Every Pushup
Takeaway Points:
Pushups are a versatile bodyweight exercise to strengthen the chest, arms, and shoulders that can be easily scaled to suit the level of anyone from beginner to advanced.
Different positions can be utilized to change difficulty. Elevating the upper body, like doing countertop pushups, allows for lighter than bodyweight pushups. Elevating the feet, changing position, or attempting single arm pushups increases difficulty.
The Pushup
The pushup is one of the most versatile exercises, and the king of pushing exercises for home workouts. A pushup requires only your bodyweight and some space, and thus is very useful for home workouts or periods when you don’t have access to equipment. Pushups can also be adapted to virtually any skill level.
The pushup is also slightly superior to the bench press in terms of its impact on the body. In a bench press, the scapula are pinned down to the bench below by the weight of the body and the bar above, and this means that people with shoulder issues can find those issues exacerbated by bench pressing. In a pushup, the scapula move much more freely, and a typical pushup also helps train those scapular muscles to develop some strength and stability, meaning that it is often a better option for those with shoulder issues.
The initial drawback is that the pushup cannot be loaded up as smoothly, or as heavily, as the bench press. This may lead some to mistakenly believe that the pushup is not a good option for beginners, or that it gets too easy for advanced lifters. However, if you follow the progressions outlined here, you should find that you can keep the pushup challenging and interesting for everyone from beginners to absolute masters.
Standard Progression
Wall Pushup
The wall pushup is a good starting point. This can be difficult to manage, because when standing perfectly vertical, there’s little challenge to the movement. All your weight is in your feet, and very little of it is supported through your hands. As a result, you need to stand a bit away from the wall and lean into it in order to get a bit of challenge, and at the same time, the further away you stand, the more you have to lean your head into the wall in order to get a decent range of motion. So, this variation may not last very long, though it works well if you find a countertop pushup a bit challenging and don’t have much equipment.
Countertop Pushup/High Bar Pushup
As you lower the positioning of the hands relative to the feet, the challenge increases as more and more of the weight is focused towards your hands. So, the next step is to lower the hands a bit more, lean into the movement further, and get a slightly harder pushup.
The countertop tends to be high enough, and stable enough, that it works well at home with no equipment. However, it’s not something you can change the height of, and so you’re limited to whatever height you already have at hand.
If you have access to a smith machine or a squat rack, this gets a lot easier. A bar can be set to a lot of different heights, and this makes it ideal for doing pushups. You can simply lower the bar one notch periodically as the reps get easier, and thus keep it appropriately challenging.
Of course, if you have access to a squat rack, you also probably have access to dumbbells, a barbell, and a bench, and can simply start off with light bench presses instead. However, the pushup is still an excellent training movement because it enables the scapula to move much more freely than in a bench press - which tends to be better on the shoulders, especially with those who have a history of injury.
Box Pushup/Bench Pushup/Low Bar Pushup
Continuing the theme of lowering the hands a bit, the next step is to find a lower point of contact. This can be something like a bench, a box, or a smith machine/squat rack bar set on a lower notch. A bit more challenging!
Pushup From Knees
When you’re strong enough, it’s time to take it all the way to the floor. However, pushups from the toes may still be tough for some, so pushups from the knees are the next intermediate step. This change shortens the lever arm of the movement a bit, enabling you to move a bit more easily than a full pushup. It also helps to take the core out of the equation a bit, so that beginners with a weaker core won’t have issue.
Pushup From Toes
The classic! Once you’ve got good pushups from the knees, and a decent amount of core training to stabilize during the movement (planks are a good practice movement), you’re ready to try pushups from the toes.
Feet Elevated Pushups
Eventually, even pushups from the toes will start to get easy. Note that above I mentioned that challenge is increased by decreasing the height of the hands relative to the feet - the other part of that equation is that you can start increasing the elevation of the feet in order to increase the challenge as well. At this point, elevating the feet on a box or a step can add some more challenge.
A Different Progression - Single Arm Pushups
Archer Pushup
Once you can do a lot of traditional pushups, it becomes a better use of time to begin practicing for single arm pushup variations. A single arm pushup distributes the same amount of weight over half as many limbs, so it is effectively twice as hard on the arm that you use. This means that it can be significantly more challenging without requiring any more equipment, and this challenge is enough that you can use it for quite a long time.
The archer pushup is a gateway or bridge between the traditional pushup, and the harder true one-arm pushup. In this pushup, you keep one arm out and extended (as if holding a bow like an archer) while most of the weight is focused on the other arm. In this way, you can get most of the effect of a one-arm pushup, without requiring quite the same level of strength or core stability.
Full One-Arm Pushup
The full one-arm pushup will typically require a lot of practice with archer pushups, to develop the individual arm strength required. You will also need to have decent core strength to stabilize during the movement, and plank variations, including a plank with opposite arm and leg raised, will help you prepare. Once you’ve got both the strength and the stability, you can start trying the full one-arm pushup, one of the more coveted and impressive exercises.
A Different Progression - Shoulders
Pike Pushups
The pike pushup is technically a different movement. While elevating the feet further initially adds some challenge, it also starts at a certain point to shift the torso enough that the weight is now being moved more by your shoulders than your chest. You’re still using the arm extensors (triceps), but your shoulders are a bit naturally weaker than your chest, and that means it’s going to be more challenging all the same.
The pike pushup may be doable even when you’re not a master of the standard pushup from the toes - since there’s a slightly limited range of motion, you can potentially do them even earlier to start practicing the movement early. In the pike pushup, you’re basically just artificially getting the torso even more vertical to engage the shoulders sooner, by bending at the hips more than at the shoulders.
Like with standard pushups, you can increase the difficulty by raising the feet. Again, the more the feet are raised, the more you’re shifting weight forward onto your hands. However, with pike pushups, you can only take this so far, because eventually it turns into…
Handstand Pushups
The handstand pushup is fully a shoulder exercise, but it’s still an extension of the pushup, and still involves arm extension. The handstand pushup is the big brother of the pike pushup, since it’s essentially a pike pushup with the feet all the way in the air and the torso fully vertical. This is the absolute endpoint of the concept of lowering the hands relative to the feet - at this point, your hands can’t possibly go any lower!
The handstand pushup is typically done at first with your feet up on a wall - in this way, you don’t have to master a full freestanding handstand beforehand, and this makes handstand pushups a lot more accessible to people who don’t have a ton of handstand practice. Even if you never get particularly good at a handstand, that’s fine, since the handstand pushup can be used indefinitely.
A Different Progression - Planche Pushup
Planche Pushup
The planche is a movement in which the entire body is kept rigid in a straight line, while being supported on the hands and straight arms. This is an advanced gymnastics movement that requires a legendary amount of core stability and is not for most common exercisers.
However, if practicing for this movement, the planche pushup, done either on the floor or on parallette handles, can be useful in terms of getting the exerciser accustomed to the movement and the kind of stability involved. The more you lean forward, the more you practice the planche position. You could also make the movement easier by looping a band around a bar overhead, and then around the waist, and using this to provide enough support to be able to complete the movement with a lighter weight. Eventually, a full planche pushup with the feet unsupported can be performed.
Addendum: Handles, Bands, Weighted Vests
There are a few options in terms of equipment which you can use to help add some challenge and variety to your pushups.
The first is a set of low parallette handles, or pushup handles. These may first seem like they would make things easier - after all, they elevate you a bit relative to the floor, meaning that they reduce the challenge a bit. However, at the same time, they generally enable you to complete the lift through a greater range of motion - and in the process, make it a lot harder.
This holds especially true in those circumstances where the height of your hands stops mattering - when you’re doing feet elevated pushups, feet elevated pike pushups, or handstand pushups - and can make these exercises significantly more challenging and effective.
Another possibility for adding challenge is the addition of resistance bands. A resistance band can be looped around the hands and then behind the shoulders, and this provides a bit more challenge, especially at the top of the motion where the band is most stretched.
At the same time, there’s a limit to how far this can go - if you keep adding band weight, then at a certain point it will be so significant that it is painful on the hands and difficult to keep in position.
Additionally, this method is unhelpful for adding resistance to pike pushups, feet elevated pushups, and handstand pushups, where the lack of a horizontal line of push means that the band cannot stay in place during the movement.
The weighted vest is another option. This is a favored method for adding weight to a variety of bodyweight exercises, because it involves minimal necessary change to the way that the movements are performed - it enables you to effectively train as if your bodyweight was artificially a bit heavier.
The drawbacks are that the weighted vest is a much more expensive option than band resistance, and that they may not enable you to add a ton of weight - many vests only enable you to add 50-100lbs, which is insufficient for some of the movements you want to add weight to. With a pushup, even an extra 50lbs may not be sufficient to add a ton of challenge, though it may be more than enough with pike pushups or handstand pushups, for example. A vest can still be used in conjunction with handles and bands, however, which adds a bit of challenge.
A small aside refers to a kind of pushup handles that I ran into as a kid called the “perfect pushup” - in this device, a pair of pushup handles is placed on a rotating base, so that the handle can be rotated during the lift. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend these - they would provide some variety and change up the movement a bit, but since muscle activation is more dependent on load and reps than form, it wouldn’t necessarily “do” much in terms of improving your results. I’d skip this fad entirely.
Tying It All Together
The pandemic has been a big period of learning for everybody. I used to think that pushups were weak - and now, I’m doing 200 pushups a day and just recently hit my first true one arm pushup, in addition to some full handstand pushups on parallette handles. Getting into gymnastics/calisthenics style training has meant starting from almost square one and starting over in many ways - but it’s been terribly rewarding, too.
For some of the other posts I’ve made about my more recent bodyweight training journey, check these out:
Hopefully your own pushup journey is going well, and this post has provided you with some useful information on where to go next.
Get pressing!
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached hundreds of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.
Follow Adam on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our mailing list, if you liked this post and want to say hello!
Enjoy this post? Share the gains!
Ready to be your best self? Check out the Better book series, or download the sample chapters by signing up for our mailing list. Signing up for the mailing list also gets you two free exercise programs: GAINS, a well-rounded program for beginners, and Deadlift Every Day, an elite program for maximizing your strength with high frequency deadlifting.
Interested in coaching to maximize your results? Inquire here.
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. For more info, check out my affiliate disclosure.
