One of the most effective full-body exercises is the classic push-up. It doesn’t matter whether you want to learn push-ups from scratch or are looking for the next sporting challenge – with the following training plans you will become a push-up professional in just 28 days.
Few fitness exercises activate as many muscles in the body as push-ups. Anyone who thinks that only the chest is properly pumped up here is wrong. Incidentally, the exercise is also extremely desirable for women: a well-executed push-up uses up to 200 of our 656 muscles in total – almost a third of the muscle mass. The continuous body tension not only strengthens the chest muscles, but also the triceps, shoulder, abdominal and back muscles. The result is a strong core and improved upright posture. Regular training not only gives you an athletic appearance, but also a healthy and proud appearance.
What is particularly practical about the exercise is that it can be practiced anytime and anywhere without additional equipment. So you really have no more excuses for our following push-up training plan!
Especially if you spend a lot of time sitting at your desk in your home office, push-ups can prevent back pain. If you have a hunched posture, push-up training helps to compensate for incorrect posture and imbalances. At the same time, with continuous training, you promote your endurance and strength and boost your fat burning. So many good reasons to start the challenge right away.
The prerequisite for avoiding injuries is error-free execution. Here you can learn how to do the push-up correctly with tips from personal trainer and health expert Dr. Check Michel right away.
With the push-up plan, you can do 100 push-ups in four weeks. To do this, complete a training session three times a week – for example on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. You can distribute the days individually over the week, but make sure to take break days to give the muscles the time they need to regenerate.
With proper form in mind, you can now test how many reps you can do without excessive effort. Warm up briefly before the exercise to prevent injuries, especially in the shoulders, chest and arms. Circle your arms and shoulders and mobilize your back. Especially at the beginning you can also choose the simpler push-up variant on your knees or on a wall or on an elevation:
Push-ups on the knees are less intense and easier to get started with:
Your training plan in the following weeks is based on the number of push-up repetitions you have completed and is therefore tailored to your individual fitness level.
The training plan provides for four sets of push-up units on each of the three training days, with the repetitions being measured by the number of your starting repetitions. If you can do more than 25 push-ups in the first run without much effort, gradually build seven instead of four sets of push-up units into your training plan.
For 6-10 repetitions:
For 11-20 reps:
At 21-25 reps:
At 26-30 reps:
At 31-40 reps:
For more than 40 repetitions:
After the first week, the intensity of the plan increases according to the same pattern. The basis is again the number of push-ups you achieved at the beginning. After the end of the second week, you are welcome to repeat the test. How many push-ups can you do on the fly now?
For 6-10 repetitions:
For 11-20 reps:
At 21-25 reps:
At 26-30 reps:
At 31-40 reps:
For more than 40 repetitions:
After retesting at the end of the second week, look back at the first week’s schedule for your rep count. In the best case, you have improved your workload over the past 14 days and can now adjust your training plan to set yourself new training stimuli. If not, then don’t be discouraged! Do the test again as you did at the beginning and follow the training instructions from the first week – be patient!
In the fourth week, the final sprint on the way to 100 push-ups may already begin for you. Look again at the number of repetitions you have achieved and thus continuously increase your strength and endurance for the 100 push-ups. Otherwise, continue at your pace or add rest periods between reps.
Depending on your training level, desire and mood, you can make the push-up challenge more varied with a few alternatives. Here are three workout ideas to incorporate into the workout plan:
Tight or wide push-ups
Depending on how far apart you place your hands in the push-up, different muscle groups are used more. For example, if you want to set new training stimuli in the chest muscles, you can position your hands wider than shoulder width and thus perform wide push-ups. If, on the other hand, you place your hands less than shoulder-width apart, you train your triceps in particular in the tight push-up.
Variation of hand position
Push-ups do not necessarily have to be done on the palms. You can change the position and placement of your hands to try different types of push-ups. Push-ups on the fingertips, for example, require more effort than classic push-ups. A prominent example of this was the Bruce Lee performing push-ups on just two fingers.
If you have pain in your wrists, you can do push-ups on your fists to protect your joints. This alternative is particularly popular with martial artists because it also strengthens the fist. It is important that this variation is only practiced on the knuckles of the index and middle fingers and on a hard surface, so that no imbalances are trained by the push-up.
Alternatively, you can complete your workout with push-up grips. Here the wrists are protected and a stable surface is provided.
Push-ups on the back of the hand, on the other hand, should be avoided, since the tendons of the wrist are unnaturally strained and strains can occur.
For professionals: one-armed push-ups or push-ups on one leg
Push-ups, in which the point of balance is shifted, are particularly demanding. In a one-leg push-up, the foot of the passive leg is placed on the heel of the active leg, leaving the body weight on just three points. You also have to pay attention to the balance, which at the same time trains the body tension.
You can also do the push-up with just one arm using the same principle. To do this, place your passive arm on your back or on the shoulder of the active arm for stabilization. With this variant you not only train your push-up performance, but also challenge your balance and the deep muscles required for it.
In order to get to this level, you should first start with very tight push-ups, i.e. bring your hands together so close that they form a Merkel diamond on the floor. This variant is also called the diamond push-up and challenges the triceps. With practice, you might eventually be able to do the one-armed push-up!
