What you'll gain
Builds the chest, triceps, and front shoulders without any equipment.
Reinforces a strong full-body plank shape under pressing load.
Scales infinitely from incline beginner versions to advanced weighted variations.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- 1
Set up in a high-plank position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width and arms locked.
- 2
Brace your core, squeeze the glutes, and keep your body in a straight line from head to heels.
- 3
Lower your chest slowly toward the floor over 2 to 3 seconds, keeping the elbows at about 45 degrees.
- 4
Stop when your chest hovers just above the floor, holding the bottom briefly with full body tension.
- 5
Press back up by driving the floor away through the palms until the arms reach full extension.
- 6
Reset your breath and repeat for the full set, keeping the body line tight on every rep.
Common Mistakes
Letting the hips sag toward the floor, which removes the core demand and strains the lower back.
Letting the elbows flare to 90 degrees, which strains the front shoulders and reduces chest engagement.
Cutting the depth short and only pressing the top half of the rep instead of touching the chest down.
Letting the head poke forward instead of keeping the neck in line with the spine.
About This Exercise
The push-up is the most foundational bodyweight upper-body exercise. From a high-plank position, the lifter lowers the chest to the floor and presses back up, loading the chest, triceps, and front shoulders through a controlled horizontal press. It scales endlessly: incline for beginners, decline or weighted for advanced lifters. For app and content use, this clip is non-negotiable inventory for any beginner program, home-and-travel track, or warm-up flow. It also serves as the anchor of any push pattern progression in coaching platforms and as a clean teaching piece for movement-quality content aimed at brand-new lifters.
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Push Up
The most foundational bodyweight push lift — trains the chest, triceps, and front shoulders with a single, scalable pattern.
Specifications
Built for
- Beginner onboarding programming in fitness apps
- Home-and-travel push-day workouts with no equipment
- Warm-up flows for upper-body strength sessions
- Push pattern education in coaching platforms
Muscles Worked
Details
License Includes
Bodyweight Elevated Push Up
$4.99A push-up with hands raised on a bench or box that scales the difficulty down — the cleanest beginner push-up regression.
Bodyweight Knee Push Ups
$4.99A push-up done from the knees that drops the load — the first regression that lets beginners actually train the push pattern.
Burpee
$4.99A squat-thrust into a push-up into a jump — the full-body conditioning move that hits everything in one rep.
Decline Push Up
$4.99A push up with feet elevated on a bench or step that biases the upper chest, front delts, and triceps without any equipment.
Incline Push Up
$4.99A push-up performed with hands raised on a bench or box — the easier on-ramp to a full bodyweight push-up.
Parallel Bar Dips
$4.99A bodyweight dip on parallel bars that builds the chest and triceps — one of the most demanding pure-bodyweight upper-body lifts.