Push-up (Bodyweight)
The bodyweight push-up is a fundamental functional exercise that builds upper body pushing strength by targeting the chest, shoulders, and triceps. It requires lowering and lifting your body while maintaining a rigid plank position to develop core stability.
Iridium tracks your performance relative to your body weight to ensure accurate progressive overload detection even as your weight changes. The AI checks your 7-day workout history to ensure your middle chest and triceps have sufficient recovery capacity before scheduling this compound movement.
Form Cues
- Place hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart
- Keep your body in a straight line from head to heels
- Engage your glutes and core to prevent sagging
- Lower until your chest is just above the floor
- Push the floor away to fully extend your elbows
- Don't flare your elbows out to 90 degrees
- Don't let your lower back sag toward the floor
- Don't jut your neck forward to reach the ground
- Don't shorten your range of motion
Common Mistakes
- Sagging hips or lower back
- Flaring elbows too wide
- Chicken necking (head forward)
- Half-reps (incomplete range)
Muscles Worked
The push-up primarily targets the pectoralis major (chest) while heavily engaging the anterior deltoids and triceps for pressing power. It also acts as a dynamic plank, requiring significant isometric contraction from the abdominals, obliques, and quads to maintain proper alignment.
Primary
Secondary
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