Great question, and a worthy quest! I was a military cadet at one of the major academies and I trained other cadets as well. There were a couple years when push ups were a normal part of my life every day, often starting in the hallway by 6am (0600) with plenty of shouting to go with it. Good form was the minimum requirement. As I learned them, push ups were basically another way of standing âat attentionâ in the military context. We spent a lot of time in the âfront leaning restâ (the push up âupâ position) reciting knowledge, answering questions, counting out punishments for some infraction, making a point, or even settling a score. That mindset of a push up being sort of standing at attention surely influences my philosophy of push up form; it also makes for good, solid push ups. Here are some tips for executing good push up form, at least in the military context.First, you need to understand what a proper push up is requiring from your body. Push ups are not just a chest exercise. In addition to requiring lots of stabilizing muscles, push ups target chest, shoulders, upper arms, and abs to maintain the âplankâ position with your body. They also engage your upper back and lower back. Proper form works all those muscle groups, so when your form is breaking then you know where your weak links are.For form, start with your head. Your head is your confidence. Good push ups require confidence. When you are in the push up position, your head should be up, looking forward. When your head starts hanging down and youâre staring at the ground, youâre breaking form. Imagine if somebody was doing push ups right in front of you, facing you, the two of you would be practically nose to nose. Iâm sure some trainers at gyms would disagree with me, and I suppose thatâs fine. But in my opinion, having your head up is the attitude of a push up. When your head is up, you are engaged with the room in front of you. Also, keeping your head up helps keep your back straight, which weâll get to in a moment.With your head up, your arms should be extended straight down from your shoulders. You can always vary your width to target different muscles (wider arm stance uses more pectoral, narrower stance uses more bicep/tricep), but basic form in a push up is a clean, compact movement without limbs sticking out at odd angles. Your feet should extend straight behind you and your ankles should be together, just like if you were standing at attention.Your hands should be flat, your fingers facing forward, not pointing out towards your sides or in towards each other. Point your fingers forward, the direction you are looking. In this way, when you go âdownâ for a push up rep, your elbows will point back, not out, when you lower your body. In other words, your arms are staying more or less against your body as you lower into the âdownâ position. Again, some people will disagree and say that your elbows should point out, but that always seems like a weird and unnatural motion. Think instead like a weight lifter doing bench press with a shoulder-width grip: he lowers the bar straight down, and he doesnât have elbows sticking out away from his body until his grip is wider. Itâs similar with a push up. As you widen your hands, your elbows will point âoutâ more when you go down.When you drop down in your push up, your chest should come to the ground directly between your hands and your arms will be bent with your shoulders directly above your hands, if not slightly forward of your hands.Try this as youâre sitting right now: face your palms out/away from you, and try to bring the backs of your hands back to touch your shoulders (keep your elbows close to your sides). Your probably canât quite get your hands to your shoulders, or maybe you barely can if you thrust your chest forward. The âdownâ position in your push up should be similar. Your chest should come barely to the ground but not rest on it, and nothing else but your hands and your feet should be touching the ground.If you do all that, while keeping your head up, your back will pretty much have to be straight. If your butt is sticking up in the air (trying to give your abs a rest) then your chin will come to the ground before your chest and youâll be off balance. If your back is sagging down because your low back muscles are tired, then your belly and legs will hit the ground long before your chest.Other clues about your form are your hands and feet: they shouldnât move. If you are shuffling your feet around or moving your hands around during a set, you are surely compromising your form.Good push ups, like good confident posture, require a straight back. Keeping your back straight for multiple reps will force your core to be strong. If you canât keep your back straight during push ups, you need to work on core strength, especially abs, planks, etc.Hereâs a good example of the combination of head up, feet together, back straight, proper arm width, fingers forward, elbows back, and shoulders dropping towards hands:You can execute this form just by paying attention, but it does help if you have a mirror or a a buddy to help.Good form is totally worth the effort. Push ups with poor form are worth much less than push ups with neat, compact, confident form. Focus on making every set maintain perfect form. When you canât do another one, widen or narrow your grip/hands and try to knock out a few more. Eventually, you may want to try one-armed push ups. Either way, practice good form and you will get stronger.I hope that helps!
