10 Ways To Make Pushups Feel Easier — And Get Stronger Faster

Pushups are humbling… to say the least.

You can be someone who strength trains regularly, loves Pilates, hits your step goal, and cares about your VO2 max. Then someone asks you to do 10 pushups, and suddenly you’re questioning everything (speaking from experience here).

Pushups have become this unofficial benchmark of upper-body strength, yet they’re also one of the exercises people struggle with most. That’s partly because we tend to treat them as a test of fitness rather than a skill that can be practiced, progressed, and improved over time.

The reality is that most women were never taught how to build up to a pushup. We were told to do them from our knees, assume upper-body strength just wasn’t our thing, or accept that pushups would always be difficult.

But pushups aren’t just an arm exercise. They’re a full-body movement that requires strength, stability, coordination, and technique. Once you understand that, they become a lot less intimidating and a lot more achievable.

Before you worry about doing a pushup, make sure you can hold a solid plank.

I know that sounds almost too simple, but a pushup is essentially a moving plank. If your hips sag, your lower back arches, or your shoulders collapse during a plank, those same issues will show up during a pushup.

One of the biggest mistakes people make is treating pushups like an arm exercise. In reality, your entire body should be working.

The next time you set up for a pushup, think about squeezing your glutes, tightening your abs, and creating tension through your legs. Imagine you’re trying to make your body as rigid as a wooden plank.

Sometimes the issue isn’t strength at all. It’s set up.

A lot of people place their hands extremely wide because it feels easier at first. Unfortunately, this position can make pushups less efficient and often less comfortable on the shoulders.

Instead, try placing your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart with your wrists stacked underneath your shoulders. As you lower yourself, keep your elbows at roughly a 30- to 45-degree angle from your body rather than flaring them straight out to the sides.

This one may be controversial, but hear me out.

For decades, knee pushups have been the default modification for women. The problem is that knee pushups change the mechanics of the movement. They reduce the amount of core engagement required and don’t fully replicate what happens during a standard pushup.

A better option is often an incline pushup. (Or you can use a band for support. Here’s how.) 

Place your hands on a bench, countertop, sturdy table, or Smith machine bar and perform full pushups from that elevated surface. You get to practice the actual movement pattern while reducing the amount of body weight you’re lifting.

One of the most effective ways to build pushup strength is by focusing on the lowering phase. These are called eccentric pushups.

Start at the top position and slowly lower yourself toward the floor over three to five seconds. Once you reach the bottom, drop your knees and push back up, or simply reset and repeat. This allows you to build strength in the exact movement you’re trying to improve, even if you can’t yet perform a full pushup.

When people think about pushups, they usually think about chest muscles. What they don’t think about is the back.

Your upper back plays a huge role in stabilizing your shoulders and helping you maintain good positioning throughout the movement. Weakness here can make pushups feel significantly harder than they need to be.

If you’re trying to improve your pushups, make sure your training program includes exercises like rows, lat pulldowns, band pull-aparts, and face pulls.

If you consistently get stuck halfway up from the bottom of a pushup, your triceps may be the limiting factor. The triceps are responsible for extending the elbow and helping you finish the movement.

Every pushup requires you to move your own body through space. As your overall strength improves, pushups usually do too, even if you’re not constantly practicing pushups.

Exercises like dumbbell bench presses, chest presses, shoulder presses, and rows can all help build the strength necessary to support the movement. If pushups currently feel impossible, sometimes the answer isn’t more pushup attempts; it’s getting stronger overall. 

One of the fastest ways to improve any skill is to practice it consistently. Pushups are no different. That doesn’t mean you need to do endless sets until your arms give out. In fact, the opposite is usually more effective.

This may be the biggest mistake of all. Many people approach pushups like a test. Every workout becomes an attempt to see how many reps they can squeeze out before collapsing on the floor.

While that approach feels productive, it often leads to sloppy form and slower progress. Instead, leave a few reps in the tank. Focus on accumulating high-quality repetitions and building confidence with the movement. Over time, those high-quality reps add up, and that’s where the real progress happens.

For many women, pushups are one of the most intimidating exercises in the gym, not because they’re impossible, but because we’ve been taught to view them as something you either can or can’t do.

In reality, pushups are a skill. And like any skill, they can be broken down into smaller pieces, practiced consistently, and improved over time.