- What's up, it's Chris Heria.
Today I'm gonna be teaching you
how to do the perfect pushup.
The pushup is one of the best and oldest exercises
used to build the ultimate physique,
utilized today by professional athletes
in every type of training regimen,
and even used by gladiators in the Roman times.
And even before that.
It's one of the most important exercises
that you can ever do
which is why I do it pretty much every morning.
And even if you've been training for a while,
regardless of how strong you may be,
if your pushups look like this, you're doing them wrong.
But after today, you'll be doing them perfectly,
regardless of your starting point, your age, gender,
or any other factor.
And it's so important
that you learn how to do the pushup perfectly
because this is an exercise
that you will use throughout your entire fitness journey.
And so many more harder
and advanced exercise will come from strengthening
and developing your pushup like full plunge pushups,
90 degree pushups, handstand pushups, and so much more.
All of these exercises I eventually unlocked
started simply by mastering the pushup.
So that's what we're gonna be doing today.
Now, for those of you that aren't aware,
the muscles engaged when you're doing your pushup
is gonna be your chest, your triceps, and your shoulders.
And the muscles stabilizing this exercise
is gonna be your core, your abdominals,
your lower back, your glutes, and the rest of your legs,
even your quads, hamstrings, and your calves.
And one more thing before we get started,
as we go through each lesson of progression,
I need you to be using perfect form.
It's the only way to unlock the perfect pushup.
Don't worry about how many you're doing,
just focus on how well you're doing them.
As we start to get into this lesson
you guys wanna start warming up your wrists,
especially if you've never done a pushup before,
or if you're still struggling with them, you wanna make sure
that your wrists are properly warmed up to prevent injury,
as well as strengthening the wrist itself.
All right, so first I'm gonna show you the perfect pushup.
I'm gonna do 10 repetitions,
and I'm gonna break it down for you.
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It's gonna really help
if you always have constant tension
throughout your entire body,
from the grip on the floor to your arms,
your core, lower back, glutes, and your legs.
You wanna make sure that you never break this form,
and there's no arch or bend in your body.
(upbeat music)
All right, so there we have the perfect pushup.
Now starting to go down our checklist,
the first thing we're gonna focus on is the top
of the pushup position before even going for one rep.
And you wanna make sure that your body
is in a straight line from your head to your heels.
Engaging in squeezing your core,
you're squeezing your glutes,
as well as engaging your legs to keep them straight.
As for your hands,
you want them placed on the ground,
just under your shoulders
and your palms at the lower chest line.
You also wanna make sure
that you have a solid grip on the ground.
You're literally trying to grab the floor.
And your elbows should not be super flared out
but rather beside your body.
Now, the closer your arms are to your body,
the more you're gonna be engaging your triceps.
And the further way your elbows are to your body
the more you're emphasizing on your chest.
But regardless you still don't wanna have your arms
completely flared out while you're doing pushups.
That can cause irritation in your shoulders
and even lead to injury.
As well as not being in the best position
to utilize the muscles intended,
losing potential strength and power in your pushup.
And lastly, you wanna make sure that your chin
and your face is up and not super tucked in.
And this is a solid position
and perfect form that you wanna have from the top,
all the way down to the bottom, and back up.
For those of you that can't do it,
you'll be doing it on an elevated surface.
And as long as you keep all of these points in check
throughout the full duration of your pushup,
you're always gonna have perfect form.
Now, as you begin to go down into your pushup,
it's super important
that you actually control the descension of your pushup.
Don't just come down right away, but work the negative
because that's gonna be building muscle just as much
as the concentric portion, pushing back up.
A lot of people actually miss out
on this part of the repetition,
only focusing on just pushing up as hard as they can,
and really neglecting
the eccentric portion of this repetition,
leaving a lot of potential gains on the table.
This is actually another main factor
as to why some people don't benefit from pushups,
and others really build a lot of strength
and muscle off of them.
A lot of people when they do pushups
or just start doing pushups,
they're just trying to go through the motion
to eventually hit the number that they're trying to hit.
Not actually giving a quality contraction
with every single rep, feeling the concentric
as well as the eccentric throughout full range of motion.
So you really wanna make sure
that you're gonna be doing that.
So now we're ready to descend into our pushup.
I want everybody to get down on the floor.
Make sure you've checked off
all the points that we just covered.
I wanna see if you can do your perfect pushup,
and then let us know down in the comments section below
what helped you, what worked for you,
or if you still need any more tips.
So as you begin to descend,
you wanna lean your weight slightly forward
and control the entire movement all the way down
until your chest reaches the floor
to ensure that you're using full range of motion.
And you're strong from all the way to the bottom,
to the middle, and all the way to the top.
And of course, if your chest can't touch the ground yet
just make it a goal and try to go lower every time.
The more you do it, the strong you're gonna get.
Eventually you'll increase your range of motion.
Now, as you begin to descend and maintaining perfect form,
once you finally reach the bottom,
you're gonna squeeze again.
Keep in mind that you're maintaining the entire checklist,
keeping your entire body contracted as a single unit
in a straight line from your heels to your head.
And remember, don't have your elbows straight out.
You can have them at an angle to your side like an airplane,
or you can have them closer to your body
that's gonna engage more of your triceps.
Use and train both, they're both gonna benefit you.
In fact, there's many different pushup variations
that we'll eventually get into,
but none of them utilize your arms like this.
And for those of you that were to trying it
on an elevated surface, I'm gonna show you how
to scale it all the way down to the ground.
