10 Tips to Increase Your Pushups FAST

push-ups require the strength of your chest shoulders triceps and even your core so it's no surprise that the number of push-ups that you can do is closely linked to the strength of your upper body that's why push-ups are used to test overall physical fitness by organizations like police military and even at schools in gym class push-ups can also build up your upper body without any equipment they can even be done at home so today i want to share 10 major tips that helped me literally 5 to 10x the amount of push-ups that i could do

and the first important thing to do is make sure that you're performing push-ups correctly with proper form now i know this may sound like common sense but you wouldn't believe how many people i've worked with that think they know but they actually don't know how to perform push-ups properly one of the most common mistakes that i've seen is when someone doesn't brace their core and that causes their spine to round either up or down rather than staying in a neutral position not only can this lead to a lower back injury but it can actually also

make the exercise easier when you drop your hips or harder when you raise them another common mistake is flaring your elbows out too far you want them at about a 45 degree angle from your body a good tip to prevent your elbows from flaring out is to slightly rotate your hands outward before planting them on the ground and beginning push-ups this will naturally rotate your elbows inward one last mistake that you might make if you're a beginner is positioning your hands too narrow which is great for overloading the triceps but it will reduce the number

of reps that you can do overall so the way to do push-ups correctly is by first getting down on all fours with your hands slightly rotated outward and spread them slightly wider apart than shoulder width then plant your toes into the ground behind you get into a push-up position while squeezing your core and glutes so that the back of your head your hips and your heels end up in a relatively straight line then bend your elbows and lower your body down until your chest is right above the ground and finally push yourself back up until

your elbows are straightened now the next tip to increase your push-ups is many times overlooked even though it's the lowest hanging fruit which is to lose body fat there are a couple reasons why gymnasts and people that are good at calisthenics have low body fat percentages and one of the most obvious benefits is that they have to overcome less resistance when moving their bodies the same is true for the push-up the more you weigh the harder it'll be and the less you weigh the easier it'll be this is actually contrary to the bench press where

people are generally stronger the heavier they are this is because unlike a push-up bench pressing doesn't force you to lift your body weight and to get a better idea we can look at a study published in the journal of strength and conditioning research that found that on average you have to push up about 64 percent of your body weight when doing push-ups so if you weigh let's say 200 pounds you'll have to push through 128 pounds of resistance meanwhile if you weigh 150 pounds you'll only have to overcome 96 pounds of resistance so it's obvious

if you want to be able to do more push-ups lose excess body fat and i have a ton of videos that can help with that that i'll link up in the description below another tip that can help those of you that are advanced as well as those of you that are beginners is to use kneeling and incline push-ups since you have to press up about 64 of your weight when doing a regular push-up a lot of that weight will be taken off when performing push-ups from your knees or with your hands placed on higher incline

levels specifically the same study found that during kneeling push-ups you're only lifting about 49 of your body weight and during elevated push-ups it can drop to 41 or even lower so it's pretty obvious how this can help beginners if you can't do a regular push-up yet you could get started with kneeling or incline push-ups and progress from there but even if you're advanced when you push yourself to failure it's very effective to drop to your knees and squeeze out a few additional reps especially if you haven't hit your rep target before giving out this is

actually very similar to performing a drop set when lifting weights and drop sets are very effective for gaining size and strength now once you're able to do more than 15 push-ups you'll want to overload your push-ups with more advanced variations a major factor that determines how many push-ups you can do is how much maximal push strength your upper body has so the more maximal strength you have the easier it'll be to do one regular push-up this is why more advanced push-up variations should be used in your routine because they'll help you improve your maximal pressing

strength one simple way to do this is by elevating your feet for push-ups this will lead to more of your weight to be shifted over to your upper body making the exercise more difficult to be exact that same study from before found that elevating your feet just two feet off the ground will increase the amount of resistance from 64 to 74 percent so i recommend starting your workout with the more difficult push-up variations where your feet are elevated as you do more sets and begin to feel fatigued you can switch to regular push-ups and start

doing drop sets even to kneeling push-ups to be able to complete more reps i'll include a link below to a video that will demonstrate all the best push-up variations that you can incorporate into your routine but aside from variations you can also use resistance bands to overload the movement we have studies that show us that bench pressing with resistance bands leads to more strength gains compared to doing the same amount of volume on the bench press except with regular weights rather than resistance bands unfortunately there are no studies available on whether the same applies to

band resisted push-ups but when you have built up a solid push-up foundation it does make sense to add these to your workout routine this is because it allows you to overload the movement and gain more upper body strength making regular push-ups feel a lot easier on top of that using bands actually improves the strength curve of the movement what i mean is that with regular push-ups most people have a clear sticking point when they're about one third of the way up that's when they get stuck but when you use bands this sticking point becomes less

