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Started by Hanlim Lee, December 29, 2014 · 12 Replies · 474 Views
Hi, everyone. I need some tips on push up.
Two problems. (may be they are related)
#1. I heard that I should tuck my chin in, but as I go down,
it seems impossible to not to lift my chin all the way up so not to hit the floor with my nose.
#2. Maintaining PPT is crucial but as I my chin goes up
my chest opens breaking solid core.
I tried squeezinig my glutes as hard as I can, but I got too stiff and too conscious about hips
to keep focused on doing push up.
What should I do? lol
Don't overthink it. It's just a push-up. Do your best to keep your body straight but don't break your nose or obsess about ppt.
I usually review the videos if I'm running into trouble. As Coach has said, "don't just read it...STUDY the foundation courses". If you study the video it don't look to me like the chin is tucked, his chin seems to be touching first. It is a simple movement yes, but there are many ways to perform it that will not help you to properly progress with the right musculature prepared. For other movements I've had issues with I have done what Coach has suggested in the past and that is to video yourself doing it and compare to the Foundation video example and go from there. Often has saved me time in asking for help when I can obviously see my mistakes....sometimes lol Just a suggestion.
sean said:I usually review the videos if I'm running into trouble. As Coach has said, "don't just read it...STUDY the foundation courses". If you study the video it don't look to me like the chin is tucked, his chin seems to be touching first. It is a simple movement yes, but there are many ways to perform it that will not help you to properly progress with the right musculature prepared. For other movements I've had issues with I have done what Coach has suggested in the past and that is to video yourself doing it and compare to the Foundation video example and go from there. Often has saved me time in asking for help when I can obviously see my mistakes....sometimes lol Just a suggestion.
I totally agree to your saying, it looks simple and is probably the most common and easily accessed workout of every man in this world,
but doing it right is another problem.
I wish the demo vid had more diverse angle so that I could see what muscle is stimulated.
I will video myself but I' m not sure I could fix my problem just watching side views of pro athlete.
Do you not what is the target muscle of push up?
with different hand width, and different degree of chest openness, it feel different.
sometimes back and lats, sometimes triceps, sometimes chest and abs.....
The pushup is the one exercise that I have been refining the most in my entire time I have been doing Foundations. Every time I "think" I got it all figured out, I discover yet something else that makes the pushup even harder for me.
Here's some things off the top of my head that may be helpful:
-I thought that for the scapula, protraction here is the most important. However, just as important is the scapula depression. Sometimes ago, every time I did a lot of reps, I would get bicep tendinitis the next few days. I found out it was because I was subconsciously keeping my scapula elevated. After I start telling myself to keep the scapula depressed, I stopped getting bicep tendinitis (long head of proximal tendon in shoulder).
-Posterior pelvic tilt is also the obvious part, however another thing I notices that causes my bicep tendinitis to act up is that, make sure you're actually in a good and neutral spinal position FIRST, before you go into a posterior pelvic tilt. Don't start PPT in a bad spinal position like I do (where I have forward head position and flat upper back). Related to this, mirrors help when you're doing a pushup to make sure that neither in the bottom or top position of pushups you're over-piked or over-sagged.
-If you've grinded pushups for reps to failure the amount of times that I have (grinding reps no good by the way), the correct muscles that would be inflamed for the next few days would be: triceps, tricep tendons, and pec minor. When I was elevating my scapula, I would also get inflamed in biceps tendons in the shoulder.
-The correct "hand placement" of the pushups is where at the very bottom of pushups position, your finger tips and nose would form an equilateral triangle. Don't do isosceles triangles! What you'll find if you try this placement, you'll find there is actually a lean at the top position of the pushups before you descend.
-By the way, when someone says shoulder directly under the wrist, take that extremely literally. Literally check and make sure your shoulder is directly underneath the wrists before you start pushups. That goes with many other exercises in Foundations. As a side note, a few months back I was looking at the videos of Foundations and I was surprised to see how many exercises had their feet completely together.
