Tried doing a push-up and don’t know how to do it properly? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone — this can be embarrassing.
To complete a push-up, you need an upper body and core strength. If you don’t have enough of this, you might not get very far with 20 push-ups.
The Resistance Band Push-Up is an effective way to challenge your upper body during push-ups.
This exercise uses the bands to provide resistance over some parts of the push-up and to make sure you are using different muscle groups in your arms, shoulders, and chest.
Push-ups are an exercise that requires a great form. The most common errors include having elbows that aren’t wide and not being able to keep the spine straight, inadequate muscles strengthening through the abs and glutes, and having bad posture. These tips can help you perfect your push-up.
Push-ups are a classic, highly effective exercise that helps to improve your chest, shoulders and triceps. To make push-ups more challenging, you might want to incorporate resistance bands into the curve of push-ups while also keeping your core engaged.
Resistance bands are beneficial because they’re inexpensive, portable, add variety to your workouts, benefit all fitness levels and increase your coordination. It’s always smart to mix things up with resistance bands!
In this article, we show you how to do push ups with bands correctly and how to do all the different variations. We also explain which muscles they target with some science-backed evidence.
You can read our blog An Ultimate Guide About Reverse Grip Barbell Bench Press.
what muscles do push ups work?
Table of Contents
The standard bench press targets all muscles in the upper body, such as the target muscles you are working out with a bench press. However, not only is focused on your pectorals. Moreover, your biceps, lats, traps and rhomboids will be activated to help stabilize your pushing movement
let’s know first how to do push-ups correctly without bands:

Before you introduce any additional equipment into an exercise, take care of how to do a perfect push-up.
You likely know how to do a push-up as everyone does but chances are good that your form isn’t perfect, so we’ll explain it here.
First, get into a push-up position by placing your hands on the floor. Then lower yourself until you’re in the proper spacing between your hands, before coming back up again.
Well, this is only easy to do on paper. It’s usually when people are performing push-ups with a terrible form that it doesn’t even deserve to be called push-ups anymore.
The most common 5 causes of bad hand placement in a push-up can be found here.
straight back and active core:
Push-ups involve a lot of core strength, especially for people with concerns about ending up on the ground.
To avoid damaging your fitness goals and hurting yourself, it may be a good idea to make sure you can keep your core engaged during the exercise. To do so, hold each rep of the push-up like this.
hands under the shoulder:
Push-ups help your upper body strength, as well as teach correct form during exercise. It’s important to remember that push-ups are not just about the muscles of your arms; they also engage core and back muscles.
From a side view, you’ll see your hands should be at an angle formed by your shoulders. Lack of hand movement can lead to unhealthy tension in these muscle groups.
not in a t position, be an arrow:
One of the most important points, beginners often position their hands way too far apart that instead results in the elbows going straight to the side.
Instead, beginners tend to have a difficult time getting strong as this position focuses on putting pressure on other muscles like the shoulders.
neutral hand position:
A best practice for performing a push-up is to have your hands in neutral orientations. This becomes difficult if your fingers are rotated inwards. Weight should be on the outside of the palms instead of in the bottom part of the push-up.
moving down and forward:
Push-ups are not straight up and down motion. In other words, if we have a look from a side view, your shoulders should move down AND forward–it will happen automatically if you pay attention to number 3 below. Keep in mind this point below for extra emphasis on the arrow body position.
now let’s talk about how to do push ups with bands:

Have you never warmed up your muscles before doing any resistance exercises? You want to be able to provide the maximum benefit from your workouts, so it is best to start with a warmup. The risk of injury will be reduced when proper preparation and warmups are used.
Recommended equipment: a set of bands with different levels of resistance including a resistance band.
These are the ones that we like here, and they provide convenience because they have multiple resistances you can use at once.
you can match the right one with your experience. Here is a good set: Resistance Bands Set.
If you are going to be working out with a band, you should use gloves. If so, gloves will create a protective barrier and make it easier to grip the band properly.
