Training guide
A wall push-up is a push-up standing up: hands on a wall at chest height, body straight, and your chest lowered towards the wall and pushed away. It's the lightest push-up there is, and the NHS teaches it as the wall press-up, with 3 sets of 5 to 10, at least twice a week.
It's the right first step for many beginners, older adults and people coming back from illness, and NHS shoulder and heart rehabilitation programmes start with it. For most people it soon becomes too easy to keep building strength, so the useful question is how to make it harder and when to move on.
This guide shows it step by step on the 3D figure and covers where to put your hands and elbows, who it suits, whether it's enough on its own, how to make it harder, and when to move on to a worktop or table.
Stand at arm's length from a wall with your hands flat on it at chest level, a little wider than your shoulders. Keep your body straight, bend your elbows, keeping them by your sides, to bring your chest towards the wall, then press back. This is the NHS wall press-up.
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"Attempt 3 sets of 5 to 10 repetitions", at least twice a week, building the reps up slowly. Once that's easy, 3 sets of 8 to 15, as an NHS shoulder programme and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) suggest.
Nobody has measured how much of your weight it puts on your hands. With the hands on a 61 cm box, they already carried only about 41% of body weight in one study, and a wall is steeper still. Step your feet back to make it harder.
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Beginners, older adults, pregnancy if you already exercise, after illness (NHS cardiac rehabilitation programmes start with it), sore wrists or shoulders (NHS shoulder programmes start there), and heart failure, where the BHF advises avoiding full press-ups.
As a start, yes. For most people it soon becomes too easy to keep building strength: older adults are asked to work towards harder loads, and in older women a wall push-up programme improved arm reaction time but didn't add arm strength over a standard falls programme. That "too easy" is our reading of thin evidence.
Step your feet further back, slow the lowering to 3 seconds, then move to a worktop or table, our incline push-up guide's first rung. Move on when all 3 sets reach 15. In inactive adults, a daily set of 10 slow reps starting at the wall raised push-up scores within 4 weeks.
A standing push-up with your hands on a wall. The NHS calls it the wall press-up and includes it in its home strength exercises. It's the first step of our push-up ladder. A wall handstand push-up is a different, much harder exercise: our handstand push-up guide covers it.
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The same pressing muscles as any push-up, at a low load: the chest, the front of the shoulders and the triceps, with the serratus anterior holding your shoulder blades against your ribs and your trunk working lightly to keep you straight. In one study the chest worked at about 12% of its maximum in a wall push-up with an extra push at the top.
You need to stand comfortably and tolerate pressure through your hands. There's no floor work: an NHS booklet for over-65s notes that its exercises can be done standing or in a chair, apart from the wall press-up.
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The further back your feet, the harder it is. With sore wrists you can start with less lean. If you can't stand for long, start with the seated exercises in our seniors workout; a home programme for people with heart failure began with seated wall push-ups before standing ones.
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From the NHS wall press-up, our move page and two NHS physiotherapy programmes. The NHS's "elbows by your side" and our push-up guide's "about 45 degrees, angled back, not flared" describe the same thing at a wall: elbows pointing down and back, not out to the sides (our reading).
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The movement on the figure: Wall push-up
3 sets of 5 to 10, at least twice a week, building the reps up slowly over time. The NHS asks older adults to do strength work on at least 2 days a week, "to the point where you need a short rest before repeating the activity".
3 sets of 8 to 15, as an NHS shoulder programme, the BHF and our push-up progression use; Age UK suggests 10 to 15. Move on to a worktop or table when all 3 sets reach 15 (our push-up guide's rule).
60 to 90 seconds between sets (our push-up guide). NHS cardiac and shoulder programmes use 30 to 45 seconds, which is fine at these light loads.
Fine at an easy effort if your wrists, elbows and shoulders feel normal (our push-up guide). In one study, one daily set of 10 slow reps worked. A hundred wall push-ups a day isn't needed.
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In 22 inactive adults aged 32 to 69, one daily set of 10 slow reps, starting at the wall and moving on once 10 were easy two sessions running, raised push-up test scores from about 12 to 17 reps in 4 weeks; in a follow-up of 10 adults, scores kept rising to 8 weeks. Neither study had a separate control group.
The NHS teaches the wall press-up in its home strength exercises and lists push-ups among the body-weight exercises older adults can use. Age UK suggests 10 to 15 reps, and an NHS booklet for over-65s 8 to 12.
