man and woman doing push ups16-Day Push-Up Challenge

Knees to toes: How to become a toe push-up pro in 16 days.

By Emma Hogan for Fit Planet

Struggling to do push-ups on your toes? This 16-day push-up challenge will seriously strengthen your push-up game.

Thanks to new research we now know that, if you’re struggling to do push-ups on your toes, dropping to your knees is a highly effective alternative. However, that doesn’t mean knee push-ups should remain your status quo. Follow this 16-day push-up challenge and you’ll can safely progress from knee to toe push-ups in no time.

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Before you start:

Practice push-ups on your knees and make sure you’ve got the technique right. Remember a full range push-up is when you reach a 90° angle at your elbow. When you do half range push-ups you don’t drop down so deep.

CHECK OUT HOW TO MASTER YOUR TECHNIQUE

You can pick up some more in-depth technical advice here.

TIPS:

  • Take breaks whenever you need to, but aim to complete the day’s repetitions within a five-minute time frame.
  • Try to do your daily push-ups at the same time each day – as soon as you get up, right before bed, or at the beginning of your daily workout.

Check out some more pro tips here
The 16-day challenge:

  1. Day 1: 4 full-range push-ups on knees, 12 half range push-ups on knees
  2. Day 2: 6 full-range push-ups on knees, 10 half range push-ups on knees
  3. Day 3: 8 full-range push-ups on knees, 8 half range push-ups on knees
  4. Day 4: 10 full-range push-ups on knees, 6 half range push-ups on knees
  5. Day 5: 12 full-range push-ups on knees, 4 half range push-ups on knees
  6. Day 6: 14 full-range push-ups on knees, 2 half range push-ups on knees
  7. Day 7: 16 full-range push-ups on knees
  8. Day 8: 16 full-range push-ups on knees (try and do it a little faster than day 7)
  9. Day 9: 2 push-ups on toes, 14 push-ups on knees
  10. Day 10: 2 push-ups on toes, at least 14 push-ups on knees (more if you can)
  11. Day 11: 4 push-ups on toes, 12 push-ups on knees
  12. Day 12: 4 push-ups on toes, at least 12 push-ups on knees (more if you can)
  13. Day 13: 6 push-ups on toes, 10 push-ups on knees
  14. Day 14: 6 push-ups on toes, at least 10 push-ups on knees (more if you can)
  15. Day 15: 8 push-ups on toes, 8 push-ups on knees
  16. Day 16: 16 push-ups in total – as many as you can on your toes

This challenge was designed by Jinger Gottschall, PhD, an Associate Professor at Penn State University. Gottschall has led numerous studies into the effectiveness of various exercise regimes and works closely with Bryce Hastings, Les Mills Head of Research, to test all sorts of exercise programming. When it comes to getting the best results from the time you spend working out, this woman knows the way to go.

This piece originally appeared on lesmills.com.