How do I do a press-up with correct form?

A press-up is a moving plank. Almost every fault comes from the body failing to hold that line rather than from the arms, which is why bracing matters more than strength and why the regressions work so well.

Safety

What you'll need

• A mat or clear floor (optional)
• A bench or sturdy surface (optional)

Step by step

1. Set your hands roughly under your shoulders, slightly wider.Fingers spread and pointing forwards. Hands far in front of the shoulders puts the load on the joint rather than the muscle.
2. Brace as if you were about to be prodded in the stomach.Squeeze the glutes and tighten the middle. This is what holds the line, and it is the step beginners skip entirely.
3. Make a straight line from head to heels.No sagging hips, no raised backside. Have someone look from the side, or film it — almost nobody can feel this accurately at first.
4. Lower with your elbows at roughly 45 degrees from your body.Not flared straight out to the sides, which stresses the shoulder joint. Think of making an arrow shape rather than a T.
5. Go down until your elbows reach about 90 degrees.Full range if you can. Half-repetitions with a sagging middle build far less than fewer clean ones.
6. Push back up without letting the hips move first.The body rises as one piece. Hips leading the way is the most common form fault and it means the brace has released.
7. If you cannot hold the line, regress rather than struggle.Hands on a bench, a worktop or a wall. The higher the hands, the easier it is. This is the correct way to start, not a lesser version.
8. Progress by lowering the surface, not by adding repetitions.Wall, then worktop, then bench, then floor. Quality of the line is the thing to progress, and repetitions follow it.

Tips

• Knees-down press-ups are a reasonable regression but they change the brace. Elevating the hands keeps the full-body line and transfers better to the floor version.
• If your wrists hurt, try press-up handles or gripping dumbbells so the wrist stays straight rather than extended.
• Filming one set from the side is the fastest way to fix form. What it feels like and what it looks like are rarely the same at first.

Common mistakes

• Letting the hips sag — It loads the lower back instead of the chest and arms, and it usually means the middle was never braced.
• Flaring the elbows straight out to the sides — It puts the shoulder joint in its least stable position and is a common cause of shoulder pain from press-ups.
• Doing many half-repetitions on the floor rather than full ones elevated — Elevated full-range press-ups build more and teach the correct pattern. Struggling on the floor teaches a bad one.

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