-Having the elbow tucked in is the obvious part, however the not so obvious (to me at least), is that at the bottom of the pushups, the forearm should be completely straight. I heard this cue many times before, however again, this is something I have always "heard" but "ignored" 
. Making sure the forearm is in a completely straight position maximizes the internal rotation of the shoulder at the bottom of the pushups. At the same time, at the top position of the pushups, try and point the elbows straight ahead (I'm not sure if fully straight ahead is possible), but hopefully you get what I mean. If the bottom position of forearm maximizes the shoulder internal rotation, then the top position with the elbow placement maximizes the shoulder external rotation
-I once saw a Facebook picture of a seminar where Coach Sommer was putting his fingers on someone who was about to do the dipping portion of the rings muscle-up. Coach was kind of like using his fingers to "push" his elbows. That was the "A-ha" moment for me, where I figured out that at the bottom of the dips, the forearm is also straight like a proper pushups.
-Make sure you're not actually doing a pushups halfway, a full ROM pushups is where chest lightly brushes the floor.
On 1/1/2015 at 8:21 PM, alan tseng said:The pushup is the one exercise that I have been refining the most in my entire time I have been doing Foundations. Every time I "think" I got it all figured out, I discover yet something else that makes the pushup even harder for me.
Here's some things off the top of my head that may be helpful:
-I thought that for the scapula, protraction here is the most important. However, just as important is the scapula depression. Sometimes ago, every time I did a lot of reps, I would get bicep tendinitis the next few days. I found out it was because I was subconsciously keeping my scapula elevated. After I start telling myself to keep the scapula depressed, I stopped getting bicep tendinitis (long head of proximal tendon in shoulder).
-Posterior pelvic tilt is also the obvious part, however another thing I notices that causes my bicep tendinitis to act up is that, make sure you're actually in a good and neutral spinal position FIRST, before you go into a posterior pelvic tilt. Don't start PPT in a bad spinal position like I do (where I have forward head position and flat upper back). Related to this, mirrors help when you're doing a pushup to make sure that neither in the bottom or top position of pushups you're over-piked or over-sagged.
-If you've grinded pushups for reps to failure the amount of times that I have (grinding reps no good by the way), the correct muscles that would be inflamed for the next few days would be: triceps, tricep tendons, and pec minor. When I was elevating my scapula, I would also get inflamed in biceps tendons in the shoulder.
-The correct "hand placement" of the pushups is where at the very bottom of pushups position, your finger tips and nose would form an equilateral triangle. Don't do isosceles triangles! What you'll find if you try this placement, you'll find there is actually a lean at the top position of the pushups before you descend.
-By the way, when someone says shoulder directly under the wrist, take that extremely literally. Literally check and make sure your shoulder is directly underneath the wrists before you start pushups. That goes with many other exercises in Foundations. As a side note, a few months back I was looking at the videos of Foundations and I was surprised to see how many exercises had their feet completely together.
-Having the elbow tucked in is the obvious part, however the not so obvious (to me at least), is that at the bottom of the pushups, the forearm should be completely straight. I heard this cue many times before, however again, this is something I have always "heard" but "ignored"
-I once saw a Facebook picture of a seminar where Coach Sommer was putting his fingers on someone who was about to do the dipping portion of the rings muscle-up. Coach was kind of like using his fingers to "push" his elbows. That was the "A-ha" moment for me, where I figured out that at the bottom of the dips, the forearm is also straight like a proper pushups.
-Make sure you're not actually doing a pushups halfway, a full ROM pushups is where chest lightly brushes the floor.
Post this in the wiki please, great stuff.
alan tseng said:-Having the elbow tucked in is the obvious part, however the not so obvious (to me at least), is that at the bottom of the pushups, the forearm should be completely straight. I heard this cue many times before, however again, this is something I have always "heard" but "ignored"
First of all thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review of the push up. But I've got a few questions:
I) What do you mean by keeping your forearm straight?
II) When you say to point the elbows straight ahead at the top of a pushup does it mean the same as pointing elbow pits ( the inside part of the elbows) forward?
