Decline Push Ups: How to Do Them, Muscles Worked and Progressions

A decline push up is a push up with your feet raised on a step, bench or box, so your body slopes downhill towards your hands. That small change does two useful things: it puts more of your bodyweight through your arms, and it tilts the press so your upper chest and front shoulders work harder. For anyone who's outgrown floor push ups and trains at home, it's the simplest way to make them hard again without buying anything. Below you'll find the setup, the muscles worked, a box height progression and how decline push ups compare with the incline version.

How to do a decline push up

You need something stable to rest your feet on. A bottom stair works for a first attempt, and a weight bench or a plyo box gives you more height options as you get stronger.

1. Set your feet. Kneel facing away from the box, then place the tops of your feet (or your toes) on it, about hip-width apart.
2. Place your hands. Walk your hands out until your body forms one straight line from heels to head. Your hands go slightly wider than shoulder-width, directly under or just in front of your shoulders.
3. Brace. Squeeze your glutes, tighten your abs and tuck your ribs down. Your hips shouldn't sag towards the floor or pike up towards the ceiling.
4. Lower. Bend your elbows and lower your chest towards the floor, keeping your elbows at roughly 45 degrees to your body rather than flared straight out. Take about two seconds on the way down.
5. Touch and press. Go until your chest is a fist's width from the floor (or lightly touches it), then push the floor away until your arms are straight. Finish each rep by spreading your shoulder blades slightly at the top.

Decline push up muscles worked

The decline push up uses the same muscles as a standard push up; what changes is how the work is shared between them.

• Chest (pectoralis major). Still the main mover. Because your body is angled downwards, your arms press in a direction that's more overhead relative to your torso, which shifts emphasis towards the upper, clavicular fibres of the chest.
• Front deltoids. Your front shoulders take a noticeably bigger share as the angle rises. At low heights they're helpers; on a high box they start to dominate.
• Triceps. They straighten your elbows on every rep and work hard throughout, whatever the foot height.
• Core and serratus anterior. Holding a straight plank with your feet above your hands is tougher than on the floor, so your abs and glutes work harder to stop your hips sagging, while the serratus keeps your shoulder blades stable.

Why raising your feet makes it harder

The higher your feet, the more of your bodyweight shifts onto your hands. A force plate study by Ebben and colleagues tested six push up variations in 23 recreationally fit adults, including feet raised on roughly 30cm and 61cm boxes and hands raised on the same heights. Feet-elevated push ups produced higher peak ground reaction forces than every other variation, while kneeling and hands-elevated push ups produced the lowest (kinetic analysis of push up variations). The authors noted that the data can be used to progress push up intensity in a programme, which is exactly how you should use foot height.

Why the angle changes which muscles work

There isn't much direct muscle activity research on decline push ups, but the bench press gives a useful parallel, because a decline push up puts your arms at a similar angle to an incline press. In a study of 30 trained adults pressing at five bench angles, upper chest activity peaked at a 30 degree incline, while angles above 45 degrees sharply increased front delt activity and reduced chest performance (bench inclination EMG study). Our reading: moderate foot heights favour the upper chest, and very high ones turn the exercise into a shoulder press. If that's what you want, the pike push up is the better tool. Our incline bench press guide covers the angle question for weights in more detail.

Box height progression

Treat foot height like adding plates to a bar. Move up a level once you can do 3 sets of 12 to 15 clean reps at your current height.

Level	Foot height	What to use	Feel
1	15 to 30cm	Bottom stair, aerobic step, low box	A little harder than the floor
2	40 to 45cm	Flat weight bench, sturdy chair against a wall	The classic decline push up
3	50 to 60cm	Plyo box, sofa arm	Heavy on the upper chest and front delts
4	60cm and above	Tall box	Mostly shoulders; close to a pike push up

Most people get the best upper chest training from levels 1 and 2. Beyond about 60cm, you're better off adding load with a weighted vest than raising your feet further, unless your goal is building towards handstand push ups.

