Reach Athletic Dominance With These 13 Push-ups

Develop Your Bureau, Increase Your Agility

Travel like an athlete while simultaneously developing your stomach. Choose a push-up exercise that you’ve’ve never done before and get to work! One of these, please.

Why is there no regard for the push-up? When performed properly, push-ups are shoulder-friendly and can be adjusted to be harder or easier depending on your requirements and objectives.

But I understand. Nothing beats pushing a heavy dumbbell off your chest and locking it out when it comes to upper-body power. However, as I mentioned in 6 Pulling Techniques for Benefits and Healthy Shoulders, there are times when excessive press can cause your shoulders to become injured.

So let’s’s quickly review the proper push-up technique before moving on to the various variations you can try.

Push-Up Method

Push-ups are a common body workout, but that doesn’t mean we do them aimlessly without consideration for form or technique. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Place your hands outside shoulder width. Go too narrow and you’ll put a lot of stress on the anterior shoulder. Go too wide and you’ll also stress the shoulder, plus perform what amounts to a pec flye on the ground.

• Use three points of contact. While I’m not militant about achieving a “neutral spine,” it’s good practice to get the back of the head, upper back, and buttocks in as straight of a line as possible at the start. Not sure what this feels like? Use a PVC pipe or broomstick and place it on your back. Make sure there’s only a little daylight between your lower back and the pipe. If you can drive a Mack truck through that gap, tuck your pelvis slightly to engage your abs and core.

• Reach LONG. One of the biggest benefits of doing push-ups compared to traditional supine pressing exercises (like the bench press) is allowing the scaps to move. So at the top, think about reaching long and pushing through the floor to get the scaps moving and opening the upper back.

• Lower in one smooth motion. Back in the day, we were cuing to actively “pull” the scaps back when lowering down. While well intentioned, I don’t think it gave us the benefits we were looking for. It essentially jams the scaps together and then directs most of the stress to the glenohumeral joint. To fix this, lower and press in one smooth motion.

• Keep the core engaged throughout. Once you’ve got those three points of contact, work to maintain them throughout the movement. Think about your torso and legs being a board. Even though your arms are moving, the board stays straight throughout. This is especially true at the midpoint when transitioning from the eccentric to concentric phase. Keep the core tight and don’t let the lumbar spine sag in the bottom.

• Let those scaps move! You’re doing a push-up instead of a supine press because it lets those scaps move. So let them move! They should naturally fall together at the bottom. Up top, keep the chest up/out while reaching LONG through the floor to get a full range of motion.

Push-Up Variations that Go Beyond Standard

Push-ups, in the opinion of lifters, are dull or never challenging enough. However, there are strategies for making them enjoyable and difficult. Take a look at these four categories:

• Loaded/Resisted: Find ways to overload the push-up and get stronger.

• Stability: These variations are for athletes that need dynamic stability and control through the rotator cuff and core.

• Dynamic and Rotary: These push-ups create more stability and rotation around the thorax and spine.

• Corrective and Restorative: These push-ups can optimize body position, restore motion, or just help you move and feel better.

Let’s’s now dissect each of these:

Variants with loads

What’s’s so great about loaded variations? You perform them nearly identically to a typical push-up. If you want to move your scaps or if the bench press is wearing down your arms, these are excellent choices.

1. Band-Resisted: Simply wrap the band around your upper back and through your hands.

2. Chains: You can either put them around the torso or the neck.

3. Weighted Vest: Just put it on and strap it up.

4. Feet-Elevated: Rest your feet on a low bench or box.

Here, the method is simple: chest up / out, core engaged, and reach LONG at the beginning and end.

Variants for Stability Push-Up

For jacking primary and back stabilization needs above and beyond, I adore stability variations. Here are some choices:

5. Med Ball Push-Up: Place each hand on a medicine ball, then set up like you would for a standard push-up. Lock in and connect your hands to the balls. Your core engagement will naturally increase due to the instability. Make sure to keep it locked in throughout.

6. Push-Up to Single-Arm Support: Start with your hands in the standard position, but take your feet wider than usual to increase your base of support. Perform a standard push-up and then, at the top, lock in the core and place one hand on the opposite shoulder. Hold for a one or two-second count, then repeat on the opposite side.

7. Suspension Trainer: These are great because the immediate instability requires you to lock everything in from top to bottom. I prefer a more balanced hand/shoulder position, in between a pronated and neutral grip. Stay tight throughout.

Variations for Circular and Flexible Push – Up

These are wonderful options if you play circular sports like tennis, golf, or football or want to move better and feel more sport:

8. Walking on Box: This is a blend of a push-up, plank, and lateral bear crawl. It gives you a lot of bang for your buck. Start off with one hand on a low box and the other on the ground. Perform a push-up, then “walk” laterally across the box with your hands before doing a push-up on the opposite side. Walk back across and repeat for reps. Enjoy the shoulder burn.

9. Offset on Med Ball: Place one hand on the ground and one on a small medicine ball. Perform for the allotted number of reps, then switch sides.

10. Alternating Med Ball: Start with one hand on a medicine ball and the opposite hand on the ground. Do a push-up, then roll the ball across the body to the opposite side. Place that hand on the ball, do a push-up, then roll the ball back. This will take a little work depending on the surface, but it’s fun to change surfaces and mix it up. You’ll really be feeling your core on this one!

11. Spiderman: This one is really challenging since it requires a tremendous amount of dynamic core stability throughout the movement. Set up just as you would for a standard push-up. As you lower, bring one knee up/out to the side, and then, as you press up, return it to the starting position. Repeat on the opposite side.

Push-up variants that are remedial or therapeutic

I’ll’ll used push-up variants to assist someone who comes to me with known mobility issues. Below are two of my preferred choices:

12. Push-Up to Downward Dog: Lots of lifters have an anterior weight shift, where their center of gravity is too far forward. A big forward weight shift robs your body of its natural mobility. The push-up to downward dog will help you shift your center of gravity back and open the back side of your body. Simply do a standard push-up and then, at the mid-point, push your hips to the sky while extending your knees and driving your heels down. Inhale in that top position to really lengthen everything out.

13. Offset Push-Up on Box: This one is great if an athlete’s body is twisted to the right or left and you want to push them back in the opposite direction. Setup is straightforward: place one hand on the box and the other on the ground. At the top, reach long on both sides while keeping the chest up/out.