Remember those moments your trainer of PE teacher made you do push ups and you’d get away with the knee version just because you’re a girl? well, it’s time to stop doing that and man up! Of course I know that lots of you do regular push ups, but truth is that not everyone is capable of doing them. 

Many people choose knee push ups when they can’t do the regular one. Doing these is without a doubt better than nothing but is it going to help you reach your goals of doing actual push ups? Lets find out!

Knee push ups

First you need to know a bit about your bodies anatomy and the muscles you target during push ups. The picture on the left shows you which muscles are used for push ups. Doing knee push ups are easier because you eliminate the weight of your legs. By putting your bodyweight partially on your knees you take away the weight of your hips since you only press up your chest and shoulders.

Knee push ups are definitely great to do and target some of the same muscles as regular push ups and make them stronger.(arms & chest) However, your core and back muscles are not being challenged nearly as much as during regular push ups. Conclusion: when working towards regular push ups the knee version will definitely make your arms & chest stronger. however, if your incapability of push ups is caused by weak core and back muscles you’re going to need to focus on strengthening these.

Inclined push ups

A great way to target exactly the same muscles as with a regular push up is by doing inclined push ups. This means that you place your hands on a (slightly) higher object than the floor. By doing this you lower the weight on your chest and shoulders a bit and transfer it to your legs (all can be explained by physics). Adjust the height of the objects you’re using, the stronger you get the lower the object.

I did this for a while and was very happy to find out some weeks ago that I am now able to do a full push up.(not that many though) Hope it gives you all the same results!

Oh and for everyone who is still struggling with the inclined push ups, don’t feel discouraged you’ll get there! You might want to try wall push ups, by far not as effective but better than no kind of push ups at all. Keep it up!