I did 70 decline push-ups every day for a week — here’s what happened to my upper body

Man at home doing a deficit push-up with both feet on the couch.

The push-up is a well-known bodyweight exercise that builds upper body strength, targets the pecs, anterior deltoids (the fronts of your shoulders) and triceps and develops pushing power. Pushing exercises also recruit your core muscles for stability as you move.

We’re not short on ways to make push-ups easier (incline push-ups or kneeling push-ups) or harder (resistance band push-ups, judo push-ups, spiderman push-ups, to name just a few). The list goes on and on.