Hand position during HBP/PE2

Just wanted to double check something here.

When I did pushups before, I would always focus on having my hands directly under my shoulders for the whole rep.  In the demonstration video, it seems like the athlete has his fingertips in line with the bottom of his delts at the bottom of the movement, which is very out of line with the way I was always taught to do pushups.

So should I be doing the pushups with the same forward lean at the bottom of the rep as in the demonstration?  Or should I focus on moving directly up and down with no lean?  I always assumed that moving back and forth during a pushup was incorrect...

The forawrd lean happens if you have slightly depressed scapulae and if you begin the movement with a Scap Shrug-ish movement. Keeping your forearms vertical will help with this a lot.

The forward lean is necessary if you perform the movement with vertical forearms.  If you look at the demonstration video, at the top of the movement the athletes hands are directly underneath his shoulders.  At the bottom, his forearms are vertical and his hands are in front of the shoulders, rather than directly above them.

So by necessity, he has moved forward somewhat, rather than directly up and down.

Bipocni said:

The forward lean is necessary if you perform the movement with vertical forearms.  If you look at the demonstration video, at the top of the movement the athletes hands are directly underneath his shoulders.  At the bottom, his forearms are vertical and his hands are in front of the shoulders, rather than directly above them.

 

So by necessity, he has moved forward somewhat, rather than directly up and down.

You cannot move the shoulders directly up and down without moving the feet. If you keep the body straight, and your feet in one place, the horizontal position of your shoulders will move (if you had long enough arms, you could continue until standing, at which point your shoulders would be directly over your feet). As far as I recall, Coach stressed several time in BTGB that the shoulders should be just in front of your hands (meaning further away from the feet than the hands) in the bottom position.

Or am I completely misunderstanding your concern?

Zach Armijo said:

Guys....it's a pushup. Keep it simple, master what is required and move on. Lets not turn this into another Hinge Row thread.

Ha ha, point taken.