Push-ups count only while the body stays one line

Start from the top, arms straight, not from a sag you already accepted. Spread the fingers and point the crease of the wrist forward so the heel of the hand takes the load. Hands sit under the shoulders or just outside them. Feet together. Before the first inch, pull the ribs toward the belt and squeeze the glutes. That brace is the set. Remembering it on the way down is already late.

Look a short distance ahead of the hands, not straight down at the floor and not up at a mirror. The neck stays in the same line as the back. Staring at the feet pikes the hips. Craning at a reflection drops the head, and the last part of the rep turns into a neck exercise.

Lower until the chest, not the chin and not the hips, is close to the floor. The elbows travel back, about halfway between pinned against the ribs and flared straight out to the sides. Press the floor away until the arms are straight and the shoulder blades have moved around the ribcage. Straight elbows are fine if the shoulders stay packed.

The chest does not bounce off the floor to buy the next rep. If you need the bounce, the set was already over on the previous one. Pause for a moment where the chest is closest to the floor when you want the rep to tell the truth.

The first cheat is a sagging belt line. The hips arrive at the floor before the chest does, the lower back folds, and the arms still bend enough to feel like work. The second is the worm: the shoulders shoot up, then the hips follow, so one counted rep is two movements. Both let you write a larger number. Neither is the push-up in the gif.

Stop at the first rep that breaks and write that number. The honest set is the one you can repeat next week and have it mean the same thing. Grinding three extra folded reps teaches the fold.

If the floor version folds, put the hands on a bench or a sturdy chair and keep the same line from head to heels. Higher hands mean the feet hold more of your weight. A push-up from the knees is allowed, but it shortens the body and teaches a different hip position. The hands-elevated version is the one that still looks like the floor push-up you are trying to earn.

When sets of eight on the floor stay clean, do not jump to fifty. Slow the lowering to a three-count. Pause at the bottom. Or walk the hands slightly closer, toward the ribs, so the triceps take more of the press. A plate on the back comes last, and only if someone else can put it there and take it off without you twisting.

Log the variation and the clean reps: floor, bench, or a slower lowering. Floor reps and bench reps do not belong on the same line. Eight next month has to be the same eight as today, or the history is a story instead of a record.

YourFit already puts this push-up on the starter workout, so the gif, the name and the past sets sit together. Add a repetition, or lower the hands, only when the last set still matched the gif.