This is what he means, this is from the course HBP PE 2. Review the video and pics to see what he is trying to say.
Second, yes he does mean the elbow "pits" but I'm not sure how far forward facing they need to be? The video does not show completely forward facing (at least how it looks to me) but I would imagine as long as the pits are not facing each other on the inside and you should be heading in the right direction. lol
oops tried posting a pic from the course but I guess thats a no no cause it didn't come through. I was trying to indicate the position in the last pic of HBP PE 2. As I said check out the video and pics its all there.....
alan tseng said:
-Having the elbow tucked in is the obvious part, however the not so obvious (to me at least), is that at the bottom of the pushups, the forearm should be completely straight. I heard this cue many times before, however again, this is something I have always "heard" but "ignored"
-I once saw a Facebook picture of a seminar where Coach Sommer was putting his fingers on someone who was about to do the dipping portion of the rings muscle-up. Coach was kind of like using his fingers to "push" his elbows. That was the "A-ha" moment for me, where I figured out that at the bottom of the dips, the forearm is also straight like a proper pushups.
Thanks for the good information.
But some part, I don't get what you mean on this part.
Would you please answer my question? I'm desperate.
what does 'keeping my forearm straight' means? is it like my elbows shall be kept close to the lats at the bottom position?
what does 'point the elbows straight ahead' means?
I think at the bottom shoulder rotates externally, if the front side of body is 'in' and back side is 'out'.
It's very confusing. I can't imagine their movement.
How can I at the same time make equilateral triangle with my hands and nose, and put my wrist right underneath the shoulder?
I think if I lean slightly my wrist is underneath my scapular, not shoulder.
where did coach Sommer put his fingers?
what 'pushing elbows' means locking elbows at the top position?
I think you're making this a little complicated...
Record yourself and see if you look like the athlete in the course, if in doubt post a form check video.
As for form:
Try and stay tight,
Squeeze your glutes,
Keep your elbows in,
Try and get your chest to the ground.
athleticandrey said:First of all thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review of the push up. But I've got a few questions:
I) What do you mean by keeping your forearm straight?
II) When you say to point the elbows straight ahead at the top of a pushup does it mean the same as pointing elbow pits ( the inside part of the elbows) forward?
By forearms straight I mean to keep it vertical. And yes I mean elbow pits forward (inside part)
Hanlim Lee said:Thanks for the good information.
But some part, I don't get what you mean on this part.
Would you please answer my question? I'm desperate.
what does 'keeping my forearm straight' means? is it like my elbows shall be kept close to the lats at the bottom position?
what does 'point the elbows straight ahead' means?
I think at the bottom shoulder rotates externally, if the front side of body is 'in' and back side is 'out'.
It's very confusing. I can't imagine their movement.
How can I at the same time make equilateral triangle with my hands and nose, and put my wrist right underneath the shoulder?
I think if I lean slightly my wrist is underneath my scapular, not shoulder.
where did coach Sommer put his fingers?
what 'pushing elbows' means locking elbows at the top position?
Forearm straight, I meant vertical , not tilting the forearm diagonally in any direction unintentionally. Before I was tilting it without realizing.
I mean the elbow pits, anatomically the elbow pits are anterior. They won't be 100% forward, but there is a little "forward" motion that you can still do that allows elbow to almost get them forward. I'm not really sure how to describe it, it's easier once you actually see it. This was something I picked up in seminar.
No in bottom, shoulder is internally rotated. Take a look at the video and the position of shoulder in bottom of the push-ups. Originally my shoulders did not do that motion completely, I had to cue myself to do that. That's why it's important for keeping forearms vertical (forearms help me get the motion).
I mean hands directly underneath shoulder. The most important part is the equilateral triangle, get that part right and the lean will naturally follow. This cue I picked up from a GB coach so the equilateral triangle is the most important cue most likely.
Coach put his hands behind the elbows, as a cue to try and keep his forearms vertical in the bottom of a dip in rings. Pushing motion is to keep forearm vertical