Will I ever get better at push ups?!

[KronkeyCroc]

I find them sooooo hard unless on my knees. I can only go down a tiny bit in a full press up.

Is it better to do on knees and lower or full and little dips to see improvement?

Mix it up to get improvement. One of my CrossFit coaches insisted we all do press ups on a box to getter bet the movement. I'd start there.

What other chest/shoulder/arm strength exercises are you doing?

Building to a full press-up by just doing press-ups alone won't work, or will take an absolute age.

I'm in a similar position - I want to get to 10 full press-ups (on toes, all the way to the floor) by November. I was advised by trainers at the gym to do a combination of both the types you've suggested. One of the trainers (a cross fit lady) told me to do one full press-up as low as possible for every five knee press-ups.
But both trainers told me that it's more important to build overall upper arm/shoulder/chest strength which will make full press-ups much easier.

I did press-ups on my knees for years and made zero progress. Things that actually helped me progress were:

• doing full push-ups with hands on a bench or box, then gradually lowering the height
• eccentric push-ups (slow controlled lowering down bit for 5-8 seconds)
• full push-ups with a booty band above the elbows

Have a look at doing "negatives". So on a push up, work on simply lowering yourself to the ground with good push up form. And then repeat, don't do the push up upwards, just reset to the starting point and lower yourself again.

For good form, there's an excellent Jeff Cavalier video on Youtube, but the most important thing to remember is keep your elbows close to your body. Elbows sticking out is putting pressure on your rotator cuff, not building muscle and can cause significant damage.

Once you can do a number of negatives well (say 10), then try to do the push up for the first one and then go back to just negatives to complete the set. You may have to reduce the set to say 5 or 8 when you start adding the push ups. I started with being able to do 3 negatives, and now I can do a number (haven't tried to count in a while) of full push ups.

Yes! I went from being able to do one my knees to 20 proper form. Strength training and practice, and not being scared to try.

PT here

Do some shoulder and chest mobility first, to warm up the synovial fluid at your joints. So: stand up and cross your arms across your chest, sort of hugging yourself, then swing arms out to the sides, keeping your arms roughly shoulder height or just below. As you bring arms back in, alternate whichever arm is on top as you cross your arms across your chest. (I feel like I'm not explaining that one very well... it's one I usually demo rather than write down!)

Assuming no shoulder injury/impingement, elbow issues or similar, with a press-up it's better in the long run to do as much of the full range of the movement as possible. So it that means you do them on the knees, do them on the knees. I'd generally prefer to see a client do 3x12 knee press-ups than half a dozen little dips.

As pp say, doing them on a plyo box could help too. You'd put your hands on the box and feet on the floor. Don't do it the other way round, that makes it much harder!

You'll find that as you get stronger, over subsequent weeks, you can gradually position your knees a bit further back, which incrementally works you towards a position where you can do them with straight legs/knees raised.

You could also try doing chest press or bench press with dumbbells, a barbell or resistance bands to train the chest muscles, and shoulder presses to train shoulders, which will help with press-up form and strength.

Remember to focus on maintaining a strong posture through your core and middle; don't let your stomach drop down, because it puts unhelpful pressure on your lower back and pulls your shoulders out of alignment. And keep elbows tucked in to your sides as Klara says.

Stuff that helped me: yoga and other upper body and core strength (hello planks!)

When you say don't let your stomach drop down, what do you mean, please? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Not a dumb question at all.

OK so when you position yourself for a press-up, what happens with some people is they forget to hold their body in a line and let their middle drop towards the floor, their spine curving down towards the ground especially around the lumbar area (lower back; the bit that naturally curves a little anyway).

You know in yoga, how you'll often start off on hands and knees with some cat/cow flexes? I mean the cow bit; so the belly can hang down and there's no tension in the middle generally. Also, in a press-up, the glutes can drop too, and if you've got both midriff and glutes dropping, it puts a lot more pressure on certain spinal joints, not to mention the knees and feet/ankles.

Ideally, what you want to do is sort of magnetise the bellybutton and the spine towards each other, while keeping the spine reasonably flat. You'll feel your stomach muscles tensing a bit to hold this position. Try engaging your glutes, if not actively tensing them. Some people find it helpful to focus mentally on the pelvis, and imagine it tilting ever so slightly to tighten the core muscles to hold this position.

It can take a few goes to get it right. You sort of have to 'feel' the difference between engaging and tensing for yourself. And it can be quite tough, if these are muscles you're not used to using. Sometimes it can be helpful to get the hold right in a plank position first, before you move on to doing a press-up.

Do you have a short resistance band, the kind you put on your thighs to do crab walk? Put one on your upper arms, get into plank and do a full press up. The bandload bears and also springs you back up. It helps with form as well as strength. As you get better at it, you go down to an easier band which offers a bit less support. Best ever training for full press ups imho.
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That makes a lot of sense, thank you so much.

Thank you so so much for all the tips!

I’m doing strength workouts with dumbbells but always struggle with the push up part of the work out.

I’ll try doing them on a box and the negatives as well as continue on my knees concentrating on form.

I've seen improvements in my plank and side plank exercises lately so I’m hoping the push ups will come slowly but surely!

I learnt to do full hand release (or tension release) push ups, by doing negatives - talk as long as you can before you face plant. And just doing a LOT of press ups. Always full body, never from the knees.

The other tip a bootcamp trainer gave me was to think of tying my ribs to my hips - to really keep the tension in my core.

I always feel the pressure of the press up between my shoulder blades, and so I have to really think about my core.

I managed to get to full press-ups by raising my legs. So legs from knees to feet on a chair/bed/sofa and press up. Gradually work away from the furniture until your feet are the only thing on whatever you’re using. Then go back to the floor and magically you’ll be able to do a full press-up.