Decline Push-ups
The decline push-up is a push-up with your feet raised on a bench or box. Raising your feet puts more of your bodyweight on your hands and angles the press upward, so it hits your upper chest harder while your shoulders and triceps assist. Pick it when standard push-ups get easy. A higher surface makes it harder.
Muscles worked
The decline push-ups trains the chest, with shoulders, triceps helping.
Weekly sets for chest
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for chest, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the decline push-ups
- 01Set your feet on a bench or box behind you and place your hands on the floor slightly wider than shoulder width.
- 02Brace your abs and glutes so your body forms a straight line from heels to head.
- 03Lower your chest toward the floor between your hands, elbows angled about 45 degrees from your torso.
- 04Pause just above the floor without letting your head poke forward.
- 05Press back up to straight arms, keeping your hips level with your shoulders.
Coaching cues
- Squeeze glutes, keep hips level
- Lower toward your hands, not your face
- Push the floor down and away
Common mistakes
- Piking your hips up to make the rep easier removes the decline effect; keep a straight line from heels to shoulders.
- Jumping to a very high box too soon shifts load to your shoulders; start with a low bench and raise it gradually.
- Reaching your nose to the floor while your chest stays high cuts the range; lead with your chest instead.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Once the top of the range is easy, Swole.fit suggests a harder variation or added load.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Decline Push-ups alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your decline push-ups free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.