The push-up ladder

The push-up is the clearest demonstration of the leverage dial, so it’s where the course starts properly.

The ladder

1. Hands elevated - on a table or counter. Higher is easier.
2. Floor push-up - full range, chest to fist height.
3. Tempo push-up - three seconds down, one second pause at the bottom.
4. Feet elevated - a chair or step shifts more load onto the shoulders.
5. Archer push-up - one arm straight out to the side takes most of the work off it.
6. Deficit push-up - hands on blocks, chest travelling below hand level.
7. Uneven push-up - one hand on a low block, weight biased to the low side.
8. One-arm negatives - lowering only, feet wide.

Most people spend months on rungs two through four, and that’s the correct amount of time to spend there.

The rule for moving up

Three sets of eight clean reps at a given rung, on two separate sessions, buys you the next rung. Clean means no sagging hips, no head leading the way down, no bouncing off the bottom.

If a rung gives you five reps on set one and two on set three, you’ve moved up too early. Go back one and add tempo instead.

Programming it

Two pressing sessions a week, three or four sets each, stopping two reps short of failure on all but the last set. Failure is not the goal and it wrecks your next session for very little return.