Push-up

The foundational horizontal press: lowering a rigid body to the floor and pressing back to a locked-out plank. It underpins every burpee, dip and handstand push-up, and it is the workhorse of travel and bodyweight training.

Standard: A valid rep starts in a locked-out plank, lowers as one piece until the chest touches the floor, and presses back to full elbow extension without the hips sagging or snaking.

How to do the Push-up

1. Set your hands just outside shoulder width, fingers spread, and lock your body into one rigid line from heels to head.
2. Squeeze your glutes and quads and pull your ribs down so the trunk cannot sag.
3. Lower under control, elbows tracking back at roughly 45 degrees, until your chest touches the floor.
4. Keep the elbows over the wrists rather than letting them flare wide.
5. Press the floor away as one piece, chest and hips rising together, to a full lockout.

Common faults

• Hips sagging or snaking up ahead of the chest instead of moving as one piece.
• Elbows flaring straight out to the sides and loading the shoulders.
• Cutting the range short: no chest contact at the bottom, soft elbows at the top.
• Craning the neck forward instead of keeping the head neutral.

Scaling & progressions

• Elevate the hands on a bench or box to reduce the load while keeping the full-body line.
• Lower slowly to the floor, reset, and press from the knees while building strength.
• Cap the set well short of failure and add sets to reach the volume.
• Progress the other way with a tempo descent, hand-release reps or archer push-ups.