Forearm angle during pushups

After seeing the feedback some people have gotten on HBP/PE2, I've made sure that my lower body stays tight, elbows stay in, and that my chest is hitting the floor. 

I noticed today that my forearm goes from perpendicular to the floor to about 30º when I'm at the bottom (see below). Should I focus on keeping it vertical to build the strength I'll eventually need for the PPP? 

I think the only way to keep your forearms vertical in the bottom position would be to have your hands right in front of your hips, which is not required for this progression.

I noticed a few things you could tweak on these.

Your hips are slightly piked try open them up.

Your lower back looks like it sags down a bit try to keep the hollow body position.

You need more protraction at the top of the push up and I think the idea is to try and maintain protraction as best you can thoughout the exercises but At the very least protract at the top.

Arm position seems fine.

Caner said:

I think the only way to keep your forearms vertical in the bottom position would be to have your hands right in front of your hips, which is not required for this progression.

I have to disagree here. Check the course video. To some extent this will be dependent on body proportions - for example if your upper arm is very long in relation to your lower arm it will be harder.

However, the biggest difference I see is in the level of protraction. Dillon maintains a lot more protraction at the bottom of the movement, which allows him to lower his shoulders closer to the ground. This allows his upper arm to be at a steeper angle and his lower arm vertical.

I may be being too picky here, but I think it's important to develop the full ROM at this stage before decreasing the leverage in the next progression.

KibboKift said:

I have to disagree here. Check the course video. To some extent this will be dependent on body proportions - for example if your upper arm is very long in relation to your lower arm it will be harder.

 

However, the biggest difference I see is in the level of protraction. Dillon maintains a lot more protraction at the bottom of the movement, which allows him to lower his shoulders closer to the ground. This allows his upper arm to be at a steeper angle and his lower arm vertical.

 

I may be being too picky here, but I think it's important to develop the full ROM at this stage before decreasing the leverage in the next progression.

I think you're being picky. Pushups are a box to tick and don't require this much detail IMO; get em done and apply the detail orientation training to PPP-- much better return on time/effort investment.

Jon Douglas said:

I think you're being picky. Pushups are a box to tick and don't require this much detail IMO; get em done and apply the detail orientation training to PPP-- much better return on time/effort investment.

Ok, my bad. Nice to hear the voice of experience here - could explain why I've been stuck on pushups for so long...

I'm thinking I can find a middle ground - work first on the stuff that ausswe mentioned, and keep working on making sure my chest hits the floor. I'm going to be on these for a long time because I've historically been pretty weak at push ups 

Coach or Zach mentioned somewhere that protraction at the bottom of a pushup is an oxymoron - You will naturally retract in that position. I think the key is to not let the retraction lead to arching in the back: Retract at the bottom ROM, but retain your hollow, and go back into protraction as soon as possible, and pause with full protraction at the top.