and less of an issue or it might even disappear entirely because the bands will make it more challenging as you press yourself up keeping the same difficulty level throughout the entire range of motion next is a tip that most people don't think about and that's to make sure that you have a sufficient amount of core strength you simply can't perform a proper push-up if you have a weak core it would be like shooting a cannon from a canoe your core is your base and if it's weak your base will be too unstable that's why it

can be beneficial to implement core stabilization exercises into your workout routine like planks and ab wheel roll outs these movements train your core in a static position which has more carry over to your push-up strength than doing more dynamic ab exercises like crunches or leg raises another tip that should technically be at the top of the list is to make sure that you apply progressive overload this means that you gradually need to increase the stimulus you place on your muscles and your body so for example let's say you did 4 sets of 10 push-ups this

time next time you could aim to do something like 4 sets of 11 push-ups or alternatively you can do 5 sets of 10 push-ups instead of only 4 sets increasing the total stimulus placed on your upper body gives those push muscles an actual reason to grow and get stronger now there are many ways that you can apply progressive overload but the most useful and effective ways are by either using more weight or doing more reps to increase the weight you can do some of the things that we've already talked about like raising your feet or

using a resistance band but you can also simply put a weight on your upper back or wear a book bag filled with weights and increase that weight load over time when you get used to training with the extra weight and then finally remove the weight you should be able to do a lot more regular push-ups than before if adding weight isn't an option simply trying to squeeze out one or two extra push-ups per set over the weeks that you train can add up significantly over time the next big tip is to simply do push-ups more

often like any exercise mastering push-ups requires time when you do an exercise more often your body becomes more efficient at that exercise leading to an increase in strength and performance after a lot of practice your body will learn exactly how to coordinate the movement in such a way that you can perform it very efficiently this is for example why olympic weight lifters practice their lifts every day putting in those repetitions consistently increases neurological efficiency in the movement which is crucial for gaining strength research also shows that doing enough training volume is very important for building

muscle so if you want to quickly improve the number of push-ups that you can do doing a couple sets once per week isn't going to lead to very fast results you'll need to do more training volume the nice thing about the push-up is that it's an exercise that you can do anywhere so practicing push-ups three or four times a week will help you improve a lot faster than doing them once or twice a week thanks to an increase in overall training volume now even though you can perform push-ups at home another thing that helped me

rapidly accelerate my push-up strength was to lift weights at the gym doing push-ups and performing exercises like the bench press don't have to be mutually exclusive they can work together hand-in-hand to your benefit by lifting heavier and heavier weights on the bench press and dumbbell press it can make push-ups a million times easier you can train with heavier weights and even use lower rep ranges more effectively with weights and increase your maximal strength then you can with regular push-ups you can increase the amount of resistance you use in small increments as well so as small

as two and a half pounds at a time this isn't as easy to do with regular body weight push-ups even when factoring in the variations that's why even if your only goal is to do as many push-ups as possible and you don't really care for bench pressing or building up muscle mass i still recommend that you supplement with weight training exercises instead of relying only on body weight exercises as an added benefit weight training will also allow you to train lagging muscle groups like your chest with isolation exercises which should also carry over to your

push-ups finally last but not least you have to stay consistent with your workouts as with everything else in life consistency is king you're not going to get from not being able to do a single push-up to doing dozens and dozens of push-ups after just one workout session so create a plan give yourself enough time and stick to it it's a fact that most people overestimate what can be accomplished in the short term but they underestimate what can be done in the long term so there's really no reason that you won't be able to work yourself

up to doing more and more push-ups but i repeat above all else one of the biggest factors will be consistency one last thing that i do want to mention if your goal is to solely improve your push-ups make it a priority within your workout routine don't leave push-ups to the end of your workout when you're already fatigued and exhausted instead start off with them on the other hand if this is a side goal you'll want to still start with your heaviest exercises like bench press and then move on to push-ups later so that about wraps

it up if you guys enjoyed this video make sure you subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see the 12 best push-up variations you can find a link for that below in the description also if you want to fast track your results and skip all the trial and error i have a proven program that's helping my clients get amazing results in less than two months you'll get a customizable meal plan based on your preferences so you can stick to a plan that helps you actually burn fat you'll also get a full video exercise library

with guided workout plans so you can get stronger and build nicer muscles you'll also get a recipe book and an accountability coach to push you through the entire transformation process to find out more you can click the link in the description below or you can visit my website directly at gravitytransformation.com i'll see you guys soon [Music] [Applause] you