You can make push-ups easier or harder by changing how you do them—like bending your knees or putting your hands on a raised surface—to match the same effort as lifting 40% of your max bench press weight, so you can still build strength without any gym equipment.

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Pro

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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

46

Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2017 Jun

The study showed that doing push-ups with knees on the ground (or hands elevated) to make them easier — just enough to feel like lifting 40% of your max bench press — worked just as well as actually doing light bench presses to build muscle and strength.

Contradicting (0)

0

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain

Score: 46

DOI: 10.1016/j.jesf.2017.06.003

Similar Assertions

If you're a young guy who's never lifted much before, doing push-ups and light bench presses until you can't do any more, twice a week for two months, will make you just as strong on the bench press as if you were lifting heavier weights — and you don't even need dumbbells or barbells.

46

0

82%

Doing push-ups with light weights until you can't do more doesn't make your biceps bigger, but doing the same kind of light-weight bench presses does — so your arms respond differently to these two exercises.

0

46

70%