Everyone thinks they know how to do a push up. You probably learned it in a dusty middle school gym while a coach yelled about "getting lower," but honestly, most of that advice was garbage. If your elbows are flared out like a startled bird or your lower back is sagging toward the floor, you aren't actually building strength. You're just begging for a rotator cuff injury.
Push ups are deceptively hard. They are a moving plank.
When you learn how to do proper push ups, you aren't just working your chest. You’re engaging the serratus anterior, the triceps, the anterior deltoids, and a massive amount of core stability. It’s a full-body expression of tension. If you feel it mostly in your neck or the front of your shoulders, something is broken in your form.
The Setup Most People Skip
Forget the floor for a second. Let's talk about your hands. Most people just slap their palms down and hope for the best. Big mistake. You want to "screw" your hands into the ground. Spread your fingers wide and rotate your hands slightly outward—right hand clockwise, left hand counter-clockwise—without actually moving them. This creates external rotation in the shoulder joint, which "packs" the humerus into the socket. It’s a safety mechanism.
Your feet matter too. Squeeze them together.
Tightening your glutes is the "secret sauce" of a perfect rep. If your butt is soft, your pelvis tips forward (anterior pelvic tilt), and your lower back arches. This puts massive shear force on your spine. By squeezing your glutes and bracing your abs like someone is about to punch you, you turn your body into a rigid crowbar. A rigid body moves more efficiently than a wet noodle.
Why Your Elbow Angle is Killing Your Progress
If I see one more person doing push ups with their elbows at a 90-degree angle to their torso, I might lose it. This "T-shape" is a nightmare for the subacromial space in your shoulder. It pinches the tendons. It hurts.
Proper push ups require an "arrow" shape. Your elbows should be tucked at about a 45-degree angle relative to your ribs. Some people prefer even closer, like a yoga "Chaturanga" style, which hits the triceps harder. Both are fine. Just stay away from the T-shape.
Think about your forearms. They should stay vertical, or close to it, throughout the movement. If your hands are too far forward, you’re putting unnecessary leverage on the wrists. If they’re too far back, you’re basically doing a pseudo-planche push up, which is incredibly difficult and probably not what you're aiming for today.
The Myth of "Chest to Floor"
Range of motion is king, but not at the expense of mechanics. Dr. Stuart McGill, a leading expert on spine biomechanics, often emphasizes the importance of maintaining a neutral spine under load. If you reach the floor by jutting your chin forward like a pecking chicken, you haven't gained anything. You’ve just strained your neck.
Go as low as you can while keeping your shoulder blades tucked back and down. Don't let your shoulders "roll" forward at the bottom. This is called anterior humeral glide, and it’s a fast track to tendonitis. If your chest stops two inches above the floor because your shoulders start to round, then that’s your current end-range. Stop there. Build strength there.
Hand Placement and Surface Tension
You’ve probably seen people doing push ups on their knuckles. It’s not just for martial arts movies. If you have "crunchy" wrists or limited flexibility, doing push ups on your knuckles or using hex dumbbells as handles keeps your wrists in a neutral position. It takes the pressure off the carpal bones.
The surface matters. If you're on a slippery hardwood floor, your hands will want to slide. Find a yoga mat or a bit of carpet. You need friction to maintain that "screwing" tension I mentioned earlier. Without it, your shoulders will lose their stable base.
Let’s Talk About Breathing
Stop holding your breath. I see people turn purple three reps in because they’re valsalva-maneuvering a bodyweight exercise. Unless you are pushing a 500-pound squat, you don’t need to hold your breath for the entire set.
Inhale on the way down. Exhale forcefully as you push away from the floor. This "active exhalation" actually helps engage your deep core muscles—the transverse abdominis—which keeps your spine even flatter. It’s a feedback loop. Breath creates tension; tension creates stability; stability creates power.
Common Mistakes and Quick Fixes
- The Head Nod: Your nose touches the floor, but your chest is six inches away. Fix: Look about six inches in front of your fingertips, not at your toes.
- The Sagging Hips: Your belly hits the floor first. Fix: Squeeze your glutes like you're holding a hundred-dollar bill between your cheeks.
- The Piked Butt: Your body looks like a mountain. Fix: Lower your hips until there is a straight line from your ears to your ankles.
- The Half-Rep: You move three inches and call it a day. Fix: Slow down. A three-second eccentric (lowering) phase will change your life.
The Role of the Scapula
In a bench press, your shoulder blades stay pinned to the bench. In a push up, they should move. This is why many physical therapists prefer push ups over the bench press for long-term shoulder health.
As you lower yourself, your shoulder blades (scapulae) should retract, coming together toward your spine. At the top of the push up, you should actually push "extra" hard, allowing the blades to protract or wrap around your ribcage. This engages the serratus anterior—the "boxer's muscle"—which is crucial for keeping your shoulder blades from "winging."
Regressions: When the Floor is Too Much
There is zero shame in doing incline push ups. Honestly, they are way better than "knee" push ups. When you drop to your knees, you break the kinetic chain. You lose the ability to practice that full-body tension from the toes to the head.
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Instead, find a bench, a sturdy table, or even a wall. The higher the surface, the easier the push up. As you get stronger, find lower and lower surfaces. Eventually, you’ll be on the floor. This method preserves the exact mechanics of how to do proper push ups while adjusting the load to your current strength level.
Training Volume and Frequency
How often should you do this? It depends on your recovery. The pectorals and triceps are relatively small muscle groups compared to the legs, but they still need rest. If you're a beginner, three sets of "as many as possible with perfect form" every other day is a solid start.
If you can do 30 perfect reps on the floor, it’s time to make it harder. You can elevate your feet on a chair, wear a weighted vest, or try "diamond" push ups to target the triceps more. But don't add weight until the form is flawless. Adding weight to bad form just accelerates an injury.
Evidence and Expert Insights
A 2019 study published in JAMA Network Open found a significant correlation between push up capacity and cardiovascular health in active middle-aged men. Those who could perform more than 40 push ups had a significantly lower risk of heart disease events compared to those who could do fewer than 10. While this is an observational study and correlation isn't causation, it highlights that push up capacity is an excellent proxy for overall functional fitness.
Furthermore, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) consistently ranks the push up as one of the most effective exercises for chest activation. But they also warn that "ego lifting" (doing more reps with worse form) is the primary cause of gym-related shoulder impingement.
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Actionable Steps for Your Next Set
Don't just drop down and do twenty. That's what everyone else does.
Start by standing up and mimics the movement in the air. Pull your shoulders back and down. Feel your lats engage. Now, get on the floor and try to recreate that feeling.
- Check your hand width: Just outside shoulder width.
- External rotation: "Screw" the hands in.
- Total body tension: Squeeze the glutes, quads, and abs.
- The decent: Three seconds down, elbows at 45 degrees.
- The drive: Explode up, exhale, and push the floor away until your shoulder blades wrap around your ribs.
If you can only do three like this, do three. Three perfect reps are worth more than fifty "worm" push ups where your back is arching and your neck is straining. Your future shoulders will thank you for the discipline. Once you master the basic movement, you can explore variations like archer push ups or plyometric "clap" push ups, but the foundation always remains the same: a rigid core and protected shoulders.
Focus on the quality of the squeeze at the top. Think about trying to bring your biceps together rather than just moving your body up and down. That mind-muscle connection is what actually builds the physique and the strength most people are looking for when they start this journey. Keep your chin tucked, your glutes tight, and your ego in check.