Drop And Give Me twenty: 3 Push Up Variations You Can Start Doing Now

What's the one exercise that we have seen explode all over social media since stay-at-home orders swept the country? That's right. The Almighty Push Up.

The push up is such a common bodyweight exercise that it is talked about in virtually every home-workout setting, and the question "How many push ups can you do?" is almost as important to one's ego as "How much do you bench press?"

That's just great for people who can drop-and-give-you-twenty without a second thought, but what if you're one of the many people that have never been able to perform a traditional push up, or if doing so wreaks havoc on your shoulders and elbows?

​Shown below are three push up variations that you can start doing immediately, listed in order from least to most challenging. Tackle one at a time, and move on to the next when you're ready for another challenge.

Continue like that with consistency, and pretty soon you will be ready to knock out your first set of traditional push ups right off the floor.

Don't let the push up challenge of the week discourage you from getting started. There is no one-size-fits-all exercise for every person, and part of my job as a coach is to identify where a client needs to REgress before they can PROgress. 

I've personally seen several clients go from struggling to perform their first set of hands-elevated push ups, to performing twenty or more consecutive traditional push ups, to bench pressing their bodyweight or in some cases even more.

Moral of the story? Drop your knees, raise your hands, focus on the eccentric; not being able to perform "normal" push ups doesn't mean you're off the hook.

​Drop and give me twenty.