Exercise Tutorial: Bent Knee Push Up
Table of Contents
What Is a Bent Knee Push Up
A bent knee push up is a body weight exercise in which you press yourself up off the ground against gravity. This exercise is a modification of a traditional push up where you are pressing yourself up while keeping your knees on the ground.
It is an exercise that targets your upper body and focuses primarily on the muscles of the arms, chest and shoulders. The bent knee push up can be completed anywhere with no equipment and is great for beginners who are working towards completing traditional push ups.
How to Do a Bent Knee Push Up
In order to complete a bent knee push up, follow these steps to learn how perform it:
Begin by kneeling on the floor with your legs together. Place your torso in a plank position with your wrists stacked underneath your shoulders. Next, place your hands shoulder width apart with your fingers facing forward.
Brace your core, squeeze your glutes, keep your back straight and look down towards the floor in order to keep your neck in line with your spine. This creates a straight body position (neutral spine).
Start by lowering your body down to the ground bending at the elbows (elbows should be placed at a 45° angle from the body). As your chest comes slightly above the ground, stop and return to the starting position by pressing yourself away from the floor using your chest and arms.
Bent Knee Push Up Form
When completing a bent knee push up its important to maintain proper form. Achieving it reduces the risk of injury and ensures the proper muscles are working to complete the exercise. With a bent knee push up its important to keep a neutral spine position for the entire movement. A neutral spine position is achieved by bracing your core (think of pulling your belly button towards your spine) and squeezing your glutes. This is true because it prevents your hips from dropping which forces the back to hyperextend and puts pressure on the lower back.
In addition, it’s important to keep the elbows at a 45° angle from the body and not flared away in order to protect the integrity of the shoulders. This allows them to externally rotate and ultimately reduce injury risk from prolonged repetition. As this exercise is completed with the knees on the ground it’s also important to note that they act solely as a pivot point. This means that at any point in the movement the torso should not hinge/bend forward at the hips.
Bent Knee Push Up Benefits
Strengthens the core
Builds muscle and strength in the chest, arms and shoulders
Lower impact than regular push ups for beginners or individuals with upper body injuries
Can be modified in many ways (progressions and regressions)
No gym or equipment required
Why Is the Bent Knee Push Up Useful
The bent knee push up is useful because it is a bodyweight exercise that can be easily incorporated into any workout or program to achieve many fitness goals. It utilizes your own body weight to build strength and size of upper body muscles like the chest, shoulders and arms.
This exercise is a great way to progress to traditional push ups and/or many other progressions, all while still providing you with the benefits of those harder movements.
It not only challenges the upper body but also the core to improve stability. Having a strong upper body and core results in better posture long term and improves completing activities individuals do on a daily basis (i.e. carrying groceries, lifting things up etc.).
Bent Knee Push Up Variations
Bent Knee Plyo Push Up
Bent Knee TRX Push Up
Bent Knee Elevated Push Up
Bent Knee Diamond Push up
Bent Knee Push Up Alternatives
Elevated Push Up
Using elevated surfaces involves less body weight to be pushed against gravity, therefore making it easier.
TRX Push Up
This exercise can be easier or harder depending on the angle of the body. Having a more vertical body position is easier as you are pushing less body weight against gravity. A more horizontal body position is harder as you are pushing more body weight against gravity.
One Knee Push Up
By removing one knee from the floor you are removing one base of support which recruits more muscles to stabilize the body and therefore makes it more difficult.
Plyo Push Up
Adding a push off the ground requires more power and explosiveness, therefore making it more difficult.
Push Up
Doing a push up from the toes incorporates more stabilizing muscles to complete making it more difficult.