In 97 adults aged 65 or over with walking difficulty, push-ups were modified in 70% of sessions, most often to wall push-ups.
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An NHS cardiac rehabilitation programme starts with an easy wall press, 2 sets of 10 with 30 to 45 seconds' rest, then moves to a worktop push-up; another asks you to place your hands no higher than your shoulders and lets your heels lift if needed. In 18 adults with chronic lung disease, a wall or bench push-up was the lightest station of a circuit, and in 30 people with heart failure, seated then standing wall push-ups were the arm steps of a home programme.
No trial has tested wall push-ups in pregnancy. A 2026 Chinese expert consensus lists them among simple strength exercises, and the NHS advises against starting new vigorous activity in pregnancy. Wall push-ups appear in our pregnancy routines. Ask your midwife about floor push-ups as your bump grows (our suggestion).
The British Heart Foundation advises avoiding exercises that use your whole body as the weight, such as press-ups and planks. Wall push-ups with steady breathing are gentler, and its general home routine includes them; ask your heart team.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association's (NSCA's) statement on older adults works towards 2 to 3 sets per major muscle group at 70 to 85% of the most you could lift once, 2 to 3 times a week, starting frail people at 20 to 30% and building up.
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In 40 women aged about 75, a 12-week programme that progressed wall push-ups, then leaning further, then one hand, then the floor, improved how fast they could catch themselves with their arms more than a standard falls programme, but arm strength rose in both groups with no difference between them. The study was too small to be sure about strength. "Too easy" is our inference from that trial and the NSCA statement: we found no trial showing wall push-ups alone keep building strength.
A wall push-up is the right exercise for many frail or very deconditioned people. Once 3 sets of 15 feel easy, step back, then move to a worktop, a table or a chest press machine (our suggestion).
Step your feet further back, lowering your hands so they stay level with your shoulders, as an NHS shoulder programme does; then a slow 3-second lowering; then an incline push-up on a worktop or table, 3 sets of 8 to 15 (our push-up progression). The scapular push-up at the wall is the wall push-up plus on its own, 10 reps as a warm-up (our push-up challenge workout). The elastic wall bounce, 2 sets of 8 to 12 bounces (the move page's dose), is a springy step towards faster push-ups; skip it with wrist or shoulder pain. There's no 3D demo of a one-arm wall push-up.
In 28 men doing a push-up with an extra push at the top (the push-up plus), the serratus anterior worked at about 77% of a reference effort on the floor, 39% on the knees and 28% at the wall. In 15 men, the chest worked at about 12% of its maximum in the wall version.
At the wall, the upper trapezius at the top of the shoulder worked relatively more than the serratus anterior: a ratio of 0.69 against 0.39 on the floor in 12 men. A review of 19 studies of 356 people ranked the wall push-up plus last for that balance.
Muscle activity (EMG, electromyography) over a few reps shows effort, not what a muscle will build.
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There's no range to move through. Step back a little.
Keep one line from head to heels.
Keep them down and back, "by your side", as the NHS puts it.
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Draw your shoulders away from your ears, as an NHS shoulder programme advises.
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Use a dry, solid wall and shoes that grip, as our move page says.
Breathe out as you press (our push-up guide).
Wall press-ups appear in NHS programmes for painful and weak shoulders (3 sets of 8 to 15, stepping back and lowering the hands, then a worktop or table), rotator cuff classes (3 sets of 8 with 30 seconds' rest; hands a little wider than shoulder width, slightly turned out, elbows tucked in) and after a shoulder dislocation (between 6 and 12 weeks, 3 sets of 10, 3 times a day). These are rehabilitation plans for injured people: follow your physiotherapist's, and see our shoulder pain guides.
In 12 healthy people with the shoulder blade tracked by bone pins, the wall push-up plus caused little pain but put the shoulder blade in a position the authors linked with impingement; they advise caution using it unmodified early on. If the extra push at the top pinches, leave it out (our suggestion, which fits both this study and the NHS programmes).
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Keep shoulder pain to about 5 out of 10 or less during the exercise, back to its usual level by your next session, as our shoulder guides advise. A sharp pinch means lower, lighter or stop.
Our shoulder pain when doing push-ups guide maps the causes by where it hurts and has a plan back to the floor.
A push-up bends your wrist back under your weight, which raised pressure in part of the wrist joint in a lab study of 8 donated wrists. At a wall the load is light; lean less, or turn your fingers slightly out, if your wrists complain. Our wrist pain from push-ups guide has a staged plan that starts at the wall.
