Viewing elevated Push ups as weighted mobility

Hey guys,

I want to share a mindset that helped me greatly improving my push up work and would be interested what you think about it. 

When starting Foundation I tried tor rush through elevated push ups, thinking that their intensity is too low and wanting to get to the sexy floor and pseudo planche push ups. As a result I often stagnated doing floor push ups once the volume picked up later in the cycle.

At some point I realised that it might not be my strength that is limiting in floor push ups, but actually my mobility. When I did elevated push ups I actually felt a strong stretch in the shoulders in the very bottom position, which made it harder to maintain strong protraction. In addition the internal rotation (I mean squeezing my right hand clockwise and my left hand anticlockwise while descending) felt a bit stiff and not 100% smooth. It felt similar when doing Jefferson curls for the first time, when parts of your spine might click a bit or even cramp up slightly even at very low weights.

As a result I went back to elevated push ups and still am right now. I am focusing now on perfect technique, really maximising on the bottom position while maintaining protraction, and trying to consciously and smoothly internally rotate on the way down. I have been doing this for a few months now and my elevated push ups keep feeling better and smoother.

While I can do the 5x15r elevated push ups with decent technique, I still feel like there is lots of potential in improving the feel of the descend as well as the bottom position. Especially when placing the hands at exactly shoulder width smooth internal rotation on the way down becomes more challenging. 

I am writing down this experience as push ups seem to be causing a lot of Foundation beginners a lot of headache. Thinking of it as a weighted mobility exercise let me to see the great potential of improving this exercise and also made working on them much more enjoyable. Especially if your are taller and heavier athlete (I am 1.84m at 93kg without too much fat), elevated push ups have a high potential for setting a solid base for your later floor push up work.

Similarly I think of Hinge rows as weighted external shoulder rotation mobility, and of elevated rows as weighted retraction mobility work at the top position. 

I am interested if you had similar experiences with elevated push ups in terms of mobility deficits and whether viewing them as weighted mobility work actually makes sense. 

Greetings from Spain,

Felix

Hi Felix,

Well, to my mind, mobility is mobility and what you're doing, I think, is more intense strength work rather than mobility element because you're basically doing the same push up just with the added weight. So if you are interested in revealing your shoulders mobility deficits, have a look at the later HBP iMs as well as HS1 iMs, as well as TBs. While I don't underestimate your efforts in excelling in GST but I think you're making it more complicated than it should be

Felix, it makes sense. You can't go deep into a push-up unless you have the shoulder mobility to do it correctly. In my case, my shoulder mob is pretty good, but my strength is lacking (improving tho, but not enough). You kinda need both: strengthing in the applicable ROM.

Saludos!

Felix I never thought of push-ups as weighted mobility but you make a really good point whatever you want to call it. Early this summer I started foundation from the very beginning as I was kitesurfing a lot and didn't want to be fatigued all the time. That meant I started elevated push-ups from the very beginning knee high. I have tried to focous on form and consistently. I have been pleasantly surprised with how my strength has progressed and also my kite surfing. I agree that perfecting the form has really been been beneficial and for me also being very consistent with my workouts has led to progress. So I guess it goes back to setting aside the ego and working where you are at realistically. Good luck.