Mastering the Perfect Push Up: 5 Effective Push Up Progressions to Transform Your Fitness Routine
- Jeff Tirrell
- Apr 18
- 5 min read
Push ups are a classic exercise that build upper body strength, improve core stability, and enhance overall fitness. Yet many people struggle to perform a full push up with ideal form, or feel stuck in their progress. The good news is that push ups can be adapted to suit all fitness levels. By using progressions, you can gradually build strength and confidence while reducing injury risk.
In this post, we explore the benefits of push ups and share five effective push up progressions that we regularly use at our training studio. These progressions will help you unlock your strength and transform your fitness routine step by step.
Why Push Ups Are a Powerful Exercise
Push ups target multiple muscle groups including the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core. This makes them a highly efficient exercise for building functional strength. Here are some key benefits:
Build upper body strength without equipment, and as you'll see, very scalable.
Core Strength and Stability. Core strength is actually a very common limiting factor for push ups.
Enhance joint health by strengthening supporting muscles as well as taking the shoulders and wrists through regular functional range of motion.
Improve muscular endurance, particularly when doing them for time over 30+ seconds.
Adaptable for all fitness levels with regressions and progressions as you'll see below.
Because push ups use your body weight, they can be done anywhere and modified to match your current ability. This makes them ideal for beginners and advanced trainees alike.
Progression 1: Hands Elevated
Elevating the hands is the starting point for 90% of our untrained clients. While many people traditionally opt for push ups on your knees, these fail to strengthen the core adequately, therefore being a poor tool to progress to standard push ups. Elevating the hands is perfect for beginners or those with limited upper body and cores strength. They reduce the amount of body weight you lift, allowing you to focus on form. You can make them easier by elevating the hands more, or harder by getting the hands closer to the floor, until one day you are doing traditional push ups.
How to do hand elevated push ups:
Stand in front of a sturdy elevated bar. In a gym setting you can use a barbell in a squat rack, safety's on the side of the rack, or plyo boxes. At home you can use a counter top, stable chair, a bed, or stairs.
Place your hands on the elevated object (making sure they are stable and won't slip off) about shoulder width apart.
Keep your body straight from head to heels (think plank exercise).
Bend your elbows keeping your body straight (hips inline with shoulders and ankles) until your chest physically touches the apparatus your hands are based on.
Push back to the starting position
The object your hands are elevated in should touch the middle of your chest. If it touches more towards the neck or abdomen adjust your foot position.
Benefits:
Builds shoulder, chest, tricep, and core strength.
Helps develop proper push up form.
Low impact on wrists and requires less core and upper body strength.
Aim for 2 sets of 6-10 repetitions, with 60-120seconds of rest in between when first beginning. Over time you can add sets, reps, reduce rest intervals, or lower your hand elevation.
Progression 2: Negative Push Ups
Negative push ups focus on the lowering phase, which builds strength and control, while being easier than having to push yourself back up. This progression is great for those who cannot yet perform a full push up but want to build the necessary strength and have progressed past hands elevated (being able to do 3 sets of 20 with hands elevated as low as possible).
How to do negative push ups:
Start in a full plank position on your toes
Lower your body slowly toward the floor over 3-5 seconds. Lower until your chest touches (not abs/hips). Try to have the lowering phase be as smooth and even speed wise.
Once your chest is on the floor, relax and reset back up at the top.
Repeat the slow lowering motion, start with 2-3 reps, and work to being able to do 10 reps, with 3-5 second lowering phases. Once their, you should be ready for standard push ups.
Benefits:
Builds eccentric strength in chest and arms
Improves muscle control and stability
Bridges the gap to full push ups
Perform 3 sets of 5-8 slow negative reps with 60-90 seconds rest.
Progression 3: Standard Push Ups
The full push up is the goal for many fitness enthusiasts. It requires strength and stability from the upper body and core. Once you can perform full push ups with good form, you can increase reps or try advanced variations. We typically recommend being able to get 3 sets of 20 for men, and 3 sets of 10-15 reps for women before progressing.
How to do full push ups:
Start in a plank position with hands shoulder-width apart
Keep your body straight from head to heels
Lower your chest toward the floor by bending elbows
Continue to lower until your chest (not hips or lower abdominals) touches the floor, don't relax, keep tension in your core.
Push back up to the starting position.
Benefits:
Builds total upper body and core strength
Enhances muscular endurance
Supports functional movement patterns
Aim for 2-4 sets of 3-20 reps depending on your ability.
Progression 4: Extended range of motion Push Ups
Extended range of motion push ups have all of the benefits of traditional push ups. However by elevated the hands slightly we allow the chest to go lower than the hands increasing the range of motion on the shoulder and elbow joint making this an improved exercise for joint health, toning, and hypertrophy of the chest, shoulder, and tricep muscles. The extended range of motion increased the time under tension making it more challenging on the core too.
How to do extended range of motion push ups:
Start in a full plank position on your toes just like with a standard push. The only difference is you'll elevate your hands slightly using dumbbells (that won't roll, aerobic steps, etc.)
Lower your body slowly toward the floor as low as possible, making sure your chest gets lower than your hands.
Once you can't get any lower (must be pain free) push back up to the start position.
If the hand elevation is large, elevate your feet too, so that you're not turning this into a hand elevated push up.
Benefits:
Increased mobility and joint health in the shoulders.
Improves muscle control and stability
Better toning and muscle building of the chest, shoulders, and triceps due to increased range of motion and muscle length.
Perform 3-5 sets of 4-20 reps with 60-120 seconds rest.
Progression 5: Extended Range of Motion plus Less Stability
This version has the same benefits as the previous progression, along with improved stability of the shoulders.
How to do extended range of motion push ups:
Start in a full plank position on your toes just like with a standard push. The only difference is you'll elevate your hands slightly using gymnastics rings, or some sort of other suspension trainer (e.g. TRX). You can also use a stiff medicine balls or basketballs (being very careful in doing so).
Lower your body slowly toward the floor with as much control as possible, making sure your chest gets lower than your hands.
Once you can't get any lower (must be pain free) push back up to the start position.
If the hand elevation is large, elevate your feet too, so that you're not turning this into a hand elevated push up.
Benefits:
Increased mobility and joint health in the shoulders.
Improves muscle control and stability in the shoulder and rotator cuff muscles.
Better toning and muscle building of the chest, shoulders, and triceps due to increased range of motion and muscle length.
Perform 3-5 sets of 4-20 reps with 60-120 seconds rest.
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