‘The most underrated movement in fitness’: how to do a proper push-up

If you can’t do a push-up with proper form, don’t worry – you’re far from alone, and there are alternatives. Illustration: Carmen Casado/The Guardian

If you want to show off how fit you are, you drop and do push-ups. That’s what happens on TV, anyway. In Top Gun: Maverick, buff fighter pilots do hundreds of push-ups on a hot tarmac. In the late 90s, Demi Moore wowed audiences by doing one-armed push-ups in the movie GI Jane, then again on David Letterman. Once, Michelle Obama and Ellen DeGeneres competed to see who could do the most push-ups (Obama won).

Are push-ups really worth the hype? According to fitness experts, absolutely.