What happens if I do push-ups every day?

If you do push-ups every day, you'll get noticeably better at push-ups, and you'll build some endurance and a little muscle in your chest, shoulders and triceps. For most healthy people it's fine as long as you keep the volume moderate and stop short of failure. The main risk is overuse in the shoulders, elbows and wrists.

Your body adapts to what you repeat. Push-ups are a skill as well as a strength exercise, so frequent practice improves your form and your count quickly, especially in the first few weeks.

What you can expect

• Your max reps go up, often fast in the first month
• Better endurance in the chest, shoulders, triceps and core
• Some muscle growth if you're new to training, less once you're used to it
• Not much change in the rest of your body

Push-ups don't work your legs or your back, so a daily push-up habit on its own leaves big gaps. You'd still want squats or lunges, and some pulling, such as rows or pull-ups.

How to do it without wrecking yourself

Daily works best when most days are easy. A rough pattern:

1. Pick a number you can do in 2 to 3 sets without getting close to failure, like 3 sets of 10 if your max is 20
2. Do that every day, at any time
3. Once a week, add a rep or a set
4. Go close to failure only two or three days a week

Hard, fatiguing sessions every day don't give your muscles and tendons time to recover. Tendons adapt more slowly than muscle, so elbow and shoulder soreness tends to show up before you feel weak.

For the days you do go close to failure, League of Fitness has live 60-second push-up races against a real opponent, with the phone camera counting your reps, plus a solo Max mode for a personal best. The reps count as a workout for the day, which makes a daily push-up habit more fun to keep up.

Signs to back off

• Pain in your elbows, wrists or the front of your shoulders that lasts into the next day
• Reps getting worse over a week, not better
• Sharp or pinching pain at any point

If that happens, take a few days off and switch to an easier version. If the pain doesn't go away, a doctor or physical therapist can check it.

Is it better than a normal plan?

It's a good starter habit. Because it takes two minutes, it's easy to keep, and I think that counts for a lot. But once you want to keep improving, three or four varied sessions a week will do more than a daily set of the same exercise. See how to do more push-ups for a structured way to progress.