Do you remember your first push-up?
It’s a damn good feeling!
I had a woman come in a year or so ago who was more into getting stronger and feeling better than weight loss (which is a great goal). Push-ups became a staple in her program and we did them in just about every cycle of training, week in, week out.
She got really good really fast at just about every variation I gave her.
After a few months we were right about there and It was time to start working on full, unassisted push-ups. What made things even better is she wasn’t fully confident in herself. But on that first rep she went down super slow, a little scrunch in the shoulders, timid to go all the way down, and when she got down there she pushed so hard right back up.
She got It!
It wasn’t easy but she got It! It took time, a lot of consistency, and effort to get to that point but she was so proud of herself for getting one. From there we have been able to add in other types of push-up progressions and keep finding new ways to challenge her in that exercise.
They are an exercise we use often, still in just about every cycle of training, but new challenges and variations are used.
Today I want to run through some push-up variations we use to help work up that true unassisted push-up and also some variations to try if you need to challenge yourself a bit.
#1: Elevated Push-ups
Elevate a barbell on a rack. The lower the bar goes the harder things will become.
Start off easy, and work on moving well. Once your movement is near perfect, lower the bar. With most things on this list, form is king. If we sacrifice form on the regressions, the real thing will become just that much harder.
#2: Kneeling push-ups
This will begin to train us for push-ups to the floor. Same ideas apply as above, work on the movement, try to get as low as you can and perfect that motion.
To level up from here, you can elevate your knees 4-6” to change the angle. Once that is good you can then elevate your hands on a few weight plates to add some range of motion on the way down for the upper body.
#3: Slow Eccentric to kneeling push-ups
Now this is where we start working into (almost) true push-up form.
For these, the goal is to lower yourself all the way to the floor with near perfect form, once you get there, drop the knees and push back up. Take the knees off the floor and go again.
Don’t forget to go SLOW.
The lowering can be one of the harder portions of the push-ups. So we focus on that part of the exercise A LOT. Slow is key.
#4: Band assisted push-ups
Now 3 & 4 can be interchanged because they both train the true push-up style. The only difference is with the band you will be doing full reps, not dropping the knees.
You can set up a band in a rack or use a hip circle around your elbow area. As you lower, the band tension builds around your chest to help you push from the bottom.
I love these because It really does help us learn how a full push-up should feel.
#5: Shortened Range Push-ups
Once you feel confident in your push-up strength you can handle some real push-ups without the assistance.
I like to start with a pad or plate under my chest to aim to. Start a little higher up and slowly reduce the elevation as you get stronger.
Start up much higher than you think, maybe even a half rep to start is good. Now all you do is lower the height very conservatively as you get better and better.
#6: Here are a few progressions for your push-ups
Once you reach a certain point with your push-ups It’s time to start making them a bit more difficult. Here are a few variations I love to use for myself and my clients as things need to be stepped up.
-Tempo push-ups
-Weighted push-ups
-Barbell balance push-ups
-Added range of motion
-Ladder sets
-Uneven push-ups
-Feet elevated push-ups
-Banded push-ups
-Plyo push-ups
-Single arm supported push-up
-Diamond push-ups
-Tricep push-ups
-Ring push-ups
I love this exercise and I love seeing people work their way up to their first full push-up. It’s a milestone for a lot of people and something most of us can work for!
In good health,
Jeff
