How to Do an Incline Push-Up (Video)
If you have trouble performing at least 10 consecutive repetitions of the classic push-up with proper form — hands in line with your shoulders, body straight, elbows tucked at your sides, chest to within a few inches of the floor — the usual advice is to work your way up by doing knee push-ups. There’s just one problem with that.
“The knee push-up doesn’t work the same muscles in the same ways as the classic push-up,” says Trevor Thieme, C.S.C.S. “So it doesn’t help you build the strength you need to eventually progress to a regular push-up.”
It’s a matter of physics: When you change the point of contact with the floor from your feet to your knees, you change the angle of your arms to your body and, consequently, the action of the push-up on your joints and muscles.
A better option: The incline push-up. Like the knee push-up, it’s an easier variation of the classic bodyweight exercise. But because it shares the same body position and movement pattern with the regular push-up, it works the same muscles in a similar way. This takes them through the classic push-up’s full range of motion, just at a different angle of your entire body to the floor.
It’s also more adaptable to your current fitness level. “The greater the angle of your body to the ground, the easier the exercise becomes,” says Thieme.” As you become stronger, you can move your hands progressively closer to the floor.”
Incline Push-Up: Step-By-Step Instructions
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- Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart on a bench or other stable, elevated surface, and assume a high plank position with your feet together and body straight from head to heels. Clench your glutes and brace your core to lock your body into position.
- Maintain a flat back and keep your core engaged as you lower your chest to within a few inches of the bench. Don’t let your hips sag.
- Pause, and then push yourself back up to starting position.
How to Make the Incline Push-up Easier (or Harder)
There are several ways to progress or modify the incline push-up to make it more or less challenging.
1. Change the angle
As noted above, you can perform incline push-ups at nearly any angle: the steeper the incline, the easier the move becomes. People new to strength training can even perform the incline push-up with their hands on the vertical surface of a wall.
2. Change the tempo
The slower you perform any exercise — including the incline push-up — the greater your muscles’ time under tension will be, and the more challenging the exercise will become. Try taking three to four seconds to lower your body, and see if you don’t agree.
3. Add some instability
To increase the challenge to your balance and core, lift one foot off the ground as you perform the move, alternating legs every rep. Another option: Place your hands on a stability ball instead of a stable surface.
4. Be explosive
Want a serious challenge? Push yourself up as fast and hard as possible, perhaps even with enough force for your hands to leave the bench for a split-second. In so doing, you’ll work your type II muscle fibers (which have the most growth potential) even harder.
Benefits of Incline Push-ups
The push-up may be as close to a perfect exercise as it gets: You don’t need equipment, you can do them anywhere, and when performed correctly, they work muscles throughout your body (not just your chest and arms). The incline push-up makes these benefits more accessible to beginners.
Also, like classic push-ups, the incline push-up targets a muscle group that typically gets off easy during chest exercises like the bench press: your core. In fact, you can even think of the incline push-up as a plank variation, as both exercises (plank and push-up) share the same starting position.
Incline Push-ups: Muscles Worked
Pecs
Chief among the muscles worked by the incline push-up are the pecs. The larger of the two, the pectoralis major, has three primary functions: To raise your upper arms, to rotate them inward, and to bring them toward the midline of your body (like when you clap or hug). Located underneath the pec major is the pectoralis minor, which helps draw the shoulder blade forward and downward.
Deltoids
Your shoulder joints are each controlled primarily by the deltoid and the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that helps stabilize the shoulder joint. The deltoid sits on top of the rotator cuff, giving your shoulders their size, definition, strength, and power.
Triceps
The triceps brachii are the muscles found on the backs of your upper arms, and which connect your shoulder blade (scapula) to your upper arm (humerus) and forearm. Together they straighten your elbow.
Core
Distinguishing the push-up from other chest-centric moves like the bench press and fly is its engagement of the core muscles, principally the rectus abdominis (i.e., “abs”). This sheet of muscle extending from the bottom of your rib cage to the top of your pelvis pulls your chest toward your hips, and vice versa. Also involved in the incline push-up are the internal and external obliques flanking your torso, the transverse abdominis (embedded beneath the rectus), and the spinal erectors of the lower back.