Chest · Horizontal push
Push-Ups
The push-up is a bodyweight pressing exercise where you lower your chest to the floor and press back up while holding a rigid plank position. It trains the chest, front delts and triceps, with the core working to keep your body straight. Most people train it for 3–4 sets taken close to failure.
Also known as: Push up, Pushup, Press-up
- Muscle group
- Chest
- Movement pattern
- Horizontal push
- Type
- Compound
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Beginner
What muscles does the push-ups work?
Primary movers
- Pectoralis major
- Triceps brachii
- Anterior deltoids
Assisting muscles
- Serratus anterior
- Abdominals
- Glutes
The push-up is a horizontal press, so the pectoralis major does most of the work. Its job here is shoulder horizontal adduction — bringing your upper arm across your body — which is exactly what happens as you press the floor away and your arms travel toward each other.
The triceps extend the elbow throughout, and their share of the work rises as your hands move closer together. A narrow or diamond push-up is genuinely a triceps exercise with chest assistance rather than the other way round.
The anterior deltoids assist at the shoulder. If push-ups leave your front delts sore and your chest untouched, your elbows are usually flaring too high, which shifts the load off the pecs.
What separates a push-up from a bench press is everything below the shoulders. Your abs, glutes and quads all contract isometrically to hold your body in one straight line. That is real core training, and it is why a push-up carries over to bracing better than a bench press does.
The serratus anterior — the muscle that pulls your shoulder blade around your ribcage — works harder in a push-up than in almost any pressing variation, because your shoulder blades are free to move rather than pinned to a bench.
How to do the push-ups
Setup
- 1
Place your hands on the floor slightly wider than shoulder width, at roughly mid-chest height rather than up by your shoulders.
- 2
Turn your hands out very slightly, or keep them straight forward — whichever your wrists prefer.
- 3
Step your feet back until your body forms one straight line from heels to head.
- 4
Squeeze your glutes and brace your abs. Your hips should be locked in line, not sagging or piked up.
- 5
Set your head in a neutral position, eyes on the floor slightly ahead of your hands rather than straight down.
Execution
- 1
Take a breath and brace, then lower yourself by bending your elbows and letting your shoulder blades retract.
- 2
Keep your elbows at roughly 45 degrees from your torso — not tucked to your ribs, and definitely not flared out to 90.
- 3
Lower until your chest is an inch or two off the floor. Your whole body should arrive at the bottom at the same time.
- 4
Press the floor away hard, keeping your body rigid so your hips and chest rise together.
- 5
Finish with your elbows straight and let your shoulder blades spread apart at the top for full range.
- 6
Exhale through the press and reset your brace before the next rep.
Common push-ups mistakes
Hips sagging or piking up
The lower back dips toward the floor or the hips rise into an inverted V. Both break the straight line the exercise depends on, and sagging puts the lumbar spine into extension under load.
The fix: Squeeze your glutes hard before the first rep and keep them squeezed. If you cannot hold the line for the whole set, the set is too long or you need to regress to an incline push-up.
Elbows flaring to 90 degrees
The upper arms end up perpendicular to the torso at the bottom. This is the most common push-up fault, and it moves the load off the pecs and onto the front of the shoulder joint.
The fix: Aim for about 45 degrees. From above, your arms and body should form an arrow shape, not a letter T.
Cutting the range short
Stopping partway down, usually as fatigue sets in. Partial reps train the strongest part of the movement and skip the stretched position where most of the growth stimulus lives.
The fix: Go until your chest is nearly touching the floor on every rep. When you can no longer reach full depth, the set is over — do not trade range for reps.
Craning the neck down
Looking straight at the floor beneath you or dropping the head to touch first, which strains the neck and disguises how much depth you are actually getting.
The fix: Keep your head in line with your spine and let your chest be the first thing to approach the floor.
How many sets and reps?
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Load | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hypertrophy | 3–4 | 8–20 | Bodyweight, 0–2 RIR | 90 s–2 min |
| Strength | 4–5 | 5–8 | Weighted or feet elevated | 2–3 min |
| Beginner | 3 | 5–10 | Incline or knee push-up | 90 s |
Push-ups are easy to recover from, so they tolerate more frequency than barbell pressing — three times a week is fine. Once you can do 20 clean reps, adding more reps stops being productive. Progress by elevating your feet, slowing the lowering phase, pausing at the bottom, or adding load with a backpack or weight plate.
Push-Ups variations and alternatives
Incline Push-Up
EasierHands on a bench, box or wall reduces the percentage of bodyweight you press. Far better than knee push-ups because it keeps the full-body plank position intact.
Knee Push-Up
EasierDrops the load substantially and lets you learn the elbow path. The trade-off is that it removes the core and hip bracing that make the push-up valuable.
Decline Push-Up
HarderFeet elevated shifts more bodyweight onto your hands and emphasises the upper chest and front delts. The cleanest way to progress once standard push-ups get easy.
Weighted Push-Up
HarderA plate on the upper back or a weighted vest lets you keep training in lower rep ranges once bodyweight sets run long.
Barbell Bench Press
AlternativeThe loadable version of the same movement pattern. Better for building maximal pressing strength; worse for core and shoulder blade function.
Frequently asked questions
How many push-ups should I be able to do?
As a rough guide, an untrained adult male manages somewhere around 10–20 consecutive clean reps and an untrained adult female around 5–10, with considerable individual variation. Forty or more unbroken reps with full range puts you well above average. Bodyweight, limb length and training history all affect the number, so it is a poor benchmark to compare across people — track your own progress instead.
Do push-ups build muscle?
Yes, provided the sets are hard. Muscle growth is driven by taking sets close to failure with adequate volume, not by using a barbell specifically. Push-ups build chest, triceps and front delts effectively while they remain challenging. Once you can perform 20-plus easy reps, you need to add load or difficulty rather than more reps.
Where should my hands be for push-ups?
Slightly wider than shoulder width, level with your mid-chest rather than your shoulders. A wider hand position emphasises the chest slightly; a narrower one shifts work to the triceps. Very wide placement shortens the range of motion and increases shoulder strain without adding chest stimulus.
Why do my shoulders hurt when I do push-ups?
Usually elbow flare. Letting the upper arms travel out to 90 degrees from the torso puts the shoulder in an internally rotated, abducted position under load. Bring the elbows to roughly 45 degrees, allow the shoulder blades to move naturally rather than pinning them, and stop an inch short of the floor if the very bottom is where the pain appears.
Are push-ups every day a good idea?
You can, and many people do without issue, but it is not optimal. Muscle needs recovery time to adapt, and daily hard sets tend to accumulate elbow and shoulder irritation. Three to four sessions a week produces better results for most people than seven.
Hercules tracks every push-ups you log, shows you last session's numbers before you lift, and flags when your progress stalls.
Download on Google Play