Many people may struggle to do a standard push up at first; some may look for ways to build up their push up ability while others may give up entirely.
The further your upper body is away from the ground, the easier the push up will become. Less of your body weight is applied to your chest and triceps muscles and you will be able to complete the "easier" push up.
You can use your stairs, or some steps outside, to improve your push up ability leading to you being able to achieve the standard push up, where your hands and feet are on the ground.
Stand at the foot of the stairs and place your hands on the 4th stair (or step) a little more than shoulder width apart.
Move your feet away from the bottom stair until your body is in a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles.
Your shoulder should be directly above your hands.
Lower your upper body towards the stair, while maintaining a straight body, until you are a couple of inches from the ground.
Pause for a second, then push your body up, away from the stair until your arms are straight, do not lock your arms.
That was one rep.
Repeat the push up for the desired number of repetitions. I would recommend aiming for 3 sets of 8-10.
When you can do 3 full sets of 8-10, we need to increase the intensity.
To do this, place your hands on the step, or stair, below and follow the procedure above.
When the third step is achievable; move to the second step, and so on until you are doing push ups on the ground.
At this point you'll be pushing around half your body’s weight.
Congratulations on your push up achievement.
Tags:
push up variation,
achievable push up,
push up,
push up development