Perfecting your Push-Ups: A Breakdown
Why is everyone so bullish on push-ups? Simple. It's a full body movement that requires no equipment. Talk about bang for your buck!
It's a great way to test and build up your upper body strength. A lot of people find it hard, it is essentially the pressing version of a chin up, but it's something that everyone can work on.
I'm breaking down the movement into all of its parts. Even if you have been doing them for years, it's a good opportunity to reset and ensure you are setting yourself up for success with every rep.
Never been able to complete a push up before? Never fear! Watch out for my beginner's variations article coming soon.
The Perfect Push Up
Setting up for Success
Set up is key! Take your time to position yourself deliberately. Hands, shoulders, hips and feet all need to be in the right spot.
Hands are flat on the floor with your fingers spread out. Think about them really connecting to the floor.
Wrists directly under the shoulders.
Arms straight, effectively in high plank position.
Shoulders directly over your wrists, which is just outside shoulder-width apart. Shoulder blades should be separated, a little bit rounded outwards.
Head and neck are neutral, chin slightly tucked.
Draw your belly button in towards your spine - this helps you with the next step.
Tilt your pelvis so that it's "tucked".
Squeeze your glutes and quads, which helps to keep your trunk solid.
Knees are slightly locked to help you keep tension along your body.
Toes and feet are straight up so that your foot isn't sloped towards the ground, but at a right angle to the ground.
The Movement
Lowering Down
As you lower your chest to the ground, think about your shoulders meeting your hands, rather than your chest meeting the floor.
Keep your elbows tucked into your body as much as you can, engaging your triceps. Yes, this is hard! Keeping them tucked stops you from accidentally internally rotating your shoulders as you go through the movement.
As you go down, your shoulder blades should naturally retract. Make sure your shoulders aren't ending up near your ears.
Getting back up
To get back to the top, Push away from the floor. Think about pushing the floor down rather than pushing your body up. Sounds weird but it really helps! When you think this way, you may find that you are engaging the movement differently. Brain/muscle connection here we come!
Getting tired in your set?
As you go through your set, keep everything in your trunk in tension - abs, pelvis, glutes, quads - as you go. Even take a moment at the top of the movement, especially once you get tired, to do a quick reset.
Another trick
The hardest part is keeping the torso tight, strong and neutral. When your lower back collapses, you lose the whole movement. A good trick is to think about your chest and shoulders going down a little before your hips do. You might end up with your bum in the air a bit, but stick with me, this will help you get perfect faster. You can see me doing this in my video. Your body needs to learn to stay engaged all the way.
When I see people not getting push-ups right at the gym, it often seems like they have just gotten into a wrong pattern from the beginning, not taking the time to set up properly, smashing out a set and not realising that they are not getting the most out of the movement or even putting themselves at risk.
So do yourself a favour and take the time to get it right. Keep your brain engaged with your body as you go. Try the trick of thinking you are pushing the floor down rather than your body up.
Keep an eye out for future push up articles and let me know how you go!
