A push is a force that moves an object away from you, and a pull is a force that moves an object toward you. Every force in the universe is fundamentally one or the other. This simple concept underpins everything from how physicists describe motion to how fitness trainers organize workouts. Depending on what brought you here, you might be looking for the physics definition, the workout meaning, or both.
Push and Pull in Physics
In physics, force is defined as any interaction that changes the motion of an object. That interaction always takes one of two forms: a push or a pull. When you press your hands against a wall, you’re applying a push force. When you tug a door open, you’re applying a pull force. If the force moves something away from you, it’s a push. If it brings something closer, it’s a pull.
Forces don’t just start motion. They can also stop it, speed it up, slow it down, or change its direction. A goalkeeper catching a soccer ball applies a pull-like force to stop the ball’s motion. A bowler releasing a ball applies a push to set it moving. In every case, two objects are interacting: the one applying the force and the one receiving it.
Force is measured in newtons (abbreviated N), named after Isaac Newton. It’s calculated by multiplying an object’s mass by its acceleration. A heavier object or a faster acceleration requires more force, which means a harder push or pull. Force is also a vector, meaning it has both a strength (magnitude) and a direction. Pushing a shopping cart north is a different force than pushing it east, even if you push equally hard both times.
Contact vs. Non-Contact Forces
Most pushes and pulls you encounter in daily life are contact forces, meaning two objects physically touch each other. Friction is a contact force: when a box slides down a ramp, friction pushes back against its motion. Air resistance is another, acting as a push against anything moving through air (think of a skydiver feeling wind pressure). Tension is the pull force you feel in a rope during tug-of-war.
Non-contact forces work without physical touch. Gravity constantly pulls you toward Earth’s center. A magnet can pull a paperclip across a table or push another magnet away without ever touching it. These are still pushes and pulls, just ones that act across a distance.
Push and Pull in Fitness
In the gym, “push and pull” refers to a way of categorizing exercises based on which direction your muscles are working against resistance. Push exercises involve pressing weight away from your body. Pull exercises involve drawing weight toward your body. This distinction maps neatly onto specific muscle groups, which is why it’s become one of the most popular ways to organize a training program.
Push muscles include your chest, shoulders, and triceps. These are the muscles that fire when you press a barbell overhead, do a push-up, or extend your arms in front of you. Common push exercises include the shoulder press, chest press, triceps pushdowns, and lateral raises.
Pull muscles include your back, biceps, and forearms. These muscles engage when you row a weight toward your torso, do a pull-up, or curl a dumbbell. Common pull exercises include bent-over rows, cable pulldowns, bicep curls, and shrugs.
Why Push-Pull Training Works
The push-pull split (often extended to push-pull-legs, adding a dedicated leg day) is considered one of the most efficient ways to structure resistance training. Because push exercises naturally recruit the same group of muscles, training them together in a single session means each exercise warms you up for the next. A shoulder press pre-fatigues your triceps, so when you move to a triceps-focused exercise, those muscles are already activated and need fewer warm-up sets.
The recovery advantage is just as important. When you train all your push muscles on one day, your pull muscles are resting completely. By the time your next push day comes around, those muscles have had a full recovery window. Most other training splits create more overlap between sessions, meaning a muscle group might get partially worked two days in a row without adequate rest. The push-pull structure minimizes that problem.
A typical week might look like push on day one, pull on day two, legs on day three, then a rest day before repeating. This lets you hit each muscle group twice per week, which is a well-supported frequency for building strength and size.
How Your Muscles Actually Move
Here’s something that surprises most people: your muscles can only pull. They cannot push. Every skeletal muscle works by contracting, which shortens the muscle and pulls the bone it’s attached to. When you do a “push-up,” your chest and triceps are actually pulling your upper arm bones toward each other and straightening your elbows, which produces the pushing motion at your hands.
This is why muscles work in opposing pairs. Your biceps pull your forearm up (bending the elbow), and your triceps pull it back down (straightening the elbow). Your quadriceps straighten the knee while your hamstrings bend it. When one muscle in the pair contracts to create movement, the opposing muscle relaxes to allow it, then activates to control or reverse the motion. These roles swap depending on the direction you’re moving, so the same muscle can be the primary mover in one exercise and the braking force in another.