seconds on the lowering phase of every single rep for the next week.
- Fix Your Hands: Check your alignment. Are your fingers pointing forward or slightly out? Are you "screwing" your hands into the floor?
- Daily Volume: Don't go to failure. If you can do 10 perfect reps, do sets of 5 or 6 throughout the day. This "greasing the groove" method builds neurological efficiency without frying your central nervous system.
The press up is a foundational human movement. It builds a thick chest, powerful triceps, and a core made of steel. But it only works if you respect the mechanics. Stop rushing. Fix your form. The results will follow.
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Next Steps for Mastery
Start your next workout with three sets of five "slow-motion" press ups. Focus entirely on the "screw" of the hands and the squeeze of the glutes. Once those five reps feel effortless and perfectly stable, gradually increase your volume while maintaining that same rigid body tension. If you feel your form slipping even slightly, the set is over.