How to achieve your FIRST push-up

Are you ready to achieve your FIRST Push-up? 👏🏼

In this blog, we’re going to share everything you need to know and do to achieve your first-ever push-up!

Why work towards achieving your first push-up?

Achieving your first push-up is a great foundation of pushing strength when starting calisthenics.

Push-ups help you build strength in your chest, shoulders, triceps, and core and are the gateway to more advanced pushing calisthenics movements.

Not only that, but push-ups will help you build upper body strength in general and make you feel like an absolute badass! They can improve your overall fitness, make everyday activities easier, and assist in developing an athletic physique.

How to do a Push-up

First, let’s take a look at what a push-up is, what it looks like, and how to do one!

Watch this video for a visual guide on how to perform a push-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL0myQ3tMmQ

5 Steps to do a Push up:

Hand Placement: Set your hands approximately shoulder-width apart, with your wrists stacked directly underneath your shoulders.
Body Position: Start in a plank position with your body in a straight line from head to heels.
Core Engagement: Pull your lower abs in, tuck your butt under, and squeeze your legs together.
Lowering Phase: Lower your chest to the floor, keeping your elbows at a 45-degree angle to your body.
Pushing Up: Feel the stretch in your chest, and push through your palms to return to the starting position.

If you’re not able to do a Push up yet, don’t worry - we got you! 🫶🏻

We will assess where you’re at and help you determine what starting level you’re at, so you can begin a program that meets your current strength and takes you to achieving your first Push-up!

Assessing Your Current Push-up Level

Before you start push-up training, it’s key to assess your current level of strength so you know where you’re at on your journey and what level and exercises you need to do to achieve your first push-up!

Choose a Push-Up Progression to Find Your Baseline

You want to find a progression that allows you to do 3-8 challenging but good-form reps.

Push-up progressions are listed below starting from easiest to hardest:

Incline Push-Up (High Elevation): Use a surface like a high bench or box.
Incline Push-Up (Medium Elevation): Use a stable surface like a couch or medium box.
Incline Push-Up (Low Elevation): Use a surface like a coffee table or low box.

Make sure to film and record yourself on your phone with your full body in the shot! This is your baseline. Record what progression you did and how hard it was.

Coaching Cues and Tips

Here are a few coaching cues and tips to help you with your push-ups!

Hand Placement: Keep your fingers facing forward, spread them wide, and ensure your wrists are stacked directly under your shoulders.
Core Engagement: Keep your lower abs pulled in, tuck your hips under, squeeze your butt cheeks tight, and keep your legs glued together.
Breathing: Take a breath in, create full body tension, hold it, lower your chest to your object or the floor, and breathe out at the top of each repetition.

For eccentric reps, hold your breath until you have finished your rep. This breathing technique is subjective, so if it doesn’t feel natural or make you feel strong, breathe in a way that feels good for you.

Push Up Training Program

This is a basic push-up program that only focuses on one push-up progression per day. So we recommend incorporating these exercises into your current training routine as your horizontal push exercise.

How to follow the program:

Complete the push-up exercises 2-3 times per week for 4 weeks.

Aim to increase the repetitions you do every workout and each week!

During your third week, aim to re-test yourself and set new personal bests.

Every fourth week, take a deload and perform one less set and similar reps that you did in Week 1. This will allow you to recover and feel fresh before repeating the 4-week block or moving on to your next one!

After testing, if you’re ready to move up a level, go for it! Keep progressing up the levels until you achieve your first push-up!

Example: Progression over the 4-week block

Week 1: Day 1: Elevated Push-ups 3x 3/3/3

Week 2: Day 1: Elevated Push-ups 3x 4/4/4

Week 3: Day 1: Elevated Push-ups 3x 5/5/5

Week 4: Day 1: Elevated Push-ups 2x 3/3

**When beginning your next block, start Week 1 using the reps you did in Week 2.

Before you begin push-up training, choose the level within the program that best matches your current level of strength!

Here is a general guideline for the levels.

Depending on your experience and fitness level you may want to start at different levels.

If in doubt, start at a lower level, you’ll quickly figure out if it’s too easy for you.

Here is a general guideline for the levels.

LEVEL 1

For absolute beginners. You’re able to perform 3-8 repetitions of Elevated Push Ups (High Elevation)

LEVEL 2

For those who have some experience with training. You’re able to perform 3-8 repetitions of Elevated Push Ups (Medium Elevation)

LEVEL 3

For those who have experience with training, and are close to unlocking the push-up. You’re able to perform 3-8 repetitions of Elevated Push Ups (Low Elevation)

If you want to follow this program on our app where you will be able to access instructional videos, coaches notes, reps, sets, and tracking features to log and measure your progress you can download it here!

Level 1 Program:

Frequency: 3 Days Per Week
Warm-up:
- Cat Camels 5x Repetitions
- Wrist Prep 1-2 Minutes
Day 1: Incline Push-Up (High Elevation): 2-3 sets x3-8 Repetitions
Day 2: Eccentric Elevated Push-Ups 2-3 sets x 3 repetitions x 3-10 seconds
Day 3: Incline Push-Up (Medium Elevation): 2-3 sets x3-5 Repetitions

Level 2 Program:

Frequency: 3 Days Per Week
Warm-up:
- Cat Camels 5x Repetitions
- Wrist Prep 1-2 Minutes
Day 1: Elevated Push-Ups (Medium Elevation) 2-3 sets x 3-8 repetitions
Day 2: Eccentric Elevated Push-Ups (Med-Low Elevation) 2-3 sets x 3 repetitions x 3-10 seconds
Day 3: Elevated Push-Ups (Low Elevation) 2-3 sets x 3-5 repetitions

Level 3 Program:

Program:

Frequency: 3 Days Per Week
Warm-up:
- Cat Camels 5x Repetitions
- Wrist Prep 1-2 Minutes
Day 1: Eccentric Push-Ups 2-3 sets x 3 repetitions x 3-10 seconds
Day 2: Elevated Push-Ups (Low Elevation) 2-3 sets x 3-5 repetitions
Day 3: Eccentric Push-Ups 2-3 sets x 3 repetitions x 3-10 seconds

Once you can complete 3x3 Eccentrics for 10 seconds, this is a sign that you’re ready to test your first push-up!

How to track your Push-up progress

What gets tracked, gets done!

When achieving your first push-up, we highly recommend you track and record your progress! This will keep you accountable to your goal and motivated to keep going!

Log your push-up workouts using our Beginner Calisthenics app or in a workout journal. Record all the things you did so you know next time you go to do that workout, what you need to do to improve.

What to track for your push-up journey:

Key are some key performance markers to track to give you feedback on how you’re progressing towards your first push-up!

The repetitions and number of sets you did for each exercise
The height of your elevated push-ups - e.g. high bench, 60cm box, coffee table, etc.
Describe the difficulty of the exercise for each workout (as you get stronger, it’ll get easier and you’ll be able to reflect and see how strong you’re getting).
Record your push-ups! This is so helpful for reviewing your movements so you can get feedback as to how your form is improving, and how strong you’re getting!

Tips to stay motivated

How long it takes to achieve your first Push up will depend on your consistency, intensity, and intentionality.

However, we recommend setting yourself weekly and session-based targets and goals to work towards. This creates smaller milestones for you to achieve along the way and keeps progress front of mind which adds more fuel to your pursuit!

When you choose to focus on improving every session by 1% you’ll become obsessed with becoming stronger, and achieving your first push-up will feel like a by-product!

YOU’VE GOT THIS!

Lydia and Sam | The Calisthenics Beginners Team!