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Perfecting the press up!

The press up is a staple in any body weight/calisthenics routine, providing a (basic) pushing movement for the upper body. Just about everyone knows what a press up is, and while it may be a simple/basic exercise, it is by no means an easy one.

 When performed properly the press up works more muscles than you think. Primarily it targets your chest, front of your shoulders and triceps. However, in order to keep your body controlled and balanced, press ups also activate your lats, core and glutes.

There are countless variations of press ups and because of this, form will vary between them and the points below will not apply in all situations. However, for the standard press up the following points on form and positioning should be applied:

  • Hands, fingers facing forward, should be just below and slightly wider than your shoulders, in line with the middle of your chest.
  •  The muscles in your upper back and neck should be relaxed and shoulders down away from your ears.
  •  Core should be pulled in tight, just like in a plank, throughout the entire movement, with a straight line running from your shoulders, through your hips and down to your ankles.
  • Your head and neck should remain in a neutral position, in line with the rest of your body and looking at the floor just in front of you. Plus no dipping your head towards the floor to make you feel like you’re down lower than you are!
  •  As you lower your body your elbows should be tucked in by your sides, not flared out.
  • Lower your body until your chest almost touches (don’t let hips sink first) the floor before pressing back up to the top position.

Now that’s all well and good as long as you can do a press up right? But as I said before, just because everyone knows what they are, that doesn’t mean they’re easy. So how do you go about building up to a full press up?

There are 4 things we are going to be working on:
1      1.  Plank position
2   2.  Reduced lever press ups
3     3.  Elevated hand positions
4     4.  Negatives
Master these and with a little work and dedication, you’ll be doing full press ups before you know it!

Plank Position: When doing a press up you need to hold your body in a straight line throughout the movement, and before we do that we need to make sure we can hold a straight line while stationary.


Reduced lever press ups: I’m not going to lie, this is just a fancy way of saying doing press ups on your knees, I just wanted to sound clever… Performing a press up on your knees takes away some of the core strength required, meaning you can concentrate more on getting the pressing right. Also, it reduces the proportion of your bodyweight that you need to press, making it a bit easier. All the same points on form apply, except now your straight line only runs through your shoulders, hips and knees.


Elevated hand positions: This variation will bring back your whole body, once again resting on your toes, requiring that all important core strength again. However, by placing your hands on a raised surface (e.g. kitchen work top, chest of drawers, table, bench), more of your body weight is transferred into your feet, making it easier on your arms. The higher your hands are off the ground, the easier it’ll be, so as you advance make sure you start using other objects to lower yourself closer to the ground and keep challenging yourself. Using a set of stairs/steps is a great way to monitor your progress and gradually lower your body position.



Negatives: This final exercise works your muscles only during the eccentric phase of the movement, in order to get your muscles used to working against your full bodyweight. The eccentric phase is the lowering part of the press up, so we don’t have to worry about actually pressing yet. As with the above steps, form is just as important when lowering and it is when pressing. The key to this stage is to perform the negative press up as slowly as possible, controlling the movement from the top down as far as you can (eventually all the way to the floor). When starting with these it’s probably a good idea to put something soft under your face so you do squash your nose if you drop a bit quick! Once you’ve lowered to the floor, get back in to the top position and repeat. As you build up strength, lower to the floor performing a negative full press up (on your toes) and press back up from your knees.

 So now you know the exercises, what to do with them. Where exactly you start is going to depend on your current level of strength. The first thing is to master the plank, as without that you just won’t be able to do a press up. Practice holding the position for 3 sets of 30 seconds. While you are working on your plank, you can build up your strength either doing press ups on your knees, or with your hands in an elevated position. As we are trying to build strength, pick a position/height that is sufficiently challenging so that you wouldn’t be able to do more than 8-10 full range (chest to the bottom) press ups. Work on doing 4 sets, with 90-120 seconds rest between each. Finally, when you’re comfortable with the movement, you can start introducing negative press ups. These will be more challenging, so you only have to aim for around 5 of these per set. Here’s a progression programme you can follow. Advance to the next stage when you can comfortably complete the maximum number of reps in each set.
Stage 1:

  • On your knee press ups: 4 sets of 6-10. Rest 90-120s between sets.
  • Plank for 3 sets of 30 seconds.
Stage 2:
  • Elevated hand position press ups: 2 sets of 6-10. Rest 90-120s between sets.
  • Plank for 1 set of 45 seconds.
  • On your knee press ups:  2 sets of 6-10. Rest 90-120s between sets.
  • Plank for 1 set of 45 seconds.
Stage 3: 

  • Negative press ups: 3 sets of 5 (5 second lowering phase). Rest 120s between sets.
  • Elevated hand position press ups: 2 sets of 6-10. Rest 90-120s between sets.
  • Planks for 1 set, holding for as long as possible.
Stage 4: 

At this point you'll be ready for full press ups. Lower down slow and controlled and powerfully drive back up. If you can only manage 1 full press up to start with that's fine. Work on these single reps, resting between each one, and eventually you'll be knocking them out one after the other!!!

Happy Pressing :)   

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