How to do the Push-Up
Step by step
- Set your hands on the floor slightly wider than your shoulders, arms straight.
- Step your feet back so your body is one straight line from head to heels.
- Brace your core and keep your ribs down, elbows angled slightly toward your body.
- Bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor.
- Press through your hands to push back up to straight arms in one solid line.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your body rigid so your hips do not sag or pike up. Tuck the elbows toward roughly 45 degrees rather than flaring them straight out.
Coaching cue
Lower until your chest is about a fist off the floor, then press all the way to straight arms.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Put your hands on a bench or step, or drop to your knees.
- Harder: Raise your feet on a box, or pause one second at the bottom.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Chest, Triceps
- Secondary: Front delts, Core
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.