Yes, the push-up. For a few reasons: One, far too many people push-up like wankers; Two, there is a ridiculous potential for variety; and Three, I didn't have time to get all the photos and video done for the contralateral 1-leg kettlebell bent row on the BOSU.

The Basic Up

There are three primary points for a non-wankish push-up. First, the body must remain stable and rigid. That means no sagging, piking, or unloading the arms by doing that weird yoga worm thing. Second, the elbows should track back along the sides of the body instead of driving away. They don't need to be in contact with the sides necessarily, but definitely within 45 degrees. Finally, the push-up needs to be performed through a full range of motion. In certain circumstances, the ROM may be limited for a number of potential reasons such as temporary scaling, but as we'll talk about soon, there are better ways to scale a push-up. For the basic push-up, full range of motion means the elbows begin completely extended (not almost extended—extended) and the scapula protracted (push the shoulders toward the floor)—at the bottom, the nose and chest should both touch the floor (not rest on the floor—just touch lightly). Well-endowed women may find getting the nose to the floor—in this case I suggest digging a strategically placed hole in the ground. For other variations, full range of motion will look a little different, but should essentially boil down to not being lame and going as far as is anatomically possible.

Scaling the Push-up

As basic a movement as it is, a full push-up is out of reach for many, particularly untrained women. The easiest thing to do is never make your upper-body-pushing-strength-development-challenged clients perform push-ups, but of course, that would be both lame and irresponsible. Instead, learn to appropriately scale the movement to match current ability and to progress wisely as strength improves.

As is the case with any bodyweight based movement, scaling down involves simply shortening the resistance lever length. With a push-up, there are essentially two options: moving the fulcrum of the lever from the feet to the knees (i.e. girly push-ups), or elevating the hands. Both because often even push-ups from the knees are too difficult and because I want to work on maintaining full-body posture, I prefer elevating the hands and keeping the fulcrum at the feet.

The number of implements that can be employed to elevate the hands are essentially limitless and based more on availability and personal preference than superiority. One important consideration, however, is allowance for the head to travel past the location of hand placement. For example, very upright push-ups against a wall will work, but as the angle of the body is decreased, the range of motion is limited by the collision of the head into the wall as well as the inability to keep the hands from sliding. For this reason, I prefer setting a bar on a power rack (or even a Smith machine if for some completely indefensible reason you're around one). This will allow easy level changes with no movement interruption. Benches, boxes, chairs and the like will also work, but offer limited options for height adjustment.

Scaled Push-up
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Scaling up is simply a matter of placing progressively more load on the arms. One option is to actually make the body heavier by wearing a weight vest, backpack or placing a plate, person or other weighted implement on your back. This can also be achieved by elevating the feet just as you would the hands. The only difference is that to preserve full range of motion, the hands must be elevated to an extent as well to allow the head room to travel. This can be achieved by using boxes, cinder blocks or anything else both stable and sturdy. Eventually this foot elevation will become a handstand push-up against a wall, and finally a free-standing handstand push-up.

Variations

As I mentioned previously, the amount of possible variation with the push-up is extensive and by no means will I be able to cover all variations here. But following are a few good ones.

Tiger Bend Push-up

The tiger bend push-up starts off with the forearms resting on the floor. Drive up onto the hands and return.

Triangle Push-up

AKA diamond push-up depending on how you spread your hands. Bring the hands together so the index fingers and thumbs are touching each other at their tips. Push-up as usual.

Pike Push-up

From a standard push-up position, walk the feet up closer to the hands, bending only at the hips, keeping the back and legs straight. Maintaining a full range of motion will require elevating the hands on blocks to give the head somewhere to go. Of course elevate the feet to increase difficulty. These can be used in the early stages of progressing to the handstand push-up.

Clapping Push-up

The clapping push-up simply requires pushing explosively enough to get the hands off the floor for long enough to clap and replace. As your AKP increases, try adding more than one clap, clapping behind the back, or combining front and back claps. When your AKP reaches the level of Ross Enamait's, you'll be able to clap in the front, back and front again before landing.

Depth Push-up

Start with the hands elevated on a box, medicine ball or the like and arms fully extended. Drop the hands to the floor, absorb the drop as much as necessary and immediately explode back up to the platform on which you started. This is one instance in which full range of motion can be ignored—instead, the idea is to transition from eccentric to concentric as quickly and powerfully as possible.

Hand Swap Push-up

Begin with one hand elevated on a box, medicine ball, or other platform that isn't excessively wide. Perform an explosive push-up and switch the hands—that is, move the hand that was on the floor to the platform and the hand that was elevated to the floor, pivoting on the feet. Make sure whatever platform you use is stable enough that it won't unexpectedly shift when you land on it and sprain your wrist.

Ring Push-up

Ring push-ups are an excellent way to both increase possible range of motion and add some more stabilization demand to the equation. Like any other push-up, the higher the rings are relative to the feet, the easier the movement will be.

Oh-Susie

AKA dive-bomber push-up, but since Oh-Susie is rife with blatant sexual innuendo, it's the preferred name. Begin in a piked push-up position. Scoop the face down to the floor between the hands, keeping it as low as possible while bringing the chest through, and finish with arms fully extended and hips just off the floor. Return directly to the starting position or increase AKP by reversing the motion to return.

T-Push-up

Perform a standard push-up. Once you reach the top again, extend one arm to your side and rotate the torso until your chest is facing the wall and return to the top of the push-up. Holding a dumbbell or kettlebell will add some flavor.

Renegade Row

This is simply a push-up performed on dumbbells or kettlebells, one of which is rowed after each push-up rep. Watch your surface and implement and don't be stupid—a suddenly rolling dumbbell or kettlebell will fudge up a wrist quite well.

Extra Variation

The variations above can be further varied in numerous ways such as placing the hands on different platforms, e.g. a medicine ball (or a BOSU if you want to get beaten up), staying on the fingertips or the fists, or using only one arm.