Press-up advice

Ian_Davies

Hi gang
I have been working on press-ups for a little while now but think I am missing something, based on my progress, so any advice would be appreciated on correcting, changing or adjusting things.

I started out doing an incline press up against the kitchen counter as I couldn't do one on the floor.
-elbows were pointing out at 90 deg from my body and my hands were under my elbows (after watching videos of various fitness sites I pulled my elbows to a 45 deg and put my hands at shoulder width apart)

I moved on to doing 4 sets of 10 against the side of the bath. Hands shoulder width apart, elbows at 45 deg.

I am now working on 4 sets of 10 on the floor on knees, although my arms are still at about 45 deg.

I am guessing my triceps are pretty rubbish since I can't do a press-up with my elbows tight against my side so have started to do bench dips to help strengthen my triceps.

When I try to do a standard press-up (think its called military) I can get half way down comfortably but on the second half of the downward motion of the press-up as my chest gets close to the floor I lose strength in my arms and its a battle to get down and getting back up compromises my form.

keithcw_the_first

This dude is the business. You should check out his headstand push-up progressions as well:

http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/push-up-progression.html

Basically for any press-up variation - hand and knees, hands and toes, etc. - you can go incline, flat, diamond (index fingers and thumbs touch to form a diamond), decline, and then decline diamond. Then there's the tricky stuff after that.

I really hate pushups - or at least I've not been good at doing very many of them. I've seen more success focusing on sets of 8-10, which is what it sounds like you're doing. If you feel like your triceps are lagging behind then you should try diamond push-ups in an easier variation.

So if flat pushups aren't working well, maybe try incorporating some incline diamonds to hit the triceps.

I would also not overlook the shoulders. You can hit those with bodyweight by doing pike-ups, also addressed by the same guy:

http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/handstand-push-up-progression.html

Don't worry about the handstand part. Done in the first few variations it's basically a press-up that is almost all shoulder-focused. Also I feel like I need to state for the record that I'm not anywhere near accomplishing a handstand push-up.

I stalled on the barbell bench press, which I guess is similar, for a very long time. It was only by taking time to work the other assistance-type muscles (triceps, shoulders) that I could make any appreciable progress.

So, your head's in the right spot. Good luck.

jacksonpt

A few suggestions -

• You went from the counter to the floor, right? Do you have anything in between? Stairs can be a great option.
• go back to doing them on the counter, but hold the movement at the bottom for 2-3 seconds.
• when done right, the pushup can use most of the muscles in the upper body. Make sure you are keeping your core tight and engaging your back/lats along with your chest and arms.

mathjulz

Keep working on it! The negatives (going down) builds strength, too. Keep it as controlled as you can, going down slowly. If you can't push up from all the way down, that's okay for now -- just keep working on the negatives. As another exercise, go down halfway and up. As you keep working, you can progress further down. (Don't go to where you are actually on the floor).

Also, if you're working on the press for chest strength, you can put your hands further than shoulder width apart. The closer they are, the more they work the triceps ... further apart puts it more into the pecs.

icrushit

There's a good pushup progression here - http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/push-up-progression.html

I found the progressions nice and smooth, but that hasn't always been the case with other progressions (pullsup/ rows/ etc, but that's me, and not the progression steps), and found what works best for me is to understand the basics to play around with the leverage of each exercise, and use that knowledge to progress. With pushups, at least from the above progression, the main ways of changing the leverage are the hand position (elbows @ 45 degress , elbows at side, diamond hand position), and the incline/ decline of your body (against wall, against waist-high object, from knees on floor, from feet on floor, from feet on raised platform).

Your issue may be your triceps, and if so, I would be inclined to go back to your wall and table pushups, mastering the various hand positionings on each, before doing the same with pushups from the knees. At that point transitioning to full pushups on the floor shouldn't be too bad. Just beware the hand position that will test your triceps most will be the diamond variations.

Another prong of attack if you're really struggling on the above, would be to try hit the triceps (and most of the pushup muscle groups) with a dip progression (http://www.startbodyweight.com/p/dip-progression.html) instead until you build your tricep strength.

Aside from the above, you could also switch up the rep range you're doing. 4 sets of 10 should be good for strength-hypertrophy, with a bit more emphasis on the hypertropy element of the range. If you switched to sets of 3- 5, and rested adequately (2+ mins) between each set, you will target your central nervous system more specifically, and build strength through recruitment (recruitment of more of your existing muscle fibres, as opposed to strength through building more muscle fibres as you do in hypertrophy). Also you'll train the movement pattern into your body quite well, which will bode well for increasing reps/ volume in the future, as you'll have a good CNS base of strength in the movement.

Lastly, know you want to do pushups, but just make sure you're balancing your movements. Pushups are a horizontal pushing movement, with horizontal rows/ pulls being its counterpart in the horizontal pulling realm. Both together should ensure your development is balanced.

Just my 2 cents, hope this helps

EDIT: Haha, just seen I'm not the first to recommend startbodyweight, lol. Nick's program is quite good

jchite84

I'd maybe incorporate some different progressives. Try planks with arms extended to build up some strength in your core, chest, and shoulders. As you get better lower yourself half way down and hold. Try starting from the ground and pressing up and starting from the up position and not going all the way down. You'll also want to build core strength in addition to upper body strength, so you might try mountain climbers or bear crawls as well.

Ian_Davies

Hey gang
Thank you so much for so many really helpful replies, I feel like I understand how to tackle press ups a lot more now. I use the bath as a lower incline step between counter and floor but hadn't thought of the stairs (doh!). I will go through the recommended website, not looked at that one. I will work on the slow process of lowering myself, i figured if i couldn't do the complete move properly then i needed to do something else, i'll work on that although I do try to do each move slowly and hold it at the bottom (cool now i know what a negative is). I will also look at the dip progression too as i would like bigger arms - is it right that the tricep is twice the size of a bicep?.

My main goals right now are:
1. keep dropping the weight