1. Set the spine neutral. (People often arch their back in a push or press. I believe they focus on only the pressing movement and not the whole body position). Gently draw it in and try to widen through your hips. Ensure your chin is tucked in and your chest lifted and not rounded through your upper back.
2. Set you shoulders strong. You want to depress your shoulders, meaning to move them up, back and down into place. In doing this there should be a conscious activation and tension feeling in the muscles just in front of your lats known as the ‘serratus anterior’ muscle.
3. Breathe in and bend at the elbows on the way down while maintaining that strong activation in front of the lats.
4. Control the movement slowly for 3 seconds on the lowering part with a slight pause at the bottom before taking 2 seconds on the lifting phase.
5. On the lifting phase focus through the triceps again so that you can control the activation of the shoulder stabilisers while breathing out.
A Push Up will always target the upper body pressing muscles better than a bench press for example as it is a ‘Closed Chain Exercise’ meaning that you can not
overcome what you are pushing against.
Try a plate across the shoulders instead of your next big bench!