Something very wrong with pushup form, can't tell what it is.

Hi all, 

something's always been off about my pushups, I just can't tell what it is. Can you please help? 

I see piking of hips (which i have no idea how to get rid of unless I lean forward at the very bottom of the movement). 

The main issue I have is that my pushups look like they're predominantly a triceps exercise, because for some reason the elbows shoot way back during descent and yeah.. (I find that I can reduce this by retracting as soon as I begin the eccentric portion). 

Please check my form (each vid has 1 set of trying to maintain protraction, the second set retract scaps as soon as descending): 

angle 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqqOEq4AZaM&feature=youtu.be

angle 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP8v2qGGnbw&feature=youtu.be

Thanks for the help.

Bro other than your hips piking a bit, you have perfect form. That's how pushups suppose to look like. Flaring your elbows outward can cause shoulder issues as it goes against the natural full range of motion that you show here of keeping elbows in while fully extending your arms.

Push ups are supposed to target the triceps more than your chest. To get rid of the hip pike you need to hold your pelvis tilts rearward.  AKA: Posterior Pelvic Tilt

Start your push ups at the bottom position. Doing so will help you place your hands as close to shoulder width as you can get.

The first set in both videos is what you are looking to do. Do your best to keep your scapula depressed through out the range of motion and protract your scapula as much as possible at the top of your push ups.

OK thanks guys for reassuring me on the matter. 

I checked my form again today and it was a bit better than the one shown on the videos. Still struggling with the hip pike though. It's because it naturally happens if you make the head go in a straight line vertically downwards, so I'll just move a little forward at the bottom. 

I find that the more protracted I make the scapula, the more it becomes a triceps intensive exercise. Do you experience the same thing?

Thanks again. 

One thing I do now is to do the pushups with toes pointed. This, coupled with squeezing the butt pretty much removed the piking in my pushup. This does put more of your weight on the upper body, as you can't use your legs as much. So the pushup might be a tiny bit more difficult. 

Regarding the shoulder protraction, I'm not sure if this is the right thing, by gymnastics stands, but it's what I like to do: I protract at the top of the pushup, and when descending, I let the shoulders follow their natural movement. At the bottom of the pushup, I'm almost fully retracted. All I make sure is that my shoulders don't get rounded. I'm not sure about the level of intensity on different muscles though. I don't pay attention to that.

ForzaCavaliere said:

I find that the more protracted I make the scapula, the more it becomes a triceps intensive exercise. Do you experience the same thing?

 

Thanks again. 

Push ups, in general, are supposed to target the triceps more than your chest.

GoldenEagle said:

Push ups, in general, are supposed to target the triceps more than your chest.

Yeah I noticed it the first time you pointed it out lol. 

Umm I know it seems like I don't get it, but it's kind of hard to explain I think. Like, the reason I keep asking is that when I do my pushups it feels very similar to triceps extensions. I always thought the pushup should look like you are delivering simultaneous straights (boxing punches) into the ground, as opposed to holding the upper arms in generally the same place while extending the lower arms. I don't know if it's right for that to occur.

SM3091 said:

One thing I do now is to do the pushups with toes pointed. This, coupled with squeezing the butt pretty much removed the piking in my pushup. This does put more of your weight on the upper body, as you can't use your legs as much. So the pushup might be a tiny bit more difficult. 

 

Regarding the shoulder protraction, I'm not sure if this is the right thing, by gymnastics stands, but it's what I like to do: I protract at the top of the pushup, and when descending, I let the shoulders follow their natural movement. At the bottom of the pushup, I'm almost fully retracted. All I make sure is that my shoulders don't get rounded. I'm not sure about the level of intensity on different muscles though. I don't pay attention to that.

Thanks for the tips on eliminating the pike! 

I would've agreed with you on the shoulder protraction part a few months ago. But as you can see GoldenEagle here says to try to maintain protraction. Well, it's not just GoldenEagle. I posted on a thread a while back saying to be fully retracted at the bottom, but Coach Sommer said to try maintain full protraction the whole way through.

SM3091 said:

One thing I do now is to do the pushups with toes pointed. This, coupled with squeezing the butt pretty much removed the piking in my pushup. This does put more of your weight on the upper body, as you can't use your legs as much. So the pushup might be a tiny bit more difficult. 

 

Regarding the shoulder protraction, I'm not sure if this is the right thing, by gymnastics stands, but it's what I like to do: I protract at the top of the pushup, and when descending, I let the shoulders follow their natural movement. At the bottom of the pushup, I'm almost fully retracted. All I make sure is that my shoulders don't get rounded. I'm not sure about the level of intensity on different muscles though. I don't pay attention to that.

Hmm, I try to hold protraction all the way down. It naturally fades of course as you are going down, but I try to keep it as much a possible

How tall are you?  I ask because it seems to me that your butt is too high in the air. But that could be because you are tall and have long arms.

But I am not a trainer though so I could be off here.

Hi progress_one, 

I'm 5'11", and my arm are quite long. Though I wonder if that has anything to do with my butt sticking out lol. I believe that issue has more to do with the lack of PPT as someone else pointed out. Still trying to work on form though.

In the Army, "good" pushups are not changed by body size.  You look pretty good, apart from the piking, which will be helped with more tension in your glutes and core.

One minor issue is your neck: Aim your nose at the ground, not your chin.

Another: I like the way your fingertips dig into the floor, rather than having flat palms down.  However, if you imagine you are rotating your hands outward you will be able to engage your lats better.  I'm not knowledgeable enough to explain why that works, but it makes a huge difference.

How hard do you squeeze your glutes? This should take care of the piking.

I also have long arms for my height (positive ape index) and have had similar issues in the past. It really looks to me that you have your hands too far back and not directly underneath your shoulders. Instead your fingertips are lined up under your shoulders and this is promoting you to pike so as not to fall forward on your decent.

Try moving your hands forward about one hand-length so that in the first video your wrists are directly underneath your shoulders instead of your finger tips. Starting at the bottom is a good way to set this form up like Rayne-William mentioned. This will give you a nice perpendicular arm line at the top of your push up and should help you in lowering the butt. Combine this with everything that others have said about glutes etc and I'm fairly certain it will feel a lot better.

Post back if it helped or made it worse, I am very curious.