Push-Up
chest
What moves the load, and what it costs
8.0MET
Chest is the prime mover, with the front deltoid, triceps, abs assisting. The most useful exercise on this site: no equipment, no cost, scalable from a wall to one arm, and a genuine chest and trunk builder for most of a training life.
Cue: Set the hands so that at the bottom your forearms are vertical from every angle — that is the width that suits your shoulders.
Written on other cards as: Press-up
स्रोत·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·वर्गवारी: कॅलिस्थेनिक्स, तीव्र·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
SHARED AXIS · SEVEN VALUES FROM ONE TABLE · HIGHLIGHTED ROW IS THIS MOVEMENT
The compendium files push-up under a category, not a lift. Read the ladder as position, not precision: this is heavier work than sitting quietly by a factor of 8.0, and at the top end of what a gym floor produces.
Turning that MET value into a real energy cost
- Map the movement to a published category. The compendium measures categories of conditioning work, never individual lifts, so push-up is filed under कॅलिस्थेनिक्स (उदा. पुश-अप, सिट-अप, पुल-अप), तीव्र श्रम.
- Take the category's MET value — 8.0. One MET is the cost of sitting quietly, so this is 8.0 times resting metabolism.
- Multiply by 3.5 to get millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute, the unit the MET is actually defined in.
- Multiply by your bodyweight in kilograms and divide by 200. The result is kilocalories per minute of work.
- Count working minutes only. Under load, not under the roof — a set of eight is about 25 seconds of the hour you were there.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × body mass (kg) ÷ 200 Push-Up: 8.0 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 9.80 kcal/min
स्रोत·ACSM metabolic equation + 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REFERENCE BODY MASS 70 KG·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
What is actually doing the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| ChestPectoralis major | Prime mover | Brings the upper arm across the body and forward (shoulder horizontal adduction and flexion). The clavicular head contributes more when the arm travels up and in; the sternal head when it travels down and in. |
| Front deltoidAnterior deltoid | Synergist / stabiliser | Raises the arm to the front (shoulder flexion) and assists horizontal adduction. Prime mover in overhead pressing, heavy synergist in every bench press. |
| Tricepsट्रायसेप्स ब्रॅकाय | Synergist / stabiliser | कोपर सरळ करतो. लाँग हेड खांद्यावरूनही जातो, त्यामुळे हात डोक्यावर असताना त्यावर सर्वाधिक ताण आणि भार येतो. |
| AbsRectus abdominis | Synergist / stabiliser | धड पुढे वाकवतो आणि, त्याहून उपयुक्त म्हणजे, ते मागे ताणले जाण्यास विरोध करतो. क्रंच आणि प्लँक दोन्ही यावर भार देतात — पण वेगवेगळ्या प्रकारे. |
The prime mover produces the movement against the resistance; synergists assist and stabilisers hold a joint still without moving it. An exercise trains the whole muscle it loads — there is no way to work only part of a muscle, and no exercise removes fat from the area around it.
Set up, then earn the rep
Bodyweight. Every rep should look like the first one. The moment it stops looking like the first one, the set is finished.
पॅटर्न · पुश
- Set your hands slightly wider than your shoulders, directly under or just below them, fingers spread and pointing forward.
- Set a straight line from ear to ankle: squeeze the glutes, brace the trunk as if about to take a light punch, and tuck the ribs down.
- Set the hands so that at the bottom your forearms are vertical from every angle — that is the width that suits your shoulders.
- Lower under control with the elbows at roughly 45 degrees to the torso until your chest is a fist's height from the floor.
- Press back up in one piece — hips, chest and head arriving at the top together.
- Finish each rep with the shoulder blades allowed to spread slightly at the top rather than locked back.
Where this one breaks down
Not theory. These are the faults you correct on a gym floor, and the correction that actually works.
Hips sagging or piking.
The push-up is a moving plank. If the hips drop, the lower back takes the load; if they pike, the range shortens. Squeeze the glutes and brace before the first rep, not during the fifth.
Head reaching for the floor before the chest does.
It makes a partial rep look complete. The chest should be the lowest point, and the neck should stay in line with the spine.
Elbows flared to 90 degrees.
