Watch: A Modified Push-Up and Plank Workout to Build Chest, Shoulder, and Core Strength

Planks and push-ups can be intimidating, but this modified push-up and plank workout can help you ease into the moves by introducing variations that can be both progressed and regressed.

In this video, which is the next installment of Sweat With SELF’s new Upper-Body Strength series, instructor Roz “The Diva” Mays—a NASM-certified personal trainer and pole instructor—and her colleague Tanya Saint Medley will take you through a bodyweight-only routine that will help you get used to the plank and the push-up. Both of these moves are strength-training staples: The push-up works your chest or pectoral muscles and your shoulders, while the traditional plank is a real core scorcher. While you’ll see these moves (and variations of them) in tons of strength-training workouts, they can take some time and experience to master.

That’s where this modified push-up and plank workout comes in. After a five-minute warm-up, Mays and Saint Medley will introduce you to push-up modifications, progressing from least to most difficult: You’ll begin with scapular movements, which get you familiar with bringing your shoulder blades back. Then you’ll try the push-up prep position, in which you’ll continue to work your shoulder blades through their range of motion while kneeling. After that comes the half push-up, in which you’ll complete the push-up motion while in tabletop position—which is less demanding than pushing up from high plank. You’ll finish the modified push-up portion with a half push-up with leg lift, the most challenging of the push-up variations.

Then Mays and Saint Medley will take you through the plank variations: the forearm downward dog and the modified side plank. These are great variations to really help you get used to firing up all parts of your core when holding a plank!

Throughout the course of this 20-minute workout video, Mays also drops some super important push-up and plank tips. One vital one? Proper alignment plays a huge role here, so when you’re assuming any kind of plank or push-up position, make sure your wrists, elbows, and shoulders remain stacked. And if your wrists bother you during the workout, take some time to stretch them out with moves introduced in the warm-up, such as wrist circles.

For more bodyweight-only, upper-body workout videos, check out the rest of Sweat With SELF’s Upper Body Strength series here!

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