Push Up Progressions

Today I’m going to help you become more comfortable with the push up by showing you several different push up progressions. Push ups are one of the most basic (and complementary to kettlebell training) exercises you can do. Let’s address the two major concerns I hear from people when it comes to the push up:

“Pushups are too difficult, and I don’t have the upper body strength”

“Pushups are too easy and I can’t bulk up doing them”

The answer to both of these questions lies in the variation of the push up you choose. Also, in reference to the first objection, a large portion of your success depends upon learning how to do a pushup properly, regardless of the variation you choose. I do encourage you to do a full-plank push up (not on your knees), this is to develop the neutral posture plank position that transfers into almost every other lift. If you want to make a push up less challenging than the standard pushup, instead of dropping your knees, place your hands on something higher than your feet. This will decrease the overall resistance. Use the top of a sturdy couch or table, even facing uphill. Do a standard pushup, slightly in the upright position, the closer to standing you end up the easier it will become. With this variation one could make a normal plank push up so easy that virtually anyone could benefit from them.

If you don’t think pushups are difficult enough to build the muscle you want, then you haven’t tried the one arm push up, or better yet the one arm, one leg pushup! This is the ultimate in core tension and requires both incredible strength and fine technique to master. We’ll do more of these later, for now lets talk about technique regardless of the variation you are doing.

How to master Push Up Progressions

• Chose the progression that is right for you
• Maintain the tight plank, abdomen and glutes engaged. Neutral posture from head to heel from the top to the bottom of the pushup movement.
• Pack your shoulders into the joints and stabilize your weight into the lat muscle.
• Breathe in as you begin to control the down movement
• Use the elastic energy in your muscle to power you back up as you engage your pelvic floor and exhale sharply at the end.
• As you press away from the ground, feel your shoulders packed back and down, into the engaged lat.
• Keep your rep count relatively low, for the most part no more than ten to twelve.
• Rarely train to failure, always leave some gas in the tank. Frequency trumps intensity.
• Move on to tougher variations as soon as you are ready, I often see people plateau simply because they are afraid to work to their potential.
• Be safe

The pushup is a great complement to kettlebell training for many reasons. Pushups engage your anterior chain (front of your body) in good posture, where the kettlebell works the posterior chain. Also, pushups are a welcome break for the grip muscles that tend to get challenged in almost any kettlebell exercise. Going back and forth between a kettlebell swing or a snatch and pushup is a fantastic way to get very strong and burn tons of calories in very short practice sessions. Training every muscle in your body at the same time as anaerobic conditioning is the key to saving time and seeing immediate results.

Thank you,
Peter