Push-up progression

The push-up ladder starts with a plank, moves through incline push-ups, and builds to sets of full push-ups on the floor.

A full push-up keeps the body straight from shoulder to ankle, lowers until the elbows reach 90° or below, and locks out at the top. A rep with sagging or piked hips, or one that stays shallow, is named and not counted.

The steps

Each skill is a ladder of steps. Every step has a target — clean seconds for a hold, full-range reps for a set — and you move on when you hit it in one set.

1
Plank, 45 sTarget: 45 clean seconds in one set.Straight arms, wrists under shoulders, shoulder–hip–ankle in one line.
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2
Incline push-ups, 10Target: 10 full reps in one set.Hands on a bench or bar. Body straight, elbows to 90°, lock out at the top.
Check this step on camera
3
Push-ups, 10Target: 10 full reps in one set.Body straight, elbows to 90° or below, lock out at the top.
Check this step on camera
4
Push-ups, 20Target: 20 full reps in one set.Body straight, elbows to 90° or below, lock out at the top.
Check this step on camera

The targets are common coaching numbers, not a standard. The thresholds for “clean” are starting values, and they are written out on each page.

What counts as clean

Shoulder–hip–ankle straight, wrists under shoulders; elbows from locked to 90° or deeper.

Plank

Shoulder–hip–ankle straight, arms straight, wrists under the shoulders.
More than 35° off horizontal is not read as a plank at all (kneeling up, standing).
The line score starts at 100 and loses 1.25 points per degree the body is off the ideal shape; a second counts when the score is 75 or more — about 20° off in total.

Faults the camera names: “hips sagging”, “hips piked up”, “wrists not under shoulders”, “elbows bent”

Push-up reps

Every rep starts with the elbow (shoulder–elbow–wrist) at 155° or straighter.
It reaches 95° or less at the bottom.
And it returns to 155° or straighter before the next rep begins.
Through the whole rep the body line (shoulder–hip–ankle) bends no more than 20°.

Faults the camera names: “not deep enough — elbows above 90°”, “arms not locked out at the top”, “body not straight — hips out of line”

A fault is named on screen once it costs 8° or more. Reps that fall short are named and not counted.

Setting up the phone

Stand the phone on its side two or three metres away, looking at you from the side, whole body in frame. The pose model runs in the browser; the video never leaves the phone.

What it cannot see

One camera sees one side. It cannot see a handstand drifting towards or away from it, or one arm doing less than the other.
It needs the whole body in frame and reasonable light. When it cannot see a joint, it stops counting rather than guess.
The thresholds — how straight is straight — are starting values from the geometry of each position, not yet tuned against many athletes. Expect them to change.

Check step 1 on camera All progressions

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