pushups with elbow touching ground

[Luke]

Hi all..

I would ask you a simple question about a particoular king of pushups.

I can't find about it on youtube or google, is that type of pushups where, with hands pointing on the center, one vs the other (i can't explain it better).

Then simple you have to go down until elbows touch the ground, afterthat push the body up on the starting position.

I think is a triceps-pointing exercise, but doing it i feel on elbows a kind of pain i suppose becouse of the big load of weigh on tendons (?).

Is a normal thing that go with training? And is an exercise used on gymnastic training and similar?

Bye

[George Launchbury]

Hi Luke,

From what you are describing it is very hard on the elbows because it is more of a single-joint exercise, with the tricep doing the bulk of the work. Your joints shouldn't hurt from exercise. That's your body trying to tell you something!

Is there any reason you want to do this exercise as opposed to (for example) feet-elevated push-ups, ring push-ups, dips, hand-stand push-ups, etc?

Regards,

George.

[Blairbob]

I used to do these and one of the female coaches thought it was weird ( she was also a personal trainer, kinesiology major, etc ).

I think I picked it up from working some pbar drill once upon a time.

[temet nosce]

Sounds to me like your describing tiger push ups.

[Blairbob]

Actually sorta. I never knew them as tiger bend or did anything like them. However, I did plenty of diamond pushups and generally the forearm goes pretty low in them.

[temet nosce]

Is this the push up you are talking about?

http://www.transformetrics.com/files/tr ... erBend.gif

[Luke]

Thanks for the answers .

Temet nosce, no what i mean is with hands pointing inward.

George, what you mean as "a single-joint exercise"? However, i do all the other exercises you mention (exept i don't have ring )... The main reason i do them is becouse are hard and seem to work very well on triceps. i can do about 4-5 of them normally, but did me that weird sensation. I noticed that there is mainly when i push when the elbow are in a very bent position, maybe is that? Applying a great amount of strength in that bent position?

[George Launchbury]

Hi Luke,

George, what you mean as "a single-joint exercise"? However, i do all the other exercises you mention (exept i don't have ring )... The main reason i do them is becouse are hard and seem to work very well on triceps. i can do about 4-5 of them normally, but did me that weird sensation. I noticed that there is mainly when i push when the elbow are in a very bent position, maybe is that? Applying a great amount of strength in that bent position?

By single-joint exercise I mean an exercise that mainly involves a single joint. An isolation exercise. That category would include:

> Bicep curls

> Tricep extensions

> Leg extension machine

> Leg curl machine (different to bodyweight ham curls or glute/ham raises)

As you can see with the chap in the animation above ...his shoulders are hardly moving, and all the work is done through the elbows. Though from your latest description it sounds like there is a little more shoulder involvement in what you are doing. The part of the exercise where the elbow is structurally weakest is when it is most bent, which is also when mechanical disadvantage demands the greatest contraction from the muscles. This would explain the 'weird sensation' which is probably a pre-cursor to actual pain - which will come after damage is done to the joint and/or tendons.

I don't really see any need for specifically working on triceps unless you're doing a spot of BodyBuilding (which is of course fine), or possibly even some remedial work (although rarely necessary). However, if you build up good levels of strength in your compound (multi-joint) movements, you'll get good triceps (as well as a whole heap of other muscles), be functionally stronger and have a much lower risk of injury to elbows and shoulders to boot!!

Cheers,

George.

P.s. I find HSPU to have more of a 'triceps' feel to them if performed with back to wall, since you are limited by how much you can travel forward over your hands, though it still remains a good functional movement.

[Luke]

So is simple the overload on the joint of elbows. So working (not too hardly to avoiding injuries) on them i should enforce elbows right? Wich is always a good thing i think...

I didn't understand that thing on hspu (handstand pushups right?)... is better to doing them on the wall?

[George Launchbury]

Yes ...handstand pushups ...or headstand pushups on floor, as it's only half the ROM (range of motion) because your shoulders can't get all the way down to your hand level - for that you need paralettes, pbars or rings.

A lot of people do them against a wall until they can balance while doing them, or just because they want to focus more on strength and/or endurance than skill.

Doing them facing toward or away from the wall feels quite different.

George.

[Blairbob]

Get in a pushup position and turn your fingers inward till the tips of the middle finger touch. I've seen some people interlock their fingers but I heard once that it was bad to do.

Seems to put a lot of pressure on the elbow. Another good and fun pushup variant but honestly there.

I do my diamond pushups or pushup to forearm with the shoulders going as low as possible unlike the old guy with partial ROM.