A lot of women who come to see us complain that they lack upper body strength. Why do you think that?, I ask. Most of the time, the answer is I cant do a pushup (or some variation of that if shes a yoga practitioner, shell say I cant do a chaturanga, or I cant do the crow/frog stand).

Pushups for women
Original source: here.

                And I would agree with that a pushup is a great marker of upper body strength for women (less so for men. For men, pushups are more a test of endurance than strength). It involves the primary pushing muscles the chest (pecs), shoulders (deltoids), and triceps. Want nice, toned arms? Do some pushups. Want to make your housework easier? Do some pushups. Want to maintain function in older age? Do some pushups.

                The problem is if you cant do a single pushup, how do you work up to it? Thats what well cover in this article. So that you can be superwoman!

If youd like a program designed specifically for you, to be able to do a pushup, whether in person, or virtually, just email me with the subject line Perfect Pushup.

                But first

Why Are Pushups So Difficult for Women?

                Why is it that an untrained, out of shape man in his 50s or 60s might be able to crank out 5-10 pushups without training for it, but an in-shape woman in her 20s and 30s has a hard time doing it?

                Quite simply: upper body strength. Women have less of it, men have more of it. Whereas lower body strength is relatively similar.

                When youre holding the top of a pushup position, youre holding about 65% of your body weight. At the bottom of a pushup, youre holding about 70% of your body weight.

                So do the math if you weigh 150 pounds, youre lifting about 100 pounds when youre doing pushups. No wonder its so tough.

Biggest Mistakes Women Make When Trying to Do a Pushup

Mistake #1: Knee Pushups

                If youre not trying to deliberately get to doing a real pushup, and youre just trying to work your chest, shoulders and triceps, knee pushups are just fine.

                But if your explicit goal is to get to a point where you can do at least 1 bodyweight pushup, knee pushups dont have a great carryover.

                We need to build strength, not endurance. Knee pushups are too easy for most women, so they build endurance, and not strength.

Mistake #2: Bad Technique

                If your technique is off (your elbows flare out too wide, your hips drop, your hips hike, etc.), it can make getting to the full pushup harder, longer, and more dangerous (higher risk of injury).

                In this video, I show proper pushup technique, along with common mistakes.

Now, lets get to the fun part: progressions. As I outline in my article on the most important factor in an exercise program, its not the exercises themselves. Its the progression model.

Progression #1: Weight Progression

                If were using the chest, shoulder and triceps muscles to do pushups, lets strengthen those muscles. The barbell bench press has a great carryover to regular pushups. Remember, youre lifting about two thirds of your body weight in a pushup, so your goal is to be able to do at least 1 rep with two thirds of your body weight in a bench press.

                In this video, I show you how to bench press properly.

                Anyways, heres how you use the bench press to be able to do a pushup:

  • Step 1: find a weight that you can do about 6-8 reps with
  • Step 2: using that weight, just do 3-4 sets of 3 reps with it, twice per week.
  • Step 3: after 1-2 workouts at 3 reps, do it for 3-4 sets of 4 reps.
  • Step 4: after 1-2 workouts at 4 reps, do it for 3-4 sets of 5 reps.
  • Step 5: after 1-2 workouts at 5 reps, raise the weight by 5 pounds total (thats 2.5 lbs. per side), and go back down to 3 reps.
  • Steps 6 and beyond. Follow this progression, until you are bench pressing slightly more than 70% of your body weight.

Working through these steps may take anywhere from 1-9 months, depending on your starting point,  speed of progression, and consistency.

Progression #2: Range of Motion Progression

                In this progression model, youll be going deeper and deeper and deeper into a pushup position.

  • Step 1: start in a pushup position, on your feet, and go down as low as you can, before you feel like youll just fall to the ground. Well call this the falling threshold. Ya like that technical terminology?
  • Step 2: put mats, pillows or blocks about 2 inches above that. So if you were able to go down about 5 inches before the falling threshold, pile up enough mats, pillows or blocks so that youre only going down 3 inches.
  • Step 3: using that height, just do 3-4 sets of 3 reps with it, twice per week.
  • Step 4: after 1-2 workouts at 3 reps, do it for 3-4 sets of 4 reps.
  • Step 5: after 1-2 workouts at 4 reps, do it for 3-4 sets of 5 reps.
  • Step 6: after 1-2 workouts at 5 reps, lower the height by 1-2 inches, and go back down to 3 reps.
  • Steps 7 and beyond. Follow this progression, until you are doing a full pushup

Progression #3: Leverage Progression

                In this variation, we are manipulating leverages. Remember, youre lifting about 65-70% of your bodyweight in a pushup. But if your feet stay on the ground, and your hands are elevated, youre lifting a bit less than 65-70%. The higher the hands go, relative to your feet, the less weight youre lifting.

                These are called incline pushups.

                Heres how you use incline pushups to be able to do a real pushup:

  • Step 1: find a height that you can do about 6-8 reps with. Is it your stomach height? Hip height? Thigh height? Etc.
  • Step 2: using that height, just do 3-4 sets of 3 reps with it, twice per week.
  • Step 3: after 1-2 workouts at 3 reps, do it for 3-4 sets of 4 reps.
  • Step 4: after 1-2 workouts at 4 reps, do it for 3-4 sets of 5 reps.
  • Step 5: after 1-2 workouts at 5 reps, lower the height by 1-2 inches, and go back down to 3 reps.
  • Steps 6 and beyond. Follow this progression, until you are doing pushups on the ground

Why do we have 3 different progressions for this? Why cant we use just one? Because at some point, every single exercise program expires. You reach a plateau, and you stop making progress. If one progression got you all the way to at least 1 real pushup, thats great. But if it didnt, you have 2 others you can use to finish the job.

By the time you can do 1 real pushup, youre a bona fide boss lady. Your arms and upper body will be much stronger, and more toned. Youll find daily life easier, whether its doing house chores (like vacuuming, mowing the lawn, etc.), shopping, or heck, even just showing off your guns to your friends.

But a word of caution: the body likes balance. If you start emphasizing your pushup muscles, without anything to strengthen the back, you may predispose yourself to shoulder injuries.

If youd like a program designed specifically for you, to be able to do a pushup, whether in person, or virtually, just email me with the subject line Perfect Pushup.