30-Day Push-Up Challenge for Upper-Body Strength, Stability and Stamina

To up your push-up game, try this month-long challenge and take advantage of all the impressive benefits of push-ups. You’ll build upper-body strength in just 30 days.

How to Do the 30-Day Push-Up Challenge

For this push-up challenge, you’ll start on day 1 with five push-ups. Each day, you’ll add about two reps to the previous day’s total. And around every seventh day, you’ll rest. On the very last day of the challenge (day 30), you’ll finish with 60 push-ups.

That may seem like a lot if you’re just starting out. But the goal of this challenge is to build strength throughout the month and push yourself beyond what you think is possible. Plus, you don’t have to do all of your daily push-ups in one go. You can break them into smaller sets throughout the day.

Remember, if you have any health condition or injury that may interfere with your ability to safely exercise, check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program (including this push-up challenge). Also, if you have shoulder pain that worsens with push-ups, let your doctor know. They may tell you that you need to see a physical therapist.

To participate in the challenge, follow this calendar, which includes how many push-ups to do each day. Before doing your daily push-ups, warm up your shoulders by doing several small arm circles forward and then backward. Follow those with another set of several bigger forward and backward arm circles.

3 Tips to Help You Complete the Push-Up Challenge

Keep in mind these tips to help you complete the challenge and get the most out of it.

1. Perfect Your Push-Up Form

Before you get started, make sure your push-up form is flawless. At best, poor form makes an exercise ineffective. At worst, it puts you at risk for injury.

1. Start in a high plank on your hands and toes. Make sure your hands are under your shoulders and your body is in a straight line from head to hips to heels.
2. Contract your abs so your hips don’t sag and your back doesn’t arch.
3. Bend your elbows as you lower your chest to the ground, keeping your hips level. Your elbows should be at about 45-degree angles from your body.
4. Once you lower as far as you can, push yourself back up to a high plank.

2. Know How and When to Modify

Don’t worry about pumping out full-on, military-style push-ups right from the start. If you find yourself struggling, try the incline push-up until you build more upper-body and core strength.

1. Start in a high plank on your hands and toes, with your hands on a bench, chair, table, or other sturdy object directly under your shoulders.
2. Bend your elbows and lower your chest to the object.
3. Push back up to a plank.
   

3. Try Variations for Every Fitness Level

Doing the same exercise over and over again is a recipe for boredom and burnout. That’s why you might want to mix things up with push-up variations.

Beginners can modify the challenge with incline push-ups (see above), while more-advanced exercisers can try variations like stability ball push-ups or plyometric (plyo) push-ups. Experiment with the best variations to keep this challenge from getting stale.

The Takeaway

• Push-ups are a classic strength exercise. They work your chest, shoulder, arm, and core muscles.
• Gradually increasing the number of push-ups you do each day can help you get stronger. Over time, you’ll be able to do a higher number of push-ups.
• Get clearance from your doctor before starting a new exercise program if you have a health issue or injury that may interfere with your ability to safely exercise.