Protaction vs curling in Push ups.

Hi coaches and athletes,

I ve been working already for some pretty good time on push ups. My form was bad at the beginning and it was hard for me to take awareness of my body to keep the right form. My form has already passed the right check of some coaches. Nevertheless I m worried about one important detail. Let s take first all the technical points that I think I m sure about.  Correct me if I m wrong. Shoulders must be protacted and depressed at the top of the movement. Depression should be mantained throughout all the movement and protaction can be lost a bit at the bottom of it but just because it happens naturally, that means we should not retract them on purpose, actually is better to think on protacting them all the time. We must completely lock the elbows on top as well, and elbows should move close to the body. We must have PPT, not piking the hips and reach the floor with hips first, that means straight body line on the bottom position and also while pushing up. My only doubt is at the top position I ve seen many people curling (flexing) their upper spine, also myself. But with time practicing i ve filmed myself and realize i m only protacting but not curling. If I m not wrong protacting means spreading apart your shoulder blades, doesnt matter if with straight spine or curled. That makes a difference. It s not the same finishing on the top with straight body line that with hollow body. I remember curling when i was not yet enough aware but i feel the movement much better when I don t curl, but at the same time i was worried i was doing it wrong. Then i took a look to the videos and in the short one with the young athlete it s performed without curling and straight body line all the time. But in the Weasly video it seems like there is a bit of curl and hollow body and also on some check form videos. I ve filmed myseld using both executions but protaction remains the same or at least that is what i feel. I hope you all can clarify this for me.Thanks! :-)

7 hours ago, Antonio Alías Montoya said:

Hi coaches and athletes,

I ve been working already for some pretty good time on push ups. My form was bad at the beginning and it was hard for me to take awareness of my body to keep the right form. My form has already passed the right check of some coaches. Nevertheless I m worried about one important detail. Let s take first all the technical points that I think I m sure about.  Correct me if I m wrong. Shoulders must be protacted and depressed at the top of the movement. Depression should be mantained throughout all the movement and protaction can be lost a bit at the bottom of it but just because it happens naturally, that means we should not retract them on purpose, actually is better to think on protacting them all the time. We must completely lock the elbows on top as well, and elbows should move close to the body. We must have PPT, not piking the hips and reach the floor with hips first, that means straight body line on the bottom position and also while pushing up. My only doubt is at the top position I ve seen many people curling (flexing) their upper spine, also myself. But with time practicing i ve filmed myself and realize i m only protacting but not curling. If I m not wrong protacting means spreading apart your shoulder blades, doesnt matter if with straight spine or curled. That makes a difference. It s not the same finishing on the top with straight body line that with hollow body. I remember curling when i was not yet enough aware but i feel the movement much better when I don t curl, but at the same time i was worried i was doing it wrong. Then i took a look to the videos and in the short one with the young athlete it s performed without curling and straight body line all the time. But in the Weasly video it seems like there is a bit of curl and hollow body and also on some check form videos. I ve filmed myseld using both executions but protaction remains the same or at least that is what i feel. I hope you all can clarify this for me.Thanks! :-)

 

Hey Antonio,

That's an excellent observation.

You are correct on all the cues you have listed. And many people do confuse protraction with curling the spine.

The reason why some people seem to curl more during protraction is due to the length of the torso relative to their height.

In this case the hollow shape will look differently for different body types. For example someone with a longer torso will have a different shape than someone with a shorter torso. 

An easy cue I like to tell my clients is to spread the shoulders as wide as possible while lengthening their body as log as possible. This helps to eliminate the curling motion of the spine to maintain protraction.

Incororate these cues into your push up and you should feel your upper back widen rather than curl at the top of your push up.

 Thanks a lot Mikey. Then I m suppose to be doing things right.

1 hour ago, Mikey Cunanan said:

 

Great question, I thought about this very topic earlier but didn't get around to asking it!