Push-ups
The push-up is a bodyweight horizontal press that trains your chest, with your triceps and front shoulders assisting. It needs no equipment and scales well: put your hands on a bench to make it easier, or raise your feet, slow the tempo or add a weight vest to make it harder.
Muscles worked
The push-ups trains the chest, with triceps, shoulders 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 push-ups
- 01Place your hands on the floor slightly wider than shoulder width, fingers pointing forward, wrists under your shoulders.
- 02Walk your feet back into a straight plank, squeezing your glutes and bracing your abs so your body forms one line.
- 03Bend your elbows to lower your chest toward the floor, keeping your elbows about 45 degrees from your torso.
- 04Lower until your chest is a fist's height from the floor or lightly touches it.
- 05Press the floor away to straighten your arms, keeping your hips moving in line with your shoulders.
Coaching cues
- Body moves as one plank
- Screw your hands into the floor
- Chest leads, hips follow
Common mistakes
- Letting your hips sag toward the floor loads your lower back; squeeze your glutes and brace your abs before every rep.
- Flaring your elbows straight out to the sides stresses the shoulders; tuck them to roughly 45 degrees from your body.
- Cutting the range short to chase reps shortchanges your chest; lower until your chest nearly touches the floor on every rep.
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.
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 push-ups free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.