Learn to Do Push Ups Correctly

Oh, push ups. How can something that looks so simple be so hard? And if they are so difficult, why do we keep doing them? I’ve come to two conclusions: 1) When you learn to do push ups correctly and can finally do one (modified or not), it’s a HUGE feeling of accomplishment. 2) Push ups are an amazing functional strength movement that help us improve our posture and to reach, push, pull, and lift with more strength and safety. So even though push ups are difficult, we need them in our lives! 

Push Ups Are Everywhere

Push ups are a popular at-home exercise, because you can do them anywhere with no equipment at all; this is one reason you’ll find them in the Sweat with Melissa strength workouts. But you can find them other places, as well: HIIT training has those darn burpees. Yoga has chaturanga dandasana. And – surprise! The entire Pilates mat series works you up to the grand finale… Push ups. 

Read More: Body Weight Exercises in Pilates

So many fitness modalities can’t be wrong – we need to train our bodies to move correctly and get stronger. In fact, a client of mine has a push up story that’s always stuck with me. 

Have you ever worried what would happen if you fell, and needed to push yourself up? Most of us don’t give much thought to it. But years ago, an elderly gym member approached me one day to thank me for my classes that she attended. She lived alone on a large property, and was an avid gardener. One day, she was throwing cuttings over the embankment at the back of her property and lost her balance, falling over the edge. She told me that she credited her fitness classes and pushups with helping her to pull herself up the hill. If she didn’t have the strength, she could have been there for days until her son popped by to visit. I’ll never forget her story nor her gratitude. 

Fitness and push ups aren’t only for the young. They’re meant to support our bodies so that we can live a long, full life, doing what we enjoy without injury. Like gardening, golfing, running, or playing with our children and grandchildren. Push ups (and Pilates) are an important part of that. 

How To Do Push Ups Correctly

We’ve all seen how not to do push ups, and maybe are guilty of poor form ourselves. Going too fast to sacrifice form, butt way up in the air, or hips touching the ground before the rest of the body. It kind of looks like you’re doing the worm! 

If you are sacrificing form in order to get your push ups over with or to hit a certain number of reps, you aren’t benefitting from the work – and could in fact hurt yourself! That’s why it’s important to do push ups correctly. I’d much rather see you do one great push up than ten terrible ones. You can work up to more over time. 

Here are some tips to keep in mind during your push up:

• If your arms are too far forward/back (ie, not directly beneath your shoulders), you will be in a weaker position for your shoulders and/or wrists.
• If your wrists bother you during pushups, you can try doing knuckle push ups (make a fist, so your wrists aren’t as flexed), hold dumbbells or use push up grips, or fold a towel to rest the heel of your hand on. All of these are meant to decrease the amount of bend in  your wrist to take the pressure off. 
• Rather than a flat palm on the ground, grip the floor with your fingertips and put your weight on the outer edge of your hand. This creates a bit of a “dome” shape to help with wrist pain and arm alignment. 
• Try pulling your elbows closer to your body, rather than splayed out at the 90 degrees that many of us learned. This way, you are using your back, triceps, and chest to help you push, rather than relying mostly on the smaller shoulder muscles. 
• Remember to keep your legs activated! Keep your legs connected from your heels all the way up to your thighs, lengthening and firing up more muscles. When you imagine your body lengthening from your middle out in two directions, as if you are growing taller, the push up becomes easier. Your whole body is helping! 

If you are still struggling after these tips, there are many modifications you can make to your push up. We all start somewhere! 

Push Up Modifications

You’ll gain more strength faster by doing as full of a push up as you can, and modifications are here to help you. If your workout plan instructs you to do ten push ups but you can only do one full push up, cool! Do that, then do nine modified versions. Next time, maybe you can do two. 

• Do scapular push ups from a quadruped (all fours) position.
• Try push ups from your knees, while keeping your body in a straight line from the crown of your head to your knees. 
• Elevated pushups can be done from a wall (easiest), or hands on a bench, chair, or stair. The lower you get, the more difficult it becomes. 
• Even if you “fall to the floor” at the bottom of your push up, that’s okay! Reposition your body on the ground and push up in as straight of a plank (or kneeling plank) as possible.
• If you can’t get very low (yet) in your pushup, move to your knees to get lower… then push up from your toes. 

It’s no wonder that push ups are hard; when you do a push up correctly, you’re using your core, chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps! And doing hard things makes us stronger – quite literally in the case of push ups!