Common mistakes

Letting your hips sag. This is the most common fault, because the elevated position makes it harder to hold a straight line. If your lower back arches, squeeze your glutes harder or drop to a lower box until you can keep a rigid plank.

Piking your hips up. The opposite error. Raising your hips shortens the lever and makes the rep easier, but it also changes the exercise into a half pike push up. Keep your hips level with your shoulders.

Flaring the elbows. Elbows at 90 degrees to your body put more strain on the front of the shoulder joint. Tuck them to around 45 degrees, so your arms and torso form an arrow shape from above.

Cutting the depth short. Half reps don't build much. If you can't get your chest near the floor, the box is too high for you right now.

Using an unstable surface. A wobbly chair or a stack of cushions can slip mid-set and drop you on your face. Use a bench, a solid box or a step, ideally with a non-slip top.

Decline push up variations

Once standard decline push ups feel comfortable for 15 or more reps, these keep the progress coming.

• Deficit decline push up. Put your hands on parallettes, push up handles or a push up board so your chest can drop below hand level. The extra range stretches the chest at the bottom and makes each rep tougher. Parallettes also keep your wrists neutral, which helps if flat-palm push ups hurt.
• Weighted decline push up. Wear a weighted vest or a loaded rucksack. Start with 5 to 10kg; it's the easiest way to keep the reps in a muscle-building range.
• Feet-on-bench push up with tempo. Same setup as the classic version, but take 4 seconds to lower and pause for 1 second at the bottom. Slowing the descent makes a familiar height feel new.
• Single-leg decline push up. Lift one foot off the box and hold it in the air for the set. It challenges your core and hips to resist rotation, and swapping legs each set keeps things even.
• Decline pike push up. Walk your hands back towards the box and lift your hips until your torso is near vertical. This is a shoulder exercise first and a chest exercise second, and it's the main stepping stone to handstand push ups.
• Decline clap push up. Explode off the floor, clap and land with soft elbows. Only try this once you can do 15 controlled reps, and do it on a padded floor.

How to programme decline push ups

Decline push ups fit almost any upper body or full body session. Use them as your main chest press on bodyweight days, or as a finisher after dumbbell or bench work.

• Muscle and strength: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 15 reps, 2 to 3 times a week. Rest 60 to 120 seconds and stop one or two reps short of failure.
• Endurance or circuits: 2 to 3 sets of 15 to 25 reps at a lower height, rest 30 to 45 seconds.
• Upper chest focus: pair decline push ups with incline dumbbell presses or pike push ups in the same session.

The NHS recommends muscle-strengthening activity that works all the major muscle groups on at least two days a week, and two decline push up sessions slot neatly into that. Balance your pressing with an equal amount of rowing or pulling to keep your shoulders healthy. Browse our workouts hub for full sessions that build around them.

Decline vs incline push up

These two are mirror images. A decline push up raises your feet; an incline push up raises your hands on a bench, kitchen worktop or wall.

	Decline push up	Incline push up
Setup	Feet on a box, hands on the floor	Hands on a box, feet on the floor
Difficulty	Harder than a floor push up	Easier than a floor push up
Load on hands	Higher, and rises with foot height	Lower, and drops as hand height rises
Chest emphasis	Upper chest and front delts	Lower and middle chest
Best for	Progressing past floor push ups	Beginners and high-rep volume

The naming trips people up, because a decline push up uses a similar arm angle to an incline bench press. Go by where your arms end up relative to your body. Pushing towards your head (feet up) hits the upper chest; pushing towards your hips (hands up) hits the lower chest.

Neither is better; they do different jobs. If you can't yet do 10 good floor push ups, start with incline push ups and work your hand height down. A scoping review of push up muscle activity found the serratus anterior was most active during push up plus and incline push ups, so the incline version still has value even for stronger lifters as shoulder blade work (push up EMG scoping review). Once floor push ups are easy, decline push ups take over as the way to keep building strength.

Recommended reads

• Push ups: form, muscles worked and variations
• Pike push up: how to do it and progressions
• The best push up boards in the UK
• The best weight benches in the UK
• The best plyo boxes in the UK