Some discomfort during these exercises is fine and doesn't mean you are doing damage. Keep it to about 5 out of 10 or less. It should settle within half an hour or so, and your hand should be no worse the next morning. If it is, do fewer, smaller or lighter next time, not nothing. That's our wrist pain guides' rule.
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After heart surgery through the breastbone, or a heart or lung transplant, follow your surgeon's advice before pushing, pulling or lifting with your arms.
After breast cancer surgery or reconstruction, follow your surgical team's advice on when you can lift your arm above shoulder height, or push, pull or lift with it.
In 72 adults after heart surgery through the breastbone, less restrictive precautions, letting pain guide them, gave the same physical function at 4 and 12 weeks as the standard ones, and one NHS hospital now tells patients to let pain be their guide. After breast surgery, another NHS hospital's leaflet says not to take weight through your arms until six weeks after surgery, in its advice on Pilates and yoga. No study says when a wall push-up is safe, so hospitals differ: ask yours.
The strength and balance exercises for seniors use wall push-ups, 5 to 10 reps, stepping your feet back to make them harder; the beginner home workout and the push-up progression start with them; the cardiac rehab style, heart failure and long COVID routines use them at a gentle effort; and the postnatal strength workout brings them back after birth.
A 40-minute strength and balance session for over-65s, built from the Otago home programme and NHS exercises, using a chair, a counter and a step.
40 minBeginner18 movesA bench or box, Something with weightA gentle 20-minute beginner home workout with a chair, a wall and a band: sit-to-stands, wall push-ups, band rows, step-ups and dead bugs.
20 minBeginner11 movesA bench or box, A wallWork up to full push-ups: wall, incline and knee push-ups, then the floor push-up and harder variations.
15 minBeginner8 movesA wall, A bench or boxA 45-minute home session built like a UK cardiac rehab class: a 15-minute warm-up, 20 minutes of cardio mixed with light strength, and a 10-minute cool-down.
45 minBeginner14 movesA wall, A bench or boxA 40-minute heart failure workout you can do seated or standing: a long, gentle warm-up, cardio mixed with light strength, and a slow cool-down.
40 minBeginner13 movesA bench or box, A wallA 12-minute routine for long COVID that starts lying down and stays mostly seated: breathing, gentle leg and arm moves, and legs up to finish.
12 minBeginner13 movesA bench or box, Something with weightA 25-minute strength workout from about 6 weeks after birth: sit-to-stands, deadlift practice, push-ups, rows, bridges and tummy work, with the knack.
25 minBeginner14 movesA bench or box, A kettlebellA 12-week exercise plan for over-65s: strength and balance three times a week, short balance sessions and daily walks, based on falls-prevention trials.
3 training days40 minBeginner2 days a weekYour first four weeks: two, then three short strength sessions a week at home plus walks, building gently to a full routine.
2 training days20 minBeginnerIf you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise. The American Heart Association says these need immediate medical evaluation.
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For chest pain that comes on suddenly and doesn't go away, feels tight or like squeezing, spreads to your arms, neck, jaw, stomach or back, or comes with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness; arm pain that comes on suddenly with pressure, heaviness or squeezing across your chest; severe difficulty breathing, or a chest that feels tight or heavy; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, shortness of breath or feeling faint; or a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while lifting or straining. The NHS says a bleed on the brain may be more likely when lifting something heavy. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 for a headache that's triggered or made worse by coughing, sneezing, bending down or exercising.
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For severe wrist pain; feeling faint, dizzy or sick from the pain; a snap, grinding or popping noise at the time of the injury; being unable to move your wrist or hold things; a wrist that has changed shape or colour; a very painful, hot or red lump; or lost feeling in your hand. In the US, use urgent care.
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If wrist pain is no better after 2 weeks of home treatment, or comes with tingling, diabetes, or a hot, swollen, stiff wrist.
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Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 for sudden or very bad shoulder pain, an arm you can't move, a shoulder that has changed shape or is badly swollen, pins and needles that don't go away, no feeling in your arm or shoulder, an arm or shoulder that's hot or cold to touch, pain after an injury or a fall, severe pain in both shoulders, or feeling feverish or unwell. Go to A&E if, after an injury, you can't move your arm or your shoulder looks out of place or has changed shape. See a GP if shoulder pain is getting worse or hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
After a big or unusual session, such as hundreds of wall push-ups in a challenge, muscle pain, swelling or weakness far worse than the session explains, with or without dark pee (red, brown, tea or cola coloured), needs help the same day: call NHS 111, or go to A&E if you feel very unwell. It can be rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle that can harm the kidneys, as our rhabdomyolysis guide explains.