So we're gonna get to an elevated surface,
and we're gonna go off the same checklist.
So I'm gonna get to an elevated surface that you can choose,
any type of elevated surface.
The higher it is, the easier it's gonna be.
Of course, if it's this high, even your grandma can do it.
And that's why anybody can learn how to master the pushup.
So there shouldn't be any excuse for anyone not to do this.
So I'm gonna get to my elevated surface.
If this is too high for any of you out there,
of course you can always start higher, and start right here.
We're gonna put our hands down.
Now, I wanna make sure that I'm in a straight line
from the tip of my toes, all the way to my head.
And when I come down, I wanna make sure
that the line is at my lower chest level.
Just like as if it was on the ground.
Now, as you can see my elbows go straight in
and straight back out.
My body's in a completely straight line,
and I'm on the tips of my toes to help emphasize more
of my weight onto the surface.
If I was flat like this, as you can see,
there's less weight pushing me onto here.
It's not gonna give me that form that I want.
So I need to be on the tip of my toes,
just like as if I was on the ground.
I'm gonna come all the way down
to my lower chest area and push right back up.
Let's go for 10 reps.
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Last one, bam.
As you can see, completely tight, core engaged
to the tip of my toes, all the way up to my head, chin up.
Come all the way down, all the way back up.
Now, you wanna master this movement.
I love doing it on elevated surfaces.
You can really feel the benefits
of utilizing perfect form from an elevated surface,
especially because there's not as much resistance
like when you're doing it on the floor.
You can actually focus and emphasize on perfect form.
So I'd highly advise to start on an elevated surface.
Even I do pushups
on an elevated surface from time to time,
especially when I'm doing drop sets
or progressive overloads.
Another thing about doing it on an elevated surface
is that you can do more volume.
It's gonna be a lot easier to do 50 pushups in a row
on an elevated surface than to do it on the flat ground.
But eventually you're gonna get stronger
and you're gonna be able to do those 50 pushups
on a lower elevated surface,
and then eventually just bring it lower, lower, lower,
until you're doing those 50 pushups on the ground.
Or any amount of pushups on the ground for that matter.
That's actually one of the best ways
to start mastering your pushup on the floor.
If you can't do them yet,
master them on an elevated surface,
then bring the elevated surface lower and lower.
So I'm gonna show you another example of that.
We're gonna get to another lower elevated surface
and go for another 10 reps.
I'm gonna go all the way down and back up.
As you can see, you can always utilize perfect form.
Always pushing from the same angle,
from the same point of my chest.
And I always have the same checklist.
Straight from my feet to my shoulders or my head rather.
And giving it full range of motion all the way up,
all the way down to my chest.
And of course, once that gets easier, you can bring it down
even lower practically to the ground.
Eventually you'll just be doing them on the ground.
Now, I used to teach the knee pushup
to eventually build up your strength to do a real pushup.
But over the years of transforming people,
I've scratched that as it's way better to focus
on doing pushups from an elevated surface
as you're using the same exact position and form
as you're doing in a real pushup on the floor.
In fact, it's even easier to understand the perfect form
and position and utilize it
while you're doing a pushup from an elevated position,
ensuring that you're gonna master the perfect pushup
before you're even able to do it on the floor.
And you can't say the same thing for the knee pushup.
When you're doing knee pushups, you are engaging your chest,
shoulders, and triceps, just like a pushup,
but you're losing the form and engagement
in your legs and your lower body.
Which means that you'll be losing the opportunity
to focus on it and master it.
That's why it's way better to start off
with the elevated pushup.
You're doing the same form in the same position
the whole entire time, from the very first attempt
all the way to doing pushups on the ground.
So at this point, you guys should definitely
have unlocked your perfect pushup, whether it be
on an elevated surface for now or on the ground.
But regardless you're gonna have the perfect form
and the knowledge so that by the time you get to the ground,
it's gonna be flawless.
And now you can use your perfect pushup form
on other pushup style to increase your overload,
build more strength, power, and muscle,
and progress a lot further.
For example, you can elevate your feet
which is gonna emphasize higher on your chest
as well as more resistance on your pushup.
You can try to isolate one of your arms with archer pushups
or typewriter pushups, or even one arm assisted pushups.
And one of my favorite things that I love to do
is to increase the weight and resistance of your pushup.
That can be with a resistance band or a weight vest.
That's gonna give you way more explosive pushing power
and strength as well as develop way more muscle.
And once you've taken away the resistance
and you're just doing it with your normal body weight,
you're gonna see how explosive
and how effortlessly pushups are gonna be.
Which is exactly what you want
if you're trying to level up
and take your training to the next level.
Because with that type of strength, eventually
you're gonna develop the pushing strength to do pushups,
utilizing your entire body weight
like with the full plunge pushups,
90 degree pushups, handstand pushups, and so much more.
But most importantly
it all starts with the perfect pushup.
So I hope you guys map your perfect pushup today.
Even if you can do it on the ground,
try it on an elevated surface to ensure
that you're really using that perfect form.
And once you've mastered it on the floor,
I really want you to try applying it into other exercises
like the ones I just mentioned.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes
in the comment section down below.
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And that's gonna wrap up this video.
If there's anything that you guys would like to
see me cover next week, anything at all,
it could be nutrition, a vlog, a technique lesson
just like this, or even a workout.
Please let me know in the comment section down below,
and I'll see you next Thursday 2:00 PM USA Eastern Time.
Mad love and peace out.
(upbeat music)
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