Difficulty: Easy
Impact Level: Normal
Target Body Parts: abs, triceps, upper back, chest, shoulders
How to do Push Up on Knees
Back to ExercisesInstructions
Start at the top of the push up position with your hands on the floor, arms straight and underneath your shoulders. Step your knees back behind you so that there is a straight line through your body from your knees up to your head. Engage your glutes, tense your legs and brace your core to keep your body rigid.
Keeping your elbows in towards your ribs and your forearms vertical, bend at the elbows to lower your body towards the floor. Your head and shoulders should move forwards of your hands as you get closer to the floor. Use your full range of motion to lower your chest in between your hands, as close to the floor as you can, then push your hands into the floor, keeping you body tensed, to move it up away from the floor back to the start position.
Watch out for elbows flaring out to the sides away from your ribs. They should always point back towards your knees. Another common mistake is to lower down without moving your head and shoulders forward of your hands. These mistakes can lead to injury so focus on quality of movement rather than quantity. If you can’t maintain quality in this movement, try some of the easier versions of this exercise to build up strength and technique first.
How to make Push Up on Knees easier
Use wall push-ups as a way to build up strength in your chest and triceps before performing them on the floor. With wall push-ups you can vary the difficulty by stepping further way from the wall, so that you are leaning farther forwards.
How to make Push Up on Knees more challenging
Once you can perform 10 to 15 reps of Push-ups on Knees with good form, try lifting your knees up off the floor for the lowering phase of the movement. Then put them back down again to push back up to the top. This half half method is a good way to work up to the full push-up.
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