BIP.

Exercise library · Chest

Banded push-up

Horizontal press for the chest with a resistance band.

How to do it

1 of 3

Band across your upper back

  1. Starting position

    Place the band across your upper back, pin the ends under your palms, and start in a plank with wide hands.

  2. The movement

    Lower your chest toward the floor with your body straight, then press up against the band's resistance.

Most common mistake

Don't place the band across your neck, keep it over your upper back and secure the ends under your hands.

Watch the video larger →

Muscle group
Chest
Equipment
Resistance band
Where
Home or gym
Logged as
Reps

Muscles worked

Your chest does most of the work, with your triceps and shoulders helping, but the band changes where the push-up is hardest. At the bottom the band is almost slack, and the higher you press, the more it stretches. The top, where a standard push-up is easiest, therefore becomes the hardest part. Your triceps, which straighten your arms over the last stretch, usually feel this the most. Your trunk also has to keep your body straight against more resistance than usual.

Common mistakes

  • The band is too strong. If you cannot get up to nearly straight arms, the band has taken over. Switch to a lighter band and do the full movement.
  • The band pulls unevenly. If the band sits off to one side of your back, it pulls harder there. Place the middle of the band across the centre of your upper back, with equal lengths down to each hand, before you get into the plank.
  • The band is worn. A band with small tears or white, cracked patches can snap mid-set, close to your head. Check the band before you start and replace it if it looks worn.

Variations and alternatives

  • Push-ups without a band are the base exercise and give you a benchmark to compare against.
  • Decline push-ups raise the difficulty without a band, with your feet higher than your hands.
  • The standing band chest press anchors the band behind you instead, if you would rather stay off the floor.
  • The bench press when you have access to a gym and want to progress in exact kilos.

Sets and reps

For muscle, three or four sets of 6 to 12 reps work well, and for endurance, 12 to 20 with a lighter band. Really heavy sets are hard to achieve, as a band only gives so much resistance, so leave maximal strength to other exercises. Approaches for different goals are set out in sets and reps.

You cannot read a band in kilos. Note the band's colour or thickness and how you held it, so you can repeat the same set next time. Then move on in small steps: more reps with the same band, then a stronger band or two bands at once. That is progressive overload with rubber bands as the resistance.

Also called

  • banded push up

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

Want it in a programme?

Tell BIP your goal and your equipment, and BIP builds a week with sets, reps and rest worked out. You log your weights as you train and watch yourself get stronger. The first week is free.

Create a programme →