Short answer: Start in a high plank and lower to the floor over three to five seconds while keeping your body rigid. Set your knees down to return to the top. Stop the set when you can no longer control the descent.
A negative push-up trains the eccentric, or lowering, phase. Most beginners can resist downward movement before they can press back up, making negatives a useful supplement to repeatable incline work.
Correct negative technique
Begin at the top, brace before moving and lower chest and hips together. Count slowly to three or five. Reach the floor gently, place knees down and reset rather than struggling through a broken press.
How negatives build strength
Eccentric contractions can tolerate relatively high force and provide practice through the full path. They are demanding, so more repetitions are not always better. Pair them with incline push-ups for full up-and-down training.
Progression to a full rep
Lengthen the descent, add a short pause near the bottom and use progressively lower inclines. Test a full rep after warming up every one or two weeks. The full sequence appears in the wall-to-floor progression.
Mistakes and soreness
Dropping through the final half, leading with the chest or doing too many slow reps can create excessive soreness. Keep the dose small and allow recovery between sessions.
Add 2–4 sets of 2–5 negatives after incline work, twice weekly. Rest 90–150 seconds between sets.
Make the lowering phase count too
RepSaga keeps your repeatable push-up work motivating while negative reps build strength behind the scenes.
Frequently asked
How slow should a negative push-up be?
Three to five seconds is a practical target if you can maintain alignment for the whole descent.
Can negatives alone build a full push-up?
They help, but combining them with incline push-ups trains both lowering and pressing phases.