Focus Point of the Week: Push-ups
By Adam Pangborn
Push-ups are a common callisthenic or body weight exercise designed to strengthen the chest, arms, shoulders and core. They are an important part of most fitness programs because they are a great upper-body exercise and can be done anywhere, anytime. For these reasons, they are worthy of being our Focus Point of the Week.
Performing a push-up combines core stability with a symmetric upper body pushing movement. This combination is evident in many functional and sport activities during which the trunk stabilizers are required to transfer force symmetrically from the upper extremities to the lower extremities and vice versa.
Movements such as getting up from the floor, pushing a door open, rebounding in basketball and pass blocking in football are examples of this type of energy transfer. If the trunk does not have adequate stability during these activities, kinetic energy will be dispersed, leading to poor performance as well as increased potential for injury.
Although there are numerous variations to push-ups, the following are important points to remember for every modification.
- Maintain “I.” Make sure you keep a straight line from your heel to your ear. Your hips should not pike up or dip down.
- Stay high on your toes, keeping your heels away from the floor. This will help engage your thigh and hip muscles for better stability.
- Your shoulders should remain packed down (towards your hips) away from your ears.
- Your arms should be wide enough to allow your elbows to bend to 90 degrees at the bottom.
- Your body should remain rigid throughout the exercise, moving as one solid unit.
- Avoid rounding your upper back.
For beginners, doing push-ups while standing at a wall or having your knees (rather than your toes) on the ground is an intelligent way to start. However you do them, your form, as described above, must be maintained from the first repetition to the last. Once you start to lose the ability to do so, it is time to terminate the set. If you are doing typical push-ups on your toes, you can go to your knees once you begin to lose good form and do a few more if you want to push a little harder.
When performed properly, push-ups are an amazing tool for increasing upper body strength and joint integrity as well as core stability. Since push-ups are such a fundamental movement pattern, they will be found in everyone’s program in one form or another. For this week and moving forward, focus on having the best possible technique while performing push-ups.