Hard on the shoulder, no better for the chest. Keep them at about 45 degrees from the ribs.
Half reps to hit a number.
Ten full-range push-ups beat thirty short ones for every purpose. Reduce the difficulty — hands elevated — rather than the range.
Regress it, or progress it
Prescription: load, reps, rest
Read off the goal, then hold the technique constant as the load climbs. Derived from the movement's mechanics, not invented for this page: a compound lift loads several joints, so it tolerates heavy loads and needs long rests.
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–5 | 3–6 | 3–5 min | Heavy loads need long rests. Cutting rest to two minutes turns a strength set into a conditioning set. |
| Muscle size | 3–4 | 6–12 | 90–180 sec | Take most sets to within one to three reps of failure. Total weekly hard sets per muscle matters more than the exact rep number. |
| Endurance / fat loss | 2–4 | 12–20 | 45–75 sec | Lighter loads and shorter rests. Fat loss is decided by the diet; this preserves muscle while it happens. |
| First month | 2–3 | 8–10 | 2 मिनिटे | Well short of failure, same weight every set, until the movement looks the same on the last rep as the first. |
Time under load, in kilocalories
Read these as minutes of work, not minutes in the building. A set of eight takes about twenty-five seconds; the rest of the hour is rest, chalk and queueing.
Mapped category: कॅलिस्थेनिक्स (उदा. पुश-अप, सिट-अप, पुल-अप), तीव्र श्रम — 8.0 MET. That is the published category this movement is filed under, not a measurement of this specific lift.
Worked at 8.0 MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 = 9.80 kcal per working minute for a 70 kg adult. Scale it by your own bodyweight; the equation is linear. The full activity dataset lives at BurnLab.
स्रोत·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·CATEGORY VALUE, NOT A PER-EXERCISE MEASUREMENT·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
If the rack is taken
Substitutes train the same prime mover through the same pattern with different kit. Computed from the muscle and pattern data on this card, not hand-picked to fill a grid.
यासाठी कोणतेही साहित्य लागत नाही, म्हणूनच तो प्रवासातील आणि घरातील प्रत्येक कार्यक्रमात बसतो. प्रत्येक साहित्याविना करता येणारा व्यायाम एकत्र दिलेला आहे.
Where it sits in a week
One movement is not a programme. The twelve templates put these in order, including 6 that need no gym at all.
The questions that come up on the floor
What muscles does the push-up work?
Push-Up is a compound movement in which the chest is the prime mover, assisted by the front deltoid, triceps, abs. Brings the upper arm across the body and forward (shoulder horizontal adduction and flexion). The clavicular head contributes more when the arm travels up and in; the sternal head when it travels down and in.
Is the push-up good for beginners?
होय. तांत्रिक अवघडपणासाठी या साइटवर याला 5 पैकी 2 गुण आहेत — एक-दोन सत्रांत शिकता येण्यासारखे; चुकले तरी दुखापतीचा धोका कमी. सर्वात कमी योग्य वजनाने आणि 8–10 च्या दोन किंवा तीन सेटने सुरुवात करा.
What can I do instead of the push-up at home?
Nothing is needed — the push-up already requires no equipment at all, which is why it belongs in any home programme.
How many sets and reps of the push-up should I do?
For muscle size, 3–4 sets of 6–12 with 90–180 sec rest. For strength, 3–5 sets of 3–6 with 3–5 min rest. In your first month, 2–3 sets of 8–10, stopping well short of failure. Total weekly hard sets per muscle group matters more than the exact rep number in any of these ranges.
Does the push-up burn fat from the chest?
No. No exercise removes fat from the area it trains — spot reduction has been tested repeatedly and does not happen. Training the chest builds the muscle underneath; where body fat is lost from is decided by an overall calorie deficit and by your genetics, not by which exercise you chose.
Muscle roles follow standard kinesiology references and are described by joint action rather than by gym convention — see how this site is built. Energy figures are derived from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Every reference is named and dated on the sources page. General information only — not medical or coaching advice. Load, form and progression should be adjusted to your own experience and any injury history. When in doubt, get coached in person.
स्रोत·Published exercise references·MUSCLE ROLES ASSIGNED BY JOINT ACTION·पुनरावलोकन जुलै 2026
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