2 general push ups questions

Hi guys,

In the exercise video the person is 'standing on the toes', in the following video the toes are pointed.

Which way should be preferred?

Also I am curious if 'diamond push ups' are something worth doing. Didn't see them in the Foundation 1 but see many people doing them in the gym where I train.

Hi @Michael Vetter,

First of all, this is a pseudo planche pushup, a more advanced variation of the regular one.  I would say pointing the toes adds a difficulty by simulating a straight planche.

The diamond pushups are a more advanced progression.  I would recommend you to, at least master the pushups and maybe some other progressions before going there.  The coaches could be more precise than me on this.

Hope it helps

Hi @Étienne Lajeunesse

Yeah I saw that its pseudo plance pushup (I skim through the to-come exercises from time to time :-) ), but still wondered if it makes sense to have toes pointed in normal pushups.

Also guessed that diamond pushups are advanced progression. But still not clear if they are good to do, give me something I need.

Doing them is no problem.

Hi @Michael Vetter I remember reading or listening to Coach Sommer some where saying: forget about other push up variation, just work on regular push ups and pseudo planche, that s all you need. Diamond push ups are not any advance progression, the are not part of gst. There are thousand of push ups inventions out there, but the people who train them generally can t do with proper form normal push ups. I m not saying diamond will be bad for you, but very probably will be less efective than gst progression and maybe with a higher risk of injury. And certainly you can have toes pointed in normal push ups, with that you get all the ROM  and it s harder to keep ppt. It s simply harder. I d say it s good for when you have already mastered push ups normally.

Very nice, thanks @Antonio Alías Montoya

When doing regular push ups it's important not to shift your weight by rocking back and forth on your toes. Heels should stay above the toes at all time.   
Pointing the toes will make it impossible to rock and it will put more weight on your hands, which makes a push up harder.
Pointed toes are not mandatory for mastery of regular push ups - but once you did master them it's not a bad thing to keep doing them with your toes pointed, as it helps forming the habit - and ultimately all advanced progressions are headed this way.

4 hours ago, Michael Vetter said:

Hi guys,

In the exercise video the person is 'standing on the toes', in the following video the toes are pointed.

Which way should be preferred?

 

 

Also I am curious if 'diamond push ups' are something worth doing. Didn't see them in the Foundation 1 but see many people doing them in the gym where I train.

i "force" my clients to stay on the instep in order to understand where they need to feel the weight: shoulders and hands. During the pushup I tell them that they need to hold the instep as much closer as possible to ground.

Some corrections can be done in this pushup video, but they are a good one.

I think I'll back off a few steps to a lower number  and start doing my push-ups on the insteps… thanks for the inspiration. 

When you say in-step, do you mean with toes curled under, like in the video?

8 hours ago, Suzanna McGee said:

I think I'll back off a few steps to a lower number  and start doing my push-ups on the insteps… thanks for the inspiration. 

I thought about doing the same, but I want to achieve at least 5x10 reps at least before trying it. Just now I did 9-9-9-9-6! I also need to improve my hip flexors flexibility because keeping ppt on push ups (and on everthing else) it s a really hard thing for me. Tell us your experience Suzzana when you try it!

7 hours ago, Valerie Morwood said:

When you say in-step, do you mean with toes curled under, like in the video?

 

Toes pointed Valerie!

27 minutes ago, Antonio Alías Montoya said:

I thought about doing the same, but I want to achieve at least 5x10 reps at least before trying it. Just now I did 9-9-9-9-6! I also need to improve my hip flexors flexibility because keeping ppt on push ups (and on everthing else) it s a really hard thing for me. Tell us your experience Suzzana when you try it!

Are you talking about PE2 here?

@Étienne Lajeunesse yes!

I have played around with doing pushups in this position, and I felt that I was forced to keep my whole body much tighter with a better ppt. Sometimes, I also use this position for sPL PE1, and I like how tight I feel. My hip mobility sucks, so I'm plateaued at PE1, until my hips swivel. Is it ok to use this position, with pointed toes for sPL PE1?

PE1 is already ok to do on the instep - but it's a bit hard on the feet  ... that's probably the only thing that gets better / easier with PE2 

I actually meant sPL pe1. Is that ok to do with pointed toes?

15 hours ago, Valerie Morwood said:

I actually meant sPL pe1. Is that ok to do with pointed toes?

Sure thing!

I do all push ups on the tops of my toes rather than on the balls of my feet  -as stated above this forces you to be stable and not compensate by rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet. 

For me also it enables me to really tuck my pelvis under into ppt and my quad engagement intensifies. And it also makes me look a lot more like a professional gymnast aesthetically so im all for that 

I’d go as far as to say that gst should change the videos to have us all do it this way from the beginning 

all the best everyone 

Tried them yesterday:

Where should the hands actually be placed?

I suppose right below the shoulder?

1 hour ago, Michael Vetter said:

Tried them yesterday:

 

 

Where should the hands actually be placed?

I suppose right below the shoulder?

Nice one, I need to try this!

Yeah, the hands under the shoulders!

Etienne nailed it: shoulders should always be stacked over the hands at the start (top) of HBP/PE2 reps. 

Oh wow, I struggle with just the elevated seiza and you guys are doing pushups this way? I'm impressed. Keep on striving for more!

3 hours ago, Jennifer Marie said:

Oh wow, I struggle with just the elevated seiza and you guys are doing pushups this way? I'm impressed. Keep on striving for more!

The stretch is way more intense  than doing push ups on the instep. Some occasional cramping in the feet in the beginning wasn't too nice, but it got better after a while.