Push-up

Why it's here

Push-ups train the chest, triceps and front of the shoulders with no equipment, and can be made easier or harder by changing your position or adding resistance. In untrained men, eight weeks of push-ups grew the chest and built bench press strength as well as a light bench press did ^[1]; in experienced lifters, push-ups against an elastic band built strength as well as a heavy bench press ^[2].

The evidence

• Training study Eighteen untrained young men trained twice a week for eight weeks, to failure, with either a bench press at 40% of their maximum or push-ups adjusted — for example, kneeling — to the same load. Both groups increased chest and triceps thickness and bench press strength ^[1].
• Training study Thirty university students with advanced resistance-training experience trained for five weeks with either a bench press or push-ups against an elastic band, each at a load they could lift only six times. Both groups improved their one-rep and six-rep maximums by similar amounts, while a control group did not change. This trial measured strength only ^[2].

How to do it

1. Place your hands slightly wider than your shoulders and step your feet back until your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
2. Lower your chest to just above the floor, keeping your body straight, then push back up.
3. If you can't yet do the reps you want, drop to your knees or put your hands on a bench. The first trial above scaled push-ups by position, for example kneeling ^[1].
4. When ordinary push-ups get easy, raise your feet, wear a weighted vest, or add resistance with an elastic band, as the second trial did ^[2].

Stop an exercise that causes significant or unusual pain and have it assessed. This page describes the movement; it is not rehabilitation advice.

Making it harder over time

This is a moderate compound exercise in the Progressive Overload Calculator, which adds weight in steps of 2.5%–5% once every set reaches the top of your rep range, and adds reps until then.

Alternatives

• Barbell bench press — The standard upper-body press. In men who had benched for at least a year, ten weeks of it thickened the chest by about 17%.
• Dumbbell bench press — A bench press with a dumbbell in each hand. In trained men it built pressing strength over ten weeks, most of all in the dumbbell press itself.