For the classic pushup elbows in or out question, the answer for almost everyone is: tuck them partway in, to roughly a 45-degree angle relative to your torso — not flared straight out to 90 degrees, and not pinned tight to your ribs. The rationale most coaches work from is that keeping your upper arms well in from a straight-out flare spreads the work across your chest and triceps while keeping the shoulder joint in a safer position.
Pushup elbows in or out? Aim for the arrow, not the T
Picture your body from above at the bottom of a pushup. If your upper arms stick straight out to the sides so your body forms a capital T, your elbows are flared — that is the position that grinds on your shoulders. If your upper arms angle back toward your feet so your body looks more like an arrow (or a broad letter Y), your elbows are tucked. The 45-degree tuck lives right in the middle: elbows drift out from your sides, but they stay well in front of a straight-out flare.
So, should your elbows be tucked in or flared out during pushups? Tucked, but not maximally. A moderate 45-degree tuck is the default most coaches teach because it balances joint safety against pressing power. Pinning your elbows dead-straight against your ribs (a "military" pushup) is a legitimate variation that hammers the triceps, but it is harder and not necessary for general training. A wide 90-degree flare is the one position to avoid — it feels stable and lets you fake depth, but it is a common source of shoulder trouble in pushups.
What "the correct elbow angle" actually means
This trips people up because elbow angle can mean two different things, and they matter for different reasons:
- Flare angle — the angle between your upper arm and your torso, viewed from above. This is the one the whole debate is about. Target ~45 degrees (anywhere from about 30 to 60 is fine for most bodies).
- Bend angle — how far your elbow folds at the bottom of the rep, viewed from the side. For a full-range pushup this should reach at least ~90 degrees of bend so your chest drops to roughly a fist's height off the floor. If you never hit that, you are doing a half-rep regardless of how your elbows are pointed. (More on that in how low you should go in a pushup.)
Keep them separate in your head: the flare angle protects your shoulder, the bend angle earns the rep. You want a controlled 45-degree flare and a deep 90-degree bend on every rep. One cue that fixes both at once — at the bottom, your forearms should be roughly vertical, stacked over your wrists like two posts. If your forearms are angled, your hands are usually too far forward and your elbows are flaring to compensate.
Why flared elbows put your shoulders at risk
When your elbows flare to 90 degrees, your upper arm ends up abducted (out to the side) and internally rotated at the same time. That combination is widely thought to narrow the space where your rotator-cuff tendons pass under the top of the shoulder blade, and repeatedly loading it under bodyweight is often blamed for impingement-type and front-of-shoulder pain. Tucking to 45 degrees rotates the arm into a stronger, more open position where the big pressing muscles do more of the work. .
This is not a "you will get injured tomorrow" warning — plenty of people flare for years and feel fine. But if you already get a pinch at the top-front of your shoulder during pushups, elbow flare is the first thing to fix. As always, stop the set if you feel sharp joint pain rather than normal muscle fatigue, and see a qualified professional if it lingers.
Why your elbows hurt when you do pushups
Why do my elbows hurt when I do pushups? Elbow pain (as opposed to shoulder pain) usually traces back to one of a few things, and most are easy to correct:
- Snapping into a hard lockout. Punching the elbow straight and hyperextending it at the top jams the joint. Lock out to straight, but do it smoothly and stop at straight — don't slam past it.
- Hands too far forward. This forces the elbows to flare and shifts more stress onto the joint. Set your hands under your shoulders to upper chest, not up by your head.
- Fast, bouncy reps. Rushing the descent spikes force through the elbow and forearm tendons. A controlled tempo (about two seconds down) settles it down.
- Too much volume, too soon. Tendons tend to adapt more slowly than muscles, so a sudden jump in daily reps can irritate the elbow before your muscles even feel worked.
- Wrist and hand position. A cranked-back wrist can transmit strain up the forearm to the elbow. If your wrists also complain, work through the fixes for wrist pain during pushups — they often clear up elbow aches too.
Do tucked elbows make pushups harder?
Yes — generally, tucking your elbows makes pushups harder. The tighter you tuck, the more the triceps take over and the more range the movement tends to demand, so the rep asks more of you. A 90-degree flare shortens the range your chest has to move through and lets bigger chest muscles dominate, which is a big part of why it feels "easier" and why so many people default to it. That easy feeling is the trap: you are trading long-term shoulder comfort for a few cheap reps.
The 45-degree tuck is the compromise that keeps chest heavily involved while still loading the triceps and sparing the shoulder. Here is how the three positions generally stack up:
| Elbow position | Shoulder stress | Chest vs triceps | Difficulty | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flared ~90° (the "T") | Higher | Chest-dominant | Feels easiest | Avoid — cheats depth, stresses the shoulder |
| Tucked ~45° (the "arrow") | Lower | Balanced chest + triceps | Moderate | The default for almost everyone |
| Pinned ~0–20° (elbows to ribs) | Lower | Triceps-dominant | Hardest | Triceps emphasis, close/diamond work |
Hand width and elbow flare are linked, so how you set your hands nudges your elbows automatically. Wider hands tend to flare the elbows; narrower hands tuck them. If you want to steer your training toward chest or triceps on purpose, the diamond vs wide pushup breakdown shows how the two ends of that spectrum split the work.
How to dial in your elbow position on every rep
Run this quick checklist at the start of a set until the 45-degree tuck becomes automatic:
- Set your hands under your shoulders, roughly shoulder-width or a touch wider — not up by your head.
- "Screw" your hands into the floor, as if turning them outward. This externally rotates your shoulders and naturally pulls your elbows into the tuck.
- Lead with your chest, not your face. Your sternum should be the lowest point that travels down, which keeps the elbows tracking back at 45.
- Check your forearms at the bottom — they should be vertical, elbows roughly over wrists.
- Descend under control (about two seconds) and press back to a smooth, non-jarring lockout.
The real friction is that you cannot see your own elbows mid-rep, and once you fatigue, they flare without you noticing — so the reps you most want to be strict are the ones that quietly fall apart. A tool that watches for you closes that gap. Pushup RPG uses your phone's front camera and on-device pose detection to count reps, and because it only registers full-range reps and measures depth and cadence, the flared, shallow reps you'd normally get away with don't count as clean. Every rep in your history is one you actually earned, so strict form and your XP and progression finally point in the same direction instead of fighting each other. (Nothing leaves your device — the camera work happens locally.) .
Fix the flare once and it pays off on every pushup you do afterward: less shoulder wear, more honest chest-and-triceps work, and reps that actually build the strength you are training for.
