5 Tips for a Perfect Push-up

Ahhh the push-up.

It’s one of the first exercises we learn as youngsters. In fact, you were probably forced to do them in gym class as punishment for being late to practice, or maybe you just did them on your own because you saw other people doing them.

Regardless of your introduction to push-ups, most of us have been performing them for some time now, which is fantastic! They're simple to learn, don’t require any equipment, and you can typically progress quickly when doing them regularly.

They should also be a cornerstone of any proper lifting program, as they're fantastic upper body and core strength builders, and it’s simply important to master bodyweight movements before moving on to more complicated or advanced exercises. (Plus, let’s be honest, a chick bangin’ out several sets of perfect push-ups is just badass!)

What if I told you that you have may have been doing them wrong this whole time?

"Blasphemy!" you say. “I go all the way until my chest touches the floor and I really feel it in my chest the next day! My form is great!”

Well that’s what I thought until I learned how I should really be doing them. I went from doing push-ups with a 45-pound plate on my back for sets of 16, to not even being able to execute five correct push-ups on the floor with just my bodyweight. Talk about humiliation!

So how exactly should you be performing push-ups?  I’ll explain in detail below:

1. Chest out.

Beware, this is harder than it seems. Most of us battle with weak scapular stabilizers and tight pecs since we're constantly sitting; sitting at work, sitting in the car, or sitting playing video games. To keep your chest out properly you must seat your scapulae, driving them down and together. This puts your scapulae in the correct position to do their job during the push-up, which leads us to our next point.

2. Scapular retraction and protraction during the push-up.

When you go into the bottom portion of the push-up, your scapulae should retract or “come together” and when you push yourself up, your scapulae should protract, or “come apart.”

3. Low back neutral.

This is one of the biggest issues I see whenever someone is doing a push-up. Everyone thinks they're keeping their core nice and tight, but the truth is you probably aren’t. Get a video of yourself doing push-ups from the side and you'll get a much more objective perspective of what your push-up really looks like! To stay neutral, brace your core like you're preparing to be punched in the stomach throughout the entire movement. This will take any unnecessary stress off the lumbar spine, and actually turns the push-up into one of the best core strengthening exercises out there.

4. Glutes tight.

You should be squeezing your glutes like you're holding a $100 bill in there! Keeping your glutes tight will help stabilize your core and pelvis while performing the push-up. I know it’s not an easy task concentrating on keeping every area of your body tight at once, but you will gain more strength with every tight push-up than you would with 10 mindless push-ups.

5. Elbows at 45 degrees and go through the full range of motion (ROM).

OK… this one might be preaching to the choir, but just to cover my bases, flaring your elbows out to 90 degrees is hard on the shoulders and should be avoided. And if you aren’t getting full ROM, well, then you're just fooling yourself. If you can't get full ROM at first, feel free to start with push-ups on an incline and slowly lower the incline until you're ready to do push-ups on the floor.

Keep in mind that if you try to implement all of these tips at once, there's a good chance you WILL have to do push-ups on an incline for a while, and there's no shame in that. Check your ego at the door and learn how to do a perfect push-up!

Example of a push-up performed incorrectly

Example of a push-up performed correctly (incline and regular)