If you've fallen and were hurt, fallen twice or more in a year, or couldn't get up, ask your GP about a falls service before you start, as our seniors workout advises.
Speak to your GP first if you haven't exercised for some time or have medical conditions or concerns, as the NHS advises. Get advice before hard or straining work if your blood pressure is uncontrolled (140/90 or higher at a clinic, or 135/85 at home), or you have heart disease or chest pain when you're active, a pacemaker or defibrillator, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, a hernia, recent eye or tummy surgery, or you're pregnant, as our breathing guide lists.
With controlled high blood pressure, the American Heart Association considers low- to moderate-intensity strength training with proper breathing safe. Breathe out as you lift, as our breathing guide advises.
With a pacemaker or defibrillator, the American Heart Association asks you to check with your doctor before upper-body strength training, because repeated arm movements can damage or dislodge the leads.
Muscle soreness for a day or two after a new or harder session is common and fades. Sharp pain, or pain that builds during a set or lingers into the next day, isn't: swap to an easier version, and see a clinician if it persists, as our plans advise. The NHS says to stop exercising straight away if you feel any pain or become unwell, and to get help from 111 if symptoms worry you or don't go away.
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For a beginner, an older adult or someone after illness they're the right first step: the NHS teaches them, NHS cardiac and shoulder programmes start with them, and a ladder starting at the wall raised push-up scores in inactive adults within 4 weeks. For a trained person they're too light to build strength, so move on.
They're a good start, but older adults build strength by working towards harder loads, and the NHS asks for strength work to the point where you need a short rest. In 40 older women, a wall push-up programme didn't add arm strength over a standard falls programme. Step back, then move to a worktop, a table or a chest press machine.
More sets help only up to a point, and a few sets made harder over time do more (our reading, from our plans). Muscle soreness for a day or two after a new exercise is normal; very sore, swollen or weak arms after a big session need same-day help.
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Push-ups train the chest muscle under the breast tissue. Nothing shows they make breasts bigger or smaller.
Stand at arm's length from a wall and put your hands flat on it at chest level. Keep your back straight and bend your elbows, keeping them by your sides, to bring your chest towards the wall, then press back. That's the NHS wall press-up.
The NHS suggests 3 sets of 5 to 10, at least twice a week, building the reps up slowly. Once that's easy, do 3 sets of 8 to 15, then move to a worktop or table.
Yes, as a start: the NHS teaches them in its home strength exercises, and older adults with walking difficulty mostly needed this version in one study. To keep getting stronger, make them harder over time.
At first, for many beginners and older adults. For most people they soon become too easy, so step your feet back, then move to a worktop, a table or a chest press machine. In older women, a wall push-up programme didn't add arm strength over a standard falls programme.
The chest, the front of the shoulders and the triceps, at a low load, with the serratus anterior holding your shoulder blades. It's the lightest push-up there is.
Step your feet further from the wall, lowering your hands so they stay level with your shoulders, and slow the lowering to 3 seconds. Then move to a worktop or table, once all 3 sets reach 15.
Nobody has measured how much of your weight a wall push-up puts on your hands. It's well under the roughly 64% of a floor push-up, so there's no fair conversion: work through the ladder instead.
Yes, at an easy effort, if your wrists, elbows and shoulders feel normal. In one study, a daily set of 10 slow reps starting at the wall improved push-up scores in 4 weeks.
If you already exercise, wall and incline push-ups are the push-up versions our guides suggest as your bump grows. The NHS advises against starting new vigorous exercise in pregnancy, so ask your midwife if you're unsure.
The British Heart Foundation advises avoiding exercises that use your whole body as the weight, such as press-ups. Wall push-ups with steady breathing are gentler, and its home routine includes them, but ask your heart team first.
NHS shoulder programmes start with them. Keep the pain to about 5 out of 10, settled by your next session, and leave out the extra push at the top if it pinches. Our shoulder pain from push-ups guide has a plan.
No study gives a date, and hospitals differ, so follow your surgical team's advice before pushing with your arms. Our heart surgery and breast cancer surgery guides cover the first weeks.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
