whats the purpose of first knuckle push ups?

i cant find much information regarding them like muscles used, proper form, progressions, where you should end up, etc.

what are they good for and why?

if you look at what you do your calves when you do a calve raise, a first knuckle pushup is esentially the same thing to the arm.

i dont know much about forearm anatomy. so thats about it.

They work and stretch the underside of your forearm as well as stretching the tendons and tint muscles in your hand. Acclimation to the pressure to prevent injury while building strength in a full ROM. So if you hyper extend the finger it won't jam. I'm not sure if you've ever jammed a finger before.....it's not fun. Swells in the joint. Makes it easier to jam again. You lose range of motion and last but not least a good deal of pain.

so what does full rom look like and how do i progress to there?  i saw that these are good for handstands so i wanted to start preping my hands.

90 degrees between the back of your fingers and the back of your hand. Try to keep your fingers all in a tight bundle, don't splay them out.

wow, i can only go 15 degrees right now.

what about the elbows?  mine like to turn in.  should i go with it or twist them out to get the pit forward?

Bipocni said:

90 degrees between the back of your fingers and the back of your hand. Try to keep your fingers all in a tight bundle, don't splay them out.

Well shit...I've been doing them wrong lol

did these again today with tight fingers and i noticed my elbows wanted to turn out this time.  still 15ish degree angle with my fingers, i cant imagine going a full 90 degrees.  my forearm feels like it will tear if i stretch it much more right now.

V3nom, Hang in there. I can do 90 degree with fingers in a tight bundle. Not too long ago I was just like you.

My recommendation is stretching you wrists 4-5 days a week. Only takes 5 minutes. Or less.

yeah i figured itd take some time.

just a simple wrist stretch or should i work on the fingers as well?

V3nom said:

yeah i figured itd take some time.

 

just a simple wrist stretch or should i work on the fingers as well?

i do the FKP position with both hands while warming up my wrists

Keilani Gutierrez said:

i do the FKP position with both hands while warming up my wrists

youll have to explain/show this position to me.

What I did was both stretch and work on my current rom. Stick to the same reps though. When you stretch, stretch it for more than 30 secs.

Just yesterday, while I was sitting in cross legged position (meditation), unconsciously I just put my hands together and started pressing them together, in front of my chest, and pressing up to first knuckle.  That could work as your just sitting or standing up and doing them for a time (anytime to practice it (as I practiced doing this as I wrote)) and just pressing your fingers together and periodically rotate the press from finger to finger (with all fingers are still together (especially the fingertips kept in place).  I hope that make sense.

all the exercises are basically a sort of modified PNF since you contract the muscles under elongation . this is one of the most useful for to improve the "cold-flexibility" and have more chance to develop solid active range of motion.

The first knuckle pushups works the first knuckles.  When you're doing handstands, the first knuckles are pressed down into the floor.  The FKP develops strength in the first knuckle's full ROM so that it doesn't get too tight from the handstand work

I realized for the first time the analogy between FKP and calf raises. Kelani also mentioned it above. Since I've been looking at FKP this way, I put more focus on the strenght it builds rather than the mobility. In my opinion this is exactly the strenght one needs to push the fingers down to counter overbalancing in the handstand. I have since switched to SE3 to build up more strenght even when I'm still just at around 70 degrees (and not the requird 90) and it has helped me a lot in holding my freestanding handstand longer.