Most people treat the push up like a chore. It’s that thing you did in high school gym class while a coach barked at you, or the exercise you breeze through at the end of a workout because you feel like you "should" do some chest work. But honestly? Most people are doing them wrong. They’re flailing their elbows out like a startled bird or letting their hips sag until their lower back screams for mercy.
Learning how to properly do push ups isn't just about looking cool at the gym. It’s about structural integrity. If you get the mechanics right, you’re building a bulletproof upper body, taxing your core more than a plank ever could, and saving yourself from a lifetime of rotator cuff physical therapy. If you get it wrong, you’re just practicing a slow-motion injury.
I’ve seen guys who can bench press 315 pounds struggle to do twenty perfect, chest-to-floor repetitions. That’s because a real push up is a moving plank. It’s a total-body integration. It’s not just a chest exercise. It’s a "you" exercise.
The Plank Foundation: Why Your Hips Are Probably Sagging
Before you even think about bending your elbows, you have to master the setup. Your body should be a straight line from your heels to the crown of your head. Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
People tend to do one of two things: they either pike their butt into the air because their core is weak, or they let their pelvis drop toward the floor. The latter is what Dr. Stuart McGill, a world-renowned spine biomechanics expert, often warns about in terms of unnecessary spinal loading. When your hips sag, you lose all tension in your glutes and abs. You’re no longer working your chest; you’re just hanging on your ligaments.
Squeeze your glutes. Hard. Like you're trying to hold a quarter between your cheeks. This tilts your pelvis into a neutral position and protects your lumbar spine. If you aren't feeling your quads and glutes firing, you isn't doing it right. It’s that simple.
The "Arrow" vs. The "T": Saving Your Rotator Cuff
If there is one thing that drives physical therapists crazy, it’s the "T-shaped" push up. This is when your elbows flare out at a 90-degree angle from your torso. This position creates massive impingement in the shoulder joint. It jams the humerus up into the acromion process, and over time, it shreds your tendons.
Think about an arrow. Your head is the tip, and your arms are the fins. When you look down from a bird's-eye view, your elbows should be tucked back at roughly a 45-degree angle. This keeps the shoulders in a "packed" and stable position.
Hand Placement Matters More Than You Think
Don't just slap your hands on the floor. You need to "screw" them into the ground. Place your palms down, then try to rotate them outward without actually moving them. This creates external rotation torque in the shoulders. It’s a trick used by elite powerlifters like Kelly Starrett, author of Becoming a Supple Leopard. This tension stabilizes the joint before you even begin the descent.
Your fingers should be spread wide. Grip the floor. Use your hands like claws. This engages the forearm muscles and creates a more stable base of support.
The Descent: It’s Not a Race
Gravity is not your friend here; it’s a tool. Most people just drop. They let gravity do the work, then they bounce off the bottom using momentum. That’s cheating yourself out of half the exercise.
Lower yourself slowly. Take two full seconds to get to the bottom. Your chest should touch the floor—or at least come within an inch of it—before your nose does. If your nose hits first, your neck is jutting forward, which is a common compensation for a tiring chest. Keep your chin tucked.
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The Bottom Position
At the bottom of the movement, your forearms should be vertical. If your elbows are way behind your wrists or way in front, you’re putting weird shear forces on the joint. Take a second to feel the stretch in your pectorals. This is where the muscle growth actually happens. If you’re skipping the bottom inch of the rep, you’re skipping the most important part.
Pushing Back Up: The Protracting Secret
When you push back up, don't stop when your arms are straight. This is the "secret" to building a truly strong serratus anterior—that finger-like muscle on your ribs that keeps your shoulder blades healthy.
At the very top of the push up, you want to push your floor away so hard that your shoulder blades move apart (protraction). Think about trying to push your spine through the ceiling. This "extra" inch of movement is what separates a gym-bro push up from a professional-grade rep.
Variations and Scalability
Look, if you can’t do a full push up with perfect form, don't do them on your knees. It sounds counterintuitive, but knee push ups change the leverage in a way that doesn't translate well to the full movement. They deactivate the lower body tension we talked about earlier.
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Instead, do incline push ups. Put your hands on a bench, a table, or even a wall. This allows you to keep that "plank" integrity from head to toe while reducing the amount of body weight you have to lift. As you get stronger, find lower and lower surfaces until you’re on the floor.
On the flip side, if you can do 50 push ups without breaking a sweat, you’re just doing cardio. You need to increase the mechanical disadvantage. Try:
- Diamond Push Ups: Move your hands together so your index fingers and thumbs touch. This hammers the triceps.
- Archer Push Ups: Shift your weight to one side as you lower, keeping the opposite arm straight. It’s a precursor to the one-arm push up.
- Weighted Push Ups: Throw a sandbag or a weight plate on your back. Just make sure it sits on your mid-back, not your neck.
Common Mistakes You’re Probably Making
We’ve all seen the "head bob." This is when someone moves their head up and down and thinks they are doing reps. Their chest isn't moving more than two inches. Stop it. Your chest must move through a full range of motion.
Then there’s the "breath holder." People get tight and stop breathing. This spikes your blood pressure and makes you fatigue faster. Inhale on the way down. Exhale forcefully as you push away from the floor. Think of the breath as part of the tension.
Why Your Wrists Hurt
If your wrists hurt, it’s usually a mobility issue or a weight distribution problem. Don't dump all your weight into the heel of your palm. Press through your fingertips and the knuckles at the base of your fingers. If the pain persists, you can use hex dumbbells as handles to keep your wrists in a neutral, straight position.
Actionable Steps for a Better Push Up
Don't just go out and try to do a set of 50 tonight. Start small. Quality is the only thing that matters if you want to see actual physical changes in your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
- Film Yourself: Set up your phone and record a set from the side. You will be shocked at how much your hips sag or how high your butt is. The camera doesn't lie.
- The 3-1-1 Tempo: Spend 3 seconds lowering, 1 second pausing at the bottom, and 1 second explosive push back up. This eliminates momentum and forces the muscles to do the work.
- Daily Minimums: Instead of one massive workout, try doing 3 sets of "perfect" reps throughout the day. Stop two reps before your form breaks down.
- Focus on the "Screw": Spend your next session purely focusing on the hand rotation and glute squeeze. Forget the reps. Just feel the tension.
- Check Your Elbows: Use a mirror or a friend to ensure you aren't flaring into that dangerous "T" shape.
The push up is a foundational human movement. It’s been used by everyone from Roman Legionaries to modern Special Forces for a reason: it works. But it only works if you respect the mechanics. Fix your form, stabilize your core, and stop worrying about the number of reps until the quality of every single rep is undeniable.