Do Push-Ups Get Easier? (How To Make Them Easier!)

When you start doing a new exercise for the first time, you’ll often find it to be much more challenging than expected.

Once you’ve been doing an exercise for a while though, you hope that it gets to be a bit more comfortable for you.

However, this isn’t always the case. Some exercises stay extremely challenging no matter how experienced you are at doing them.

In this article, we look at whether push-ups get easier the more you do them.

We look into why they might get easier, and why they might not get easier for some people, as well as discussing if there are other exercises you can do to help make push-ups easier.

Do Push-Ups Get Easier?

Push-ups, like most other exercises, will usually get easier over time.

The more you do push-ups, the better you should get at them. You’ve heard the old saying of how “practice makes perfect”, and that’s very true with exercises like push-ups too.

Your body will need time to get used to the movement and the stress placed on the working muscles before push-ups start to feel easier and a bit more comfortable for you.

One of the best ways to get your body used to the movement is to simply do the movement on a regular basis.

It’s the same principle for any new skill you’re trying to learn. The only way you’re ever going to get better at it, is to practice as much as you can.

While it’s not necessarily a good idea to practice push-ups by doing hundreds of them (fatigue will play a huge factor in how much you should practice the exercise), doing push-ups on a regular basis, even when they’re extra challenging for you, will help them get easier for you over time.

Why Do Push-Ups Get Easier?

The Working Muscles Get Stronger

As you do push-ups, the working muscles will be placed under stress, microscopic tears will form in them, these tears repair, and the working muscles get stronger.

The more strength you have in the working muscles, the easier push-ups will be.

It’s a natural progression in many bodyweight exercises – the more you do them, the stronger you get, and the easier the exercise becomes.

This makes sense when you think about it as, what better way is there for developing the muscles needed for push-ups than actually doing push-ups?

Your Confidence Increases

It can be surprising how much your mindset and confidence play a role in how you perform during your workouts.

When you start doing push-ups, you probably won’t feel too confident in doing them and you may even be a little nervous. This can actually make push-ups feel less comfortable and more challenging for you.

As you get more used to doing push-ups, you should find that your confidence grows and you feel much less nervous when doing them.

This can have quite a dramatic impact on how comfortable you feel doing the exercise.

Your Overall Fitness Improves

Push-ups are a compound exercise that works multiple muscles and joints at the same time.

This type of exercise is extremely effective at developing your overall fitness levels.

As your fitness level improves, a lot of exercises (including push-ups) will likely feel easier for you to do.

When Do Push-Ups Get Easier?

You may hear that push-ups should get easier in X amount of time but, the truth is, everyone is different and the time it takes their body to adapt to things can be very different too.

While some people may find push-ups easier after a couple of weeks, others may still find them challenging after several months.

There is no set time limit for push-ups to get easier.

The key is to keep practicing, keep going, and know that eventually, your body will make the required adaptations to make them feel easier for you.

Why Do Push-Ups Seem To Not Get Easier For Some People?

Incorrect Technique

Although push-ups may look pretty simple, the technique is actually quite difficult to master.

This can mean that some people are doing push-ups on a regular basis with errors in their form.

If this is the case, they’ll likely still find push-ups challenging as their body won’t be adapting to the correct technique.

Errors in technique can lead to injury so it’s very important to get your push-up technique right from the start.

(Watch below to find out how to do the perfect push-up and master the technique!)

Progression Has Been Too Quick

Some people want to be able to do as many push-ups as possible, as quickly as possible. This causes them to do more push-ups than they’re actually able to do correctly.

Progressing any exercise too quickly can cause injury, technique issues, and muscle development issues, and is generally a bad idea.

Like any exercise, the intensity of your push-ups should be built up gradually to allow your body to adapt appropriately.

Progressing them too quickly will make them feel challenging for much longer than they need to. 

Breathing Issues

It may sound silly, but if you don’t breathe properly during push-ups, they can feel much more difficult than they need to.

Some people will hold their breath during exercise which limits the amount of oxygen their working muscles receive.

The less oxygen the muscles get, the harder everything feels.

Concentrate on your breathing just as much as you do your push-up technique and push-ups should begin to feel much easier.

Does Losing Weight Make Push-Ups Easier?

Potentially, but not always.

It will partly depend on how you lose weight.

For example, if you gain muscle mass, you will burn more calories which can result in fat and weight loss. However, if you lose weight by not eating, you could lose muscle mass as well as fat.

Losing weight but gaining muscle will make push-ups easier. Losing weight and muscle mass will make push-ups harder.

Do Push-Up Bars Make Push-Ups Easier?

Yes and no.

Push-up bars can certainly make push-ups more comfortable as they offer greater support for your wrists and keep your hands in a neutral grip position. 

However, they also extend the range of movement in your push-ups.

As your hands are further off the ground, you can go deeper during the lowering phase of the exercise.

This can make push-ups more challenging as you’re targeting the working muscles through a bigger movement.

Does Bench Press Make Push-Ups Easier?

Yes.

Bench press and push-ups target pretty much the same muscles.

As you lift more and more weight during bench press, you should find that push-ups get easier for you.

This is due to the fact that the working muscles are getting stronger and more developed so they can handle the stress of push-ups much better.

Does Putting Your Feet Apart Make Push-Ups Easier?

Having your feet wider apart during push-ups tends to make the exercise easier.

When your feet are together, you are in a much more unstable position so your core muscles will have to work harder to keep you balanced and in the correct position.

A wider foot position provides more stability so your core has to work less as your body is in a more balanced position.

Conclusion

In summary:

• Push-ups get easier as you build more strength in your chest and triceps by practicing the exercise regularly.
• The amount of time it takes for push-ups to become less challenging varies between each person.

That’s all for this article, but are push ups bad for your wrists? Or are incline push ups better?

Hope this helped!

Sources

Why Exercise Gets Easier