How to Do 50 Push-Ups: A 4-Week Challenge

This 30-day push-up challenge can help you go from five to 50 push-ups in just one month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises two days of muscle-strengthening exercises, such as push-ups, per week. Those exercises strengthen your bones and muscles and help you complete your daily activities.

The push-up works multiple muscle groups, including your arms, back, chest, and core, to strengthen your overall body. A strong core, for example, helps improve balance, posture, and stability. Good posture reduces your risk of pain and injuries.

Many people, however, struggle to perform more than a few push-ups at a time. Try this four-week plan to build your strength and work your way up to doing 50 push-ups.

Benefits of Push-Ups

Push-ups are a bodyweight exercise you can do anywhere, any time, and without equipment. You can even squeeze a few push-ups into small pockets of time, regardless of where you are or what you wear.

Other benefits of push-ups include:

• Helps maintain bone and muscle mass: You lose bone and muscle mass as you age, which increases the risk of falls and fractures. Bodyweight exercises help preserve balance, stability, and strength and complete daily activities.
• Helps manage your weight: A balanced diet and 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week, in addition to two days of muscle-strengthening exercises, can help maintain your weight.
• Improves posture: Push-ups build core strength, essential for good posture. Poor posture can affect your balance and flexibility and cause pain.
• Strengthens your upper body: Push-ups are a compound exercise, meaning they work multiple muscle groups at once. You'll likely feel the most burn in your arms as you lower yourself and press up.
• Reduces your disease risk: Regular physical activity can lower your risk of several illnesses, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

The 50 Push-Up Challenge

Week 1

You'll start with five push-ups and work your way up to 10. This gentle warm-up period will give you a chance to focus on your form.

Start each session in a straight-arm plank:

1. Find a neutral spinal position, aligning your shoulder blades with your upper back and glutes.
2. Engage your glutes, and draw your abs in.
3. Keep your hips from drifting up and your elbows from flaring past your wrists.
4. Hold the plank for about 30 seconds, focusing on your breathing.

The push-up is like a "movable plank," Shaun Zetlin, a certified personal trainer based in Delaware, told Health. Keep this image in mind as you lower yourself down. Repeat these reps as mindfully as possible until the movement starts to feel natural.

Week 2

You'll advance from 12 to 15 push-ups during the second week. The jump from one workout to the next is never more than two or three reps, so the process is feasible. Hitting your daily goal can be highly motivating.

Week 3

The third week might seem a little daunting: You'll go from 20 to 32 push-ups. It's OK to split your sets into two or three sets, pausing between them if you cannot do a full set without stopping. Keep your pauses less than one minute long to keep your heart pumping.

Try doing as many push-ups in one set as you can. The longer your muscles are under strain, the harder they work.

Week 4

This week helps you improve from 35 to 42 push-ups. You may find the time of day matters during the fourth week: It may be easier to perform the reps in the morning rather than in the evening when your muscles are tired.

Breathing also becomes more important as you increase reps. Deeply inhale as you lower yourself, and then exhale as you press away from the floor. Focus on your breathing to help distract you from the burning in your arms.

The Final Two Days

You'll finish the program by going from 45 to 50 reps in just two days. These last two days can be rough, so it's OK if you need to split it into two sets of 25.

Muscle memory may improve your posture, which helps prevent pain and injuries. Learning how to keep a neutral spine while doing push-ups may transfer to your daily activities. Remember to lift your head, draw in your abs, and straighten your pelvis until your body feels perfectly aligned.

Push-Up Modifications

Push-ups are versatile bodyweight exercises. You can change your position for an easier or harder variation of the classic move.

Here are some push-up modifications you can try:

• Decline: Prop up your feet on a platform or chair, placing your hands on the floor. This movement increases the difficulty of a push-up and targets your chest muscles.
• Incline: This variation is the opposite of a decline push-up. Place your hands on a platform or chair with your feet firmly on the floor. An incline push-up takes away some resistance.
• Knee: Try this variation if you are new to upper body exercises. Plant your knees on the ground instead of your feet, and then perform a push-up as usual.
• One-arm: Get into a plank and carefully place one arm behind your back. Lower yourself down and then press back up using one arm. Try this difficult variation to continue building upper body strength if you are already a push-up pro.
• Tabletop: You'll start with your hands and knees on the floor. Make sure your hands are shoulder-width apart. You can do a push-up from this position. Be sure to engage your core the entire time.
• Wall: Face a wall, placing your hands on it. Perform a push-up as usual from this vertical position for an easy modification.
• Weighted: This push-up adds some resistance for a more difficult move than normal. Carefully place a small weight on your back, or wear a weighted workout vest while doing a push-up.

A Quick Review

This 50 push-up challenge works your arms, back, chest, and core to build overall strength. You'll advance from five to 50 push-ups over four weeks.

It's OK to split the reps into sets (i.e., two sets of 25 push-ups). Just make sure to take short breaks between each set to keep your heart pumping and your muscles working. You can also modify the push-ups by doing them on an incline or using the tabletop position.