1Hips sag and the lower back arches
What you see: The middle drops toward the floor and the low back sways.
The fix: "Abs tight", "tuck it", squeeze your glutes. If it still sags, raise your hands onto a bench.
Form guides · Upper body
The push-up: a moving plank.
Chest, shoulders, arms and trunk, with nothing but the floor. Here is what a good one looks like.
What good looks like.
A push-up is a plank that moves. Your chest, shoulders and triceps press you up, while your abs and glutes hold your body in one straight line. When the line breaks, the push-up stops being a chest exercise and starts loading your low back and neck.
- Hands a little wider than your shoulders, under or just outside them.
- One straight line from your head to your heels: "abs tight", glutes squeezed.
- Elbows angle back toward your hips rather than straight out to the sides.
- Lower until your chest is just above the floor, then press it away.
- Shoulders stay down away from your ears.
- Chin in, neck long
- Shoulders down: "drop the traps"
- Hips level, "abs tight"
- Elbows back, not out
The faults a trainer sees most
What goes wrong, and the cue that fixes it.
The cues in quotes are the words Brad Glaser uses with his own clients.
2Head drops or pokes forward
What you see: The chin reaches for the floor first.
The fix: "Chin in." Your chest touches down before your nose does.
3Shoulders shrug and round
What you see: The shoulders creep up to your ears and roll forward.
The fix: "Drop the traps", "pinch the blades" at the bottom.
4Half reps
What you see: The elbows only bend a little, so the chest never gets near the floor.
The fix: Go all the way down on an easier version rather than halfway on the floor. Full range builds the strength.
Make it easier, make it harder.
Easier
- Incline push-up, hands on a bench or kitchen counter.
- Wall push-up.
- Push-up from the knees, keeping the straight line from knees to head.
Harder
- Slow three-second lower.
- Feet raised on a step.
- A pause with the chest just above the floor.
Move within a range that feels comfortable, and stop any exercise that hurts. Have a health condition, or been inactive a while? Ask your doctor what is right for you first. VeraForma is coaching, not medicine. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it does not replace your doctor or physio.
Let your phone coach it.
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More form guides
Built by Brad Glaser · NASM Master Trainer · NASM-CPT, CES, PES · 20+ years · has certified 100+ personal trainers.
He owns a personal-training studio in Southern California. The same method he uses standing next to a client, built into the app.
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