aka How To Become A Push-up Goddess.

We’ve all seen her. She’s that bad-ass (pardon the French) woman who can crank out at least one set of 10 perfect pushups. Many women envy her but we all know that upper body strength is a regular challenge for many women and that the elusive set of 10 good pushups is the ultimate goat (goat, not goal. That’s not a typo!) Well, I’ve worked with many women (and men) who couldn’t do 1 pushup to save their life when they first came to me and over the years, I’ve come up with a solid plan of attack. This method works. Why does it work? Because I don’t wast your time with knee push-ups or wall push-ups that don’t have as much carry-over skill. Depending on your current conditions it could take as little as 6 weeks to as long as 6 months but if you follow it they way I’ve outlined, you will get there. I PROMISE YOU!
First, let’s go over the checklist for a good, honest push up:
1. Tight plank throughout the entire rep – A straight line can be drawn from the heels to the top of the head. The pelvis doesn’t dip down nor does the butt stick up. The shoulder blades are retracted and depressed (NEVER shrugged up) while the chest is puffed out and proud. The neck is neutral meaning that your face is facing (pun intended) the ground and your head is not sticking forward. A good way to ensure this is to imagine that you’re holding a large grapefruit under your chin. Midsection and glutes are tightly contracted to maintain a tight, neutral spine.
2.Hand/arm placement – From a bird’s eye view looking straight down, at the very bottom of a push up, the triceps (or humeri) should be either flush against the lats, 45 degrees away or somewhere in between. To have your elbows flared out any more than this would cause instability in the shoulder joint. Hands should be placed accordingly to accommodate the desired angle. If you were to draw an imaginary line between your index knuckles and it happens to be at eye level, your elbows are flared out too much.
3. Full range of motion – Although partial push-ups have their place (even in this program which I’ll explain later) a full-fledged, God-honest push up starts with a full lockout of the elbows down until the chest touches the floor and back up to a full elbow lockout again.
Now, if you can’t do about 5 standard push ups off of the floor that meet the above criteria, your job is to find a surface to place your hands that will elevate your body high enough until you can. If you can’t do it from the floor, put an aerobics step platform under your hands. If that’s still not high enough, try a coffee table, if not that, a dinner table. If not that, the kitchen counter.
You get the idea right? You progress by lowering your surface over time. If you have access to a squat rack or a Smith machine you’re in luck because you can adjust the bar to almost any height you wish. This is also good because it allows for finer increments when progressing.
The Step-by-Step Plan:
1.Work on your push ups two to three times per week on non-consecutive days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday for example). Start with three sets of five reps (herein written as 3×5) at the lowest surface that will allow good form for all reps. Each week try to progress by lowering your surface until you can get to the ground for at least 3 repetitions. If you can’t do 3×5 at the new lowered surface, shoot for 5×3 or even 3×3. If you can’t do at least 9 total repetitions, that means the difference in surface height is too great. In this situation you would go back to your original height but add more total repetitions. You can either add one more rep per set (3×6) or add one more set (4×5 or 3×5 and then 1×3).
2. At some point along your progression, you’ll be able to do a few from the floor but at partial range of motion. Once you can do about 3 reps at no less than 30% range of motion, it’s time to modify your program. You’ll alternate your days between full range of motion with partial resistance (what I have outlined in step 1) and partial range of motion with full resistance.
For example:
Week 1:
Monday – Full range push ups off of the kitchen counter at 3×5
Wednesday – Partial range push ups off of the floor at 30% range of motion at 3×5
Friday – Full range push ups off of the kitchen counter at 3×6
Week 2:
Monday – Partial range push ups off of the floor at 50% range of motion at 3×5
Wednesday – Full range push ups off of the dinner table at 3×5
Friday -Partial range push ups off of the floor at 50% range of motion at 3×6
Your end goal is full range of motion AND full resistance (full resistance being a push up off of the floor) so by tackling the issue from both sides of the spectrum, they will eventually intersect. When you reach this point and can do about 3 standard pushups, it’s time to move on to step 3.
3. So now that you’ve got a few pushups under your belt, your next goal is to be able to do at least one set of ten reps (1×10). From here, you’ll do your 3 standard pushups and then follow them immediately with as many knee pushups as you can until you get to a point where you can do a total of 10 pushups, 3 standard, and 7 knee.
4. Now that you can do a total of 10, increase your standard pushup number by 1 and decrease your knee pushup by 1. So instead of 3/7, shoot for 4/6. Your goal is to get to 10/0. This is where you’ll have to be patient because at this point you’ll have been working on pushups for quite some time and progression with even one rep might take as long as a few weeks.
Final thoughts:
- Form and technique takes precedence over adding reps or lowering your surface. If you don’t apply this principle you’ll have the ugliest pushups in the world which will recruit the wrong muscles and produce muscular imbalances and postural problems. I PROMISE you! Always keep the shoulder blades retracted and depressed. NEVER let your chest cave in.
- With all of this added pushing, balance it out with equal amounts of pulling, preferably in the same horizontal plane. Examples include: bent over rows, cable rows, ring rows, Australian rows, t-bar rows, etc.
- Regularly address your mobility issues (even if you think you don’t have any). Finish off every pushup workout with some soft tissue release around the chest muscles using a tennis, baseball or golfball and at least 20 stick rolls.
If you have questions or need further clarification, don’t hesitate to email me at khalid@primalhealthsf.com













