Performing the eccentric push-up in a garage gym.

Eccentric Push-ups: How to Build Upper Body Strength for Beginners

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Push-ups are an age-old, tried-and-true upper body exercise that offers profound benefits. Unfortunately, not everyone has the upper body strength to perform traditional push-ups.

If you fall into this category but want to make substantial improvements to your upper body strength, including your chest, shoulders, and triceps muscles, don’t fret; this article will open your eyes and reveal the surprising benefits of performing eccentric push-ups.

So, if you aren’t strong enough (yet) to do regular push-ups, read onwards — you’re about to learn why the eccentric push-up is essential to perform on your path towards building a stronger upper body (and one that becomes capable of performing regular push-ups).

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Description: What is an eccentric push-up?

In short, an eccentric push-up refers to only performing the downward portion of the exercise when the body is lowered toward the ground (it’s often called a negative push-up). The upwards portion is not performed — all energy and effort is spent only on the movement’s downward phase.

Let’s break it down a bit more since doing so will likely help you better understand how and why eccentric push-ups are so profoundly helpful for increasing upper body strength.

As with any other standard bodyweight exercise, a traditional push-up consists of two phases of muscle contraction:

  1. The concentric phase
  2. The eccentric phase

In the case of the push-up, the concentric phase refers to the upward pushing motion when you’re pushing your body off the floor.

The eccentric phase refers to the downward movement when you’re lowering your body back toward the floor.

Here’s the secret sauce with eccentric push-ups: not everyone has the upper body strength to perform the concentric (upward pushing phase), but nearly everyone has the ability to perform the eccentric phase (barring physical injury or pain).

What’s even better is that eccentric training (i.e., performing exercises that solely focus on, or notably emphasize, training the eccentric phase of a movement) has been shown to produce significant strength gains.

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Benefits: why perform eccentric push-ups?

The eccentric push-up will strengthen the same muscles as the traditional push-up, albeit through a slightly different manner.

Building upper-body strength leads to various health and wellness benefits, along with an overall quality of life.

A strong upper body will help to:

Yes, numerous upper-body exercises can strengthen your upper body, but eccentric exercises have a few shining points worth mentioning:

  • Eccentric push-ups require no special equipment to perform.
  • They are not a complicated movement requiring experience, a spotter, or a personal trainer.
  • They can be done in a small room or area — no need for a big gym!
  • They can be easily modified to make the exercise easier or more challenging based on the needs of the individual.

Ultimately, this means that nearly any individual who is otherwise healthy — regardless of their fitness abilities and workout experience — can incorporate this exercise into their weekly fitness pursuits and subsequently receive notable strength and health benefits.

How to: performing the eccentric push-up

The start, mid point, and finish position for the eccentric push-up. Notice how my chest and hips touch the floor at the same time; don’t let your hips sag through when lowering yourself downward!
You never press yourself back up when performing eccentric pushups; use all of your energy to slowly lower your chest and hips to the floor, then rock yourself up (very easy to do) and repeat the downward motion.

The beauty of eccentric push-ups is that they are as simple to perform as they are effective in enhancing your muscular strength.

Here’s how to do the perfect eccentric push-up:

  1. Assume the standard push-up position with your elbows straight. You can either do this from the full-body position so that your toes are on the ground or from the modified version (which is easier) by having your knees on the ground.
  2. From this starting position, slowly lower your chest to the floor without letting your hips sag downwards; your chest and the front of your hips should contact the ground at the same time.
  3. Once your chest and hips are on the ground, rock yourself back up (i.e., don’t push yourself back up) to the starting position. Rocking yourself up should take a very low amount of effort to do so.
  4. Repeat the above sequence for as many repetitions as desired.

Now, there’s one more critical component to doing the perfect eccentric push-up, which makes the entire exercise incredibly effective for becoming stronger:

Lower yourself down to the floor very slowly with every repetition you perform.

Performing eccentric push-ups from the knees is no different from the full push-up position, aside from the fact that it’s much easier. This is a great regression if the full position is too challenging.

Here’s why: the faster you let yourself fall closer to the floor, the more you let gravity do the work rather than your muscles.

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Most often, I will have my athletes and patients perform a five-second eccentric, meaning it takes them five seconds to move from the starting position to the finished position.

