An exercise scientist explains the proper way to do a push-up

Shawn Arent, the director of the Center for Health and Human Performance at Rutgers University and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, demonstrates the proper form for the push-up.

Special thanks to David Sanders.

Following is a transcript of the video.

They’re easy to do when you have no equipment and you can work the chest, the shoulders and the triceps along with this.

From a starting position, one of the things you’ll notice is Dave is going to have his hands set just outside of his shoulders. Elbows are pointing back slightly and his body is already in a straight and he’s all the way down.

And you notice at this point his head is in a neutral position, his neck is flat, his back is flat, and his weight is between his hands and the balls of his feet.

When Dave lowers himself down he’s going to keep his elbows slightly back towards himself.

And as he pushes himself back up, he’s going to prevent them from flaring out.

What we don’t want him to do is flare his elbows out

One of the things we want to avoid as well is dropping his head. When doing this, you wind up rounding your spine and getting improper technique this way too and you’re not putting optimal pressure on the chest in order to do the movement.

The other thing too with a proper push-up is you don’t want to wind up in a pike position where his butt is up in the air.

But you also don’t want to wind up where your hips are sagging as you come down too.

To do a proper push-up, touch yourself all the way to the floor, then push back up.

If you have a hard time doing a full push-up, what he can actually do is do this from his knees. All you’re going to do is put the weight on your knees, as well as your hands at this point. Same motion with the upper body, keeping the spine flat, head up in a neutral position. Press all the way down and then all the way up.

Another variation on the push-up to make it slightly easier, would be to put your hands on the bench in order to do it as well.

We want to keep a neutral spine, head up, and when he pushes down, lower himself press back up to a full extension and he’s keeping himself completely flat in through the spine as well.

An alternative when using the bench is instead of making the push-up easier is to actually make it harder. In this case, you’ll put your feet up on the bench in order to do the push-up now.

Again with his spine in a nice neutral position, lowering all the way down to the ground.

Keeps his back flat. Keeps his hips from sagging.

And that’s what a push-up would look like with your feet up on the bench to actually make it harder, instead of easier.

[wyattjohnston]

I've learned that I haven't done a single push-up in my life...

[AnhTrieu]

What I learn from all the military training videos on Youtube is that when you have to do 100+ push-ups, proper technique is out the window at about 30ish.

[Aztecatl]

Sad how most people do not know how to perform proper pushups. Average people say "I can do 50 pushups!" then proceed to have bad form elbows sticking out, not going down all the way and going fast thereby using momentum more than muscle. I say to go slow or at a steady pace and keep elbows close to the body and they can't even do 20.

[michaelsebastian]

The push up that I did was wrong, the elbow is bending to side instead of behind

[stefanp]

Next: how to properly sit on a couch and watch Netflix.

[coachmrfoster]

In case you wanted to know how much you are actually lifting during a push up..
"The results of this study demonstrated a GRF of approximately 64% and 49% of body weight in the regular and bent knee push-up conditions, respectively... In this study, push-up conditions that included hand elevation of 60.96 cm produced a GRF as low as 41% of body mass and as high as 74% of body mass when the feet were elevated 60.96 cm. Thus, it is possible to progress push-ups from low intensity with hands elevated, to high intensity via feet elevation."

William P. Ebben et al. KINETIC ANALYSIS OF SEVERAL VARIATIONS OF PUSH-UPS. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research October 2011

[StudioOAC]

It seems like we can't do anything right. Can't run properly, can't do a proper push up. What next? It makes me want to shoot myself but i will probably do that wrong too!

[KevinH-]

Dave's face at the end is me after one push up 🤓

[michaelf]

do you want easy push up ?





just do it on the wall

[Hockeyfan]

Ive watched 100 videos how to do push-ups none teach me shit but this one taught me everything

[heinowayneabrahams]

The best video. I've watch a lot of pushup videos. But this one is the best. Thank you.

[NapTimeOverdose]

When i don't have a bench, i just use the nearest wall.

[aimee]

I can’t seem to keep my elbows in during a push up. I don’t know if it’s just because I have absolutely no upper body strength or if my arms just won’t bend that way.

[Tmt_]

i know people might have realized this already but i have a hard time myself, everytime i do 50 pushups, around 30 id drop my head down and i cant stop it

[darrand]

Still can't do more than 10 :')

[SuperWagner]

Now you do them are Army way.  lower for a 3 count,   pause for a 1 count, raise on a 3 count.  so  1, 2, 3, 1, 3, 2, 1

[Woodshadow]

I’m confused about my arms going back and not out to the side. I don’t understand what the motion is suppose to be. I can’t seem to do that. I can do like 3 push ups with my arms to the sides but no more. I can’t even come close to doing one with my arms going slightly back. My body doesn’t feel like it was made to do that

[edwardcortez]

My past PE teachers should show this to the young kids who are learning how to do push ups. Proper form means everything!

[Nancy]

It helped me so much. Thank you much for uploading the video.

[michaelw]

What's the reason for not flaring your elbows out? Doesn't the elbows out position bring your chest muscles more into play and develop your chest muscles more?