The elusive push-up. Seems just within your reach, but the minute you lift your knees off the ground, your entire body seems to give up on you. Spoiler alert: doing push-ups on your knees is not an effective way to learn this challenging bodyweight move. Instead of doing yet another modified push-up on your knees, give one of these five techniques a go. With the right commitment, you should be doing a traditional push-up in less than four weeks!
Incline Push-Ups
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While it's common to modify a push-up by going onto your knees, you're doing yourself a disservice, says Austin Lopez, CSCS, and personal trainer at DIAKADI. The best modification you can be doing is one that mimics the same movement, which is exactly why you should start with incline push-ups.
An incline push-up uses the exact same muscles and movement as a traditional push-up, but you're not tasked with pushing all of your weight up from the ground. As you become stronger and progress in the move, lower your incline until eventually you will be able to perform push-ups parallel to the floor.
If you prefer being close to the ground, but are unable to do a traditional push-up, split the difference (as seen in this video)! Either lower down from a traditional plank position and finish by pushing up on your knees or lower down on your knees and push up to a traditional plank position. Both movements will help you build up to a full push-up, but breaking them up will lessen the intensity in one go. This modification is a favorite of CrossFit coach Sefton Hirsch.
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Negative Push-Ups
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Similar to 50/50 push-ups, a negative push-up helps you strengthen the muscles used in the traditional move, but with greater intensity. A negative push-up focuses solely on the downward (aka eccentric) movement of the exercise, but done at a much slower pace. An easy way to envision the exercise is to think of it like doing one-half of a full push-up while counting to six. By putting all the load on the eccentric movement, you focus on strengthening the muscle and helping it learn to contract in the move.
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One-Legged Knee Push-Up
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Though a push-up on your knees isn't the best option for mastering the move, it's a different story when it comes to this one-legged variation. By challenging your stability, your muscles will work in overtime to help you complete the move with good form. Just be sure to perform the move on both sides!
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A Push-Up Plan
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Another great way to build to a push-up is to strengthen all the muscles involved in the move. This four-week push-up plan does just that. Consisting of moves like up-down plank, dumbbell rows, and more, the plan gets progressively harder week after week. By week four, you should be able to master at least one traditional push-up.
