This is a YouTube video titled "How to do and Progress Your Pushup | Natalie Jill" created on March 21, 2014. It features Natalie Jill providing a detailed instructional guide on how to perform push-ups starting from beginner levels using elevated surfaces and progressing to more advanced variations, focusing on proper form and progression techniques.
Hi, I'm Natalie. Jill. Let's talk about how to progress your push up. If you've never done a push up before, don't worry because I'm going to go through how to learn it from scratch, how to do it if you've never done one, and then how to progress once you've been able to do a few. The first step that you want to be able to do with a push up is you want to be able to do it from a high platform or a wall or countertop. So I'm going to use the outside of my balcony here and show you what I mean. So hands are shoulder width, distance apart, up on your toes, and it's just a push up from here. And this is the best place to start when you're at a higher surface. Now, when you put your elbows in towards your body, you're going to work more of your triceps. The wider you put them, the more you're going to work your chest. So you can't go wrong with either. But you want to play around with that hand position. Once you've mastered that higher position, the next step is to bring that surface down lower. So you could use a chair or a lower table. So I'm going to use a table here, same thing, but I'm using my own body weight to make it a little bit more challenging because I've lowered down the platform and I'm going to do them right here. And this is what I would suggest doing before you start practicing on your knees on the ground. So starting at a higher platform, then going to a lower one. After you've done that, you'll progress to the ground and you can start on your knees, hands on the ground and doing them here. You want to make sure you can do several of these before you move to the next step. Once you've done that, you're ready to go up on your feet and you want to maintain a good plank position. So you've got your pelvis tucked under your core, tight, you don't want to curve in that lower back. And strong push ups here. Once you've mastered that, you're ready to progress even further. By using our own body weight, we can create a decline which makes it more challenging. So what I'm going to do here is use a table. You can use a chair or an ottoman or whatever. You've got a bench at the gym, you'll place your feet up high on that and using that decline of your own body weight, doing push ups down here. The higher you raise your feet, the harder they are. That's how you progress your push up.
