Plyometric Push Up Overview
The plyometric push up is an explosive chest move. It works your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Your triceps are the backs of your arms. You do a push-up, then push so hard your hands leave the floor. You need no equipment. Just your body and floor space. The plyometric push up is an advanced move. It builds power and fast, strong muscles. It suits people who already do many normal push-ups. It fits well early in a workout when you are fresh. Land soft and stay in control. Power comes from a strong, tight body.
What Is The Point of the Plyometric Push Up?
The plyometric push up builds explosive upper body power and strength. It fires up your chest, shoulders, and triceps while boosting athletic performance.
How To Do The Plyometric Push Up
- Start in a strong standard push-up position with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width and your body in a straight line from head to heels. Brace your core and squeeze your glutes so your hips do not sag.
- Set your shoulder blades and grip the floor with your fingers. Take a breath and get tight before the first rep, since explosive work demands a stable base.
- Lower your chest toward the floor under control, keeping your elbows tucked to about 45 degrees. Do not just flop down, because you need a strong bottom position to launch from.
- Reach a controlled bottom position with your chest an inch or two off the floor. Pause only long enough to feel stable and loaded.
- Drive explosively through your hands, pressing into the floor as hard and fast as you can so your hands actually leave the ground at the top.
- Keep your body rigid as you push off. The whole plank should rise together, not just your shoulders, so keep the core and glutes locked.
- If you are advanced, add a clap or a quick tap while airborne, but only once you can reliably clear the floor and land safely.
- Land softly on your hands with your elbows bending to absorb the impact. Think about landing quiet, not slapping the floor with straight arms.
- Flow straight into the next rep by lowering under control again. Keep the reps explosive and crisp, and stop the set the moment your power drops. Aim for 3 to 6 sharp reps for 3 to 5 sets.
Plyometric Push Up Form Tips
- Keep your body in one straight line. Do not let your hips sag.
- Tighten your core and glutes the whole time.
- Lower with control before you explode up.
- Push through your whole hand for power.
- Land soft with bent elbows. Never land stiff.
- Keep your elbows at about 45 degrees.
- Keep your neck long. Look just ahead of your hands.
- Breathe in as you lower. Breathe out as you push.
- Reset your body each rep before you jump again.
Common Mistakes to Avoid for the Plyometric Push Up
- Letting your hips sag or pike. When your core gives out, your spine takes the load and you lose the rigid plank you need to launch. Squeeze your glutes and brace your abs so your body stays a straight, powerful line.
- Landing with locked, straight arms. Slamming down onto stiff elbows sends the shock straight into your wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Land with your elbows bending to absorb the impact softly and quietly.
- Doing too many reps per set. Plyometrics are about maximum power, and once you fatigue, your reps get slow and sloppy and risky. Keep sets short at 3 to 6 crisp reps and stop when the pop disappears.
- Not lowering under control before the push. Flopping to the bottom wastes the stretch and leaves you in a weak position to explode from. Control the descent so you can rebound with real force.
- Only lifting your shoulders instead of your whole body. Pushing off with a sagging lower half means your hands barely leave the floor. Drive the entire plank up as one rigid unit.
- Attempting them without a strength base. Jumping into plyo push-ups before you can do solid standard push-ups sets you up for a face-plant and joint strain. Build regular push-up strength first.
- Flaring the elbows straight out. A wide elbow flare stresses the shoulders and weakens your drive off the floor. Keep the elbows tucked to around 45 degrees on both the lowering and the push.
- Rushing into the next rep with no control. Bouncing frantically means you land and drop with no braking, which hammers your joints. Reset your position and body tension between reps even when moving quickly.
- Training them at the end of an exhausting workout. Doing explosive work when you are already gassed means poor power and higher injury risk. Program plyo push-ups early while you are fresh.
- Doing them on a hard, unforgiving surface. Repeated hard landings on concrete beat up the wrists over time. Use a mat or softer floor and keep the volume sensible.
- Sacrificing the straight-line body position for height. Throwing your hips up to get airborne breaks your plank and trains a bad pattern. Keep the body rigid and let real pressing power create the height.
Plyometric Push Up Workout Tips
- Build a solid push-up base first. You need to press your bodyweight with ease before adding explosive height, so master strict push-ups and even weighted push-ups before you go airborne.
- Treat these as power training, not a burnout. Keep sets short and reps crisp, usually 3 to 6 per set, and rest fully between sets so every rep is as explosive as possible.
- Program them early in your session. Explosive work is best done fresh, so put plyo push-ups near the start after your warm-up when your nervous system is sharp.
- Land soft and quiet every time. Absorbing the landing with bent elbows protects your wrists and shoulders and trains the eccentric control that keeps you healthy.
- Focus on maximum intent on the push. The goal is to press the floor away as hard and fast as you can, because that explosive drive is what builds power and fast-twitch strength.
- Start on an elevated surface to regress. Placing your hands on a bench or box reduces the load so you can learn the pop safely before doing them on the floor.
- Progress toward claps only when ready. Adding a clap or a chest tap raises the difficulty, so earn it by first clearing the floor consistently with clean landings.
- Use them to carry over to pressing strength. The explosive push develops rate of force that can help your bench and standard push-up feel snappier off the bottom.
- Keep the core braced like a plank throughout. A rigid trunk transfers your pressing power into height instead of leaking it through sagging hips.
- Cushion the landing surface. Training on a mat or padded floor spares your wrists from repeated hard impacts and lets you do more quality work.
- Pair them with lower-body plyos for athletic development. Combining plyo push-ups with jumps builds full-body explosiveness that helps in most sports.
- Warm up your wrists and shoulders well. Explosive loading demands prepared joints, so do wrist mobility and light push-ups before your working sets.
- Stop the set when the pop fades. The instant your hands stop clearing the floor cleanly, you are just doing tired push-ups, so end the set and rest.
- Film yourself to check body position. Video shows whether your hips are leading or your whole plank is rising together, which is hard to feel mid-jump.
- Keep the volume conservative week to week. Explosive work is demanding on the joints, so a little goes a long way and more is not better here.
- Respect that these are advanced. Plyo push-ups are a genuine athletic movement, so build up patiently and never trade safe landings for a flashier rep.
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