Pro tip: if performing eccentric push-ups from your knees is too challenging, you can try performing the traditional push-up with your hands on the end of a chair or bench. This modified push-up will significantly reduce the amount of chest, arm, and shoulder strength required to complete the movement.

If the eccentric push-up from the knees is still too challenging, performing traditional push-ups on an inclined surface (such as a workout bench or chair) is the next regression I most often use with my patients and athletes.

Parameters: Training details for the eccentric push-up

Knowing how to properly perform eccentric push-ups is certainly necessary, but it’s only half the battle — you now need to know how to effectively incorporate them into your training regimen. Otherwise, what’s the point, right?

So, let’s quickly break this down.

Sets and reps: How many should you perform?

The ideal number of sets and repetitions will depend on numerous factors, with the most critical factors being:

  • How conditioned or deconditioned your body currently is.
  • How fast or slow you perform your eccentric push-ups (slower means fewer reps performed).
  • What the rest of your individual workout and overall workout routine looks like.

I can’t go into the details regarding each of these factors, so you’ll have to figure this out for yourself.

That being said, I often advocate for the following:

  • 2 sets of 5 repetitions (either from toes or knees) for beginners or those who are rather deconditioned.
  • 3 sets of 8 for those who have a decent baseline of fitness.
  • 3-4 sets of 8-10 for those who are conditioned and can perform 20 or more traditional push-ups without taking a break.

Additionally, I advocate that eccentric push-ups be done with a five-second tempo for every repetition (i.e., it should take five seconds to lower yourself down to the ground).

Frequency: How often should you perform eccentric pushups?

As with finding an ideal number of sets and repetitions to meet your needs, the same can be said for how frequently throughout the week you may want to perform them.

Thankfully, this is a bit more straightforward than dialling in optimal sets and reps.

If you are a beginner without a baseline of physical fitness yet built up, try twice a week on non-consecutive days for the first week or two, then try three times per week on non-consecutive days.

For anyone else who isn’t a beginner, three times per week should suffice, assuming you’re performing these eccentric push-ups as part of a regular strength training or callisthenics (bodyweight) training program.

Final thoughts

The eccentric push-up is the perfect bodyweight exercise for improving upper-body strength, especially for beginners and those who lack the strength required to perform the traditional push-up. It’s also ideal since it requires no equipment.

And since it is a very simple movement to perform and can be modified to make it easier or more challenging, it’s a go-to for anyone looking to strengthen their chest, triceps, and shoulder muscles.

Frequently asked questions

There are a lot of push-up questions floating around out there on the internet. Below, you’ll find a few brief answers to some of those particular questions.

I like to include this little frequently asked questions section at the end of each blog article to be as helpful as possible!

There is no universal “best” push-up to perform for improving chest strength. For most individuals, it’s much more important to focus on how the push-up exercise is performed.

For improving chest strength, regardless of the type of push-up being performed, it’s best to focus on the following factors:

  • Perform the push-up with perfect form at all times.
  • Perform every repetition slowly, which will stimulate the muscle fibers to a much greater extent (leading to better strength gains).
  • Perform enough repetitions and sets to generate notable — but not excessive — fatigue (tiredness) in either your chest, shoulders, or arms.
  • Perform your push-up routine a few times per week with one or more rest days in between each push-up session.

The weekly frequency for which you should perform push-ups will depend on numerous factors. While no one is stopping you from performing push-ups every day, doing so probably isn’t in your best interest if you’re doing them with enough intensity to generate notable muscle soreness or fatigue.

If you’re only doing them to a point where there is very minimal fatigue, then every day might be fine, but I would personally advocate having a few days off each week if you’re serious about challenging your push-up muscles.

Push-ups can help improve certain aspects of shoulder stability, endurance, and even strength for many individuals. While it’s not a primary exercise for shoulders, the shoulders still receive ample stimulation to support your arms and body when performing the exercise.

Push-ups do not strengthen your back muscles. Rather, the push-up exercise and any variation of the push-up will stimulate the muscles on the front side of the upper body and the backside of the upper arm.

The main muscles that are strengthened and enhanced from the push-up exercise are:

  • The pectoral muscles;
  • The triceps muscles;
  • The deltoid muscles (notably the front portion of the deltoid, known as the anterior fibres).
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