Chasing your first push up? Try these!
A common goal for both male and female personal training clients is that they want to improve their push up ability.
For some, that means getting their first push up. For others, that can mean doing X push ups in 1 minute.
It all varies.
Whether you are chasing your first push up OR looking to improve on your ability to do push ups, here is the process I use with both my in person and online personal training clients.
First, you need to establish a starting point. A common question I get is…
“Should I do Push Ups from my knees?”
If you can not currently do a push up, I think you should start with a rocking push up, and here’s why…
Some Personal Trainers do not agree with starting with your knees on the ground, but, for the sake of getting confident with the movement and building a base, I think this variation has some merit.
Once you get comfortable from the ground, OR if you can do 1-2 full push ups to start, I would move to a hands elevated or incline push up position, like this.
Another incline variation I like is called ‘baby bear’ push ups. Bringing your knees in a little bit, you set up in a long ‘bear crawl’ looking posture. Making your limbs a little shorter can help make the push up more manageable. Check out a tutorial here.
Once you start dominating sets of 8-12 reps from an incline, come to the floor and start your first variation, an eccentric focused variation. With this variation you are going to start in a tall plank and lower yourself to the ground for 3-5 seconds on each rep. The goal here is to practice staying stiff in your hips and to not allow your back to look like a hammock on a hot summer day.
Once you’re comfortable doing 4 sets of 6 reps with a 5 second lowering, it’s time.
You build the confidence in the movement from the floor, you started to incorporate more of your body from the incline position, you mastered full body weight from the floor with your eccentric variation…now it’s time for the FULL DEAL!
BONUS- once you are dominating sets of 10 on a full push up, this is my FAVORITE variation…
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