Push-ups dialed down to build the base.
The higher the surface, the easier the rep. Keep your body straight the whole way.
Raising your hands onto a bench tilts your body and reduces the share of bodyweight your arms have to press, making this the smartest scaling of the push-up: the same chest-led pressing pattern, plank tension and all, just at a load you can own. The chest drives the press, with the triceps extending the elbows and the shoulders stabilising and assisting through the range. It earns its place as the bridge to full floor push-ups and a high-rep pump option long after you have got there.
High enough that you can do clean sets of 8 to 12 with a straight body. As that gets easy, find something lower: bench, box, step. Each drop in height adds load, walking you steadily down to the floor.
Both. They are the standard progression toward floor push-ups, but they also survive as a volume tool, a burnout after pressing, and a chest exercise that stays doable when you are wrecked. Easier does not mean useless.
Because the incline invites relaxing. Treat it like a full push-up: squeeze glutes, brace the trunk, straight line from head to heels. If the plank breaks at this height, that is your signal to master the position before going lower.