Let’s now focus on doing a push-up. Pick one side of the nearest band and stand beside the elbow of that arm on the ground as you place your fingertips lightly in line with your middle fingers.
Don’t let them touch your heel as it’s good form to pull yourself up and away from that arm while simultaneously pushing off it into the movement.
Avoid hyperextending or hyperflexion of that wrist, not only is this uncomfortable but it can also lead to even more injuries.
why resistant bands work:
Muscles don’t know if they have to work a load and generate enough force on their own or with the help of an elastic band.
All muscle experience is that there is a load and it is moving, which maximizes the results of training. This increases strength, and muscle mass and will make the next exercise easier.
can we train our chest effectively with the resistant band?
Resistance bands are great to achieve more effective chest training. Push-ups combined with resistance band training can go as far as the member feels they need to in their strength and dedication, which is often a barrier when movements including this choose how you progress.
By using resistance bands, you will be able to increase your progress in bodyweight exercises. Resistance bands can easily be adjusted and adjusted by each individual- so whether it is a chest-to-floor push up or a lighter assisted push up, it’s easy for people to find the right load for their chest muscles.
let’s know the benefits of training with resistant bands:
- versatile: What’s your training goal? Whether you want to build muscle, gain strength, or lose body fat is up to you. Your goal is achieved by moving your body against resistance and working out regularly. Resistance bands are an accessible and simple tool to help you reach any fitness goal. You won’t need to pay for a gym membership or worry about holding lots of equipment everywhere you go. They’re also good for burning fat, increasing muscle mass, and increasing strength.
- it’s joint-friendly: We don’t all have the same body. Every person is unique and must train with and against the force of gravity in different ways. For example, a typical training would be with weights to strengthen your muscles against the force exerted on your joints. Resistance exercise bands add horizontal and rotational forces into the equation as well as dynamic stress that will help reduce joint compression. This will also keep you injury-free while you’re exercising.
- Multiplane training can be done: People who lift weights or use machines should keep in mind that gravity is always a force to be reckoned with. In other words, you have to take into account where you’re standing and what you’re doing when executing exercises with weights. Band-type resistance equipment doesn’t include gravity when performing exercises like the bench press – something people tend to forget. It’s harder than it looks.
- Eliminating disbalance: You hold bars with two hands when doing your exercises, but not everyone has that same experience. Just as an example, if one of your arms is the dominant arm, you might have developed more muscles in the arm which is not holding the resistance band. If it’s a less-dominant arm, the arms which need to be supported most likely would be stronger; this phenomenon can also happen in other exercises using bands.
- the band follows the natural strength curve: The longer your resistance bands are stretched, they will give you more strength in a position where the muscles contract and create the most weight – other than overworking in a position where they would fatigue faster, such as when doing a curl.
- need no spotter: Training with free weights can be tough. Sometimes you’re doing speed squats or bench presses, and you might need a spotter to help you out. Don’t let that stop the target practice that you’ve been looking for. Consider resistance bands to perform perfect reps in the comfort of your home gym!
- natural grip: Resistance bands allow you to get a more natural hand position when training since they hold your hands in a stable position. They also allow you to train at the target muscle or exercise you need instead of relying on the extra leverage of your grip.
- work on your stabilizing muscle: An easy example of a shoulder press is that you push the band upwards – it will also pull into all directions and use other stabilizing muscles in your shoulder and back. With chest flies, you’re working against the vertical force of the band and focusing on your obliques. I could go on and on – many exercises can be used to train key muscle groups involved in a different exercise that provide essential benefits.
adding resistance with bands:
It’s a good idea to add resistance to the bodyweight exercise. This way, you’ll challenge your pushing muscles and stimulate them to become stronger. And you’ll also improve your muscle mass.
Let’s go through the steps of how to push ups with bands:
- Put the band between your hands, take it over your head and rest it on your upper back.
- Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width and lift your knees off the ground.
- Initiate the movement by resisting the pull of the band.
- Lower your upper body until the chest nearly touches the floor.
- Reach the full extension of your arm by pushing up from your waist.
- Repeat the remaining reps.
assisted push ups using a band:
You can use resistance bands in several ways. They are especially helpful if you want to do a push up but aren’t physically fit enough or if you cannot do the full range yet.
Take care of the door before getting a loop band! Your loop band will stay put better if you make sure it has a good, permanent anchor point.
Pick a door frame, frame some window furniture, or use a closet rod to create your first snap point and attach the band.
Once you’re inside the loop, place it around your lower chest and stand in a push-up position where the band will support your weight; this will make you lighter.
In this video below you can see many other variations of assisted push ups.
let’s discuss the variation of resistance band push ups:
Now let’s take a closer look at different variations of resistance band push-ups and how they target your muscles differently.
close grip push up:
This type of push up is a close-grip push up. It requires your hands to be placed closer together when you do a normal push up.
By including the close grip on a standard push up, your elbows are kept closer to your body which mainly engages the triceps and inner chest muscles, as studies show 15% greater activation with this hand position.
wide grip push ups:
Push ups with a wide grip will position your hands just shy of a foot wider than shoulder-width. Doing push ups this way will make your limbs feel like they’re working less and will hit your chest in the same amount of time because your elbows don’t need to flare out as much.
Push ups with a wide grip are less effective than push ups with a standard or close grip due to their low activation of the pec major.
Wide-grip push-ups put less emphasis on the triceps, so your pecs take over. This means that even if there is less activation of the pec major, your triceps will be less involved and you can keep hammering down on your pecs without overutilizing their triceps.
Wide-grip push-ups are a great option towards the end of a workout as you still feel challenged (and proud) despite using muscles that aren’t engaged with it ).
high push up:
Resistance band high push ups are done when you place your hands out in front to the sides of your head, called the “V” position.
The same study from The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that we’ve been mentioning showed that high push ups produce 11% and 8% greater muscle activity than standard push ups.”
low push up with resistant band:
Low push ups can be done with the hands lower than shoulder level, about a full hand length lower than your shoulders.
By doing this, you’ll get greater activation on your pecs (about 25%) and less activation on your triceps (about 15%). The low push up is similar to shifting forward in a standard push up position, which we already mentioned.
Below you can find a video of this all types of variations.
decline push ups with a resistant band:
The banded decline push up will change your body positioning. To do this, you’ll need to put your feet on a platform. From there, you slide down onto the side of a bed and perform a push up as you regularly would.
Decline push ups will put greater emphasis on the upper head of your pec major (or in other words, your upper chest), just like an incline bench press does. They’ll work your front delt as well.
incline push ups with a resistant band:
The Banded Incline Push up is the reverse of the decline push up. You put your hands on each side of a platform and keep your feet on the ground?
Like a decline bench press, an incline push up works the lower head of your pectoral muscles. It also hitches your back muscle more.
However, unlike a decline bench press, the incline push up is much easier to accomplish than a flat or decline push-up because there is no momentum.
clapping push ups with a resistant band:
Clapping push ups are the hardest of all variations. They’re an explosive, ballistic exercise that works your whole body and muscles.
Clapping push ups also stress your muscles in a different way, which is essential when trying to build muscle mass quickly.
Here is the video.
the bottom line:
It’s good to change up your grip on your hands or to add challenges later on in the program by working on different angles. You will reach your goals and be more successful quicker.
people also ask:
using resistant bands makes push up easier?
Exercise bands make doing push ups 10x easier. They are great for making even the hardest exercises much easier to complete without giving up on your strength and endurance.
what length of the resistant band should we use?
The best option for buying a resistance band that can help you with chest press, pull-ups and more is the traditional looped band. They’re about four feet in length and can be anchored to your body or wrapped around them.
what type of resistant band we should use for pull up?
Which pull-up assist band should you use? The best choice for a pull-up assist band is actually an uncommon band that does not come in the main types of resistance bands. It is long and has no handles.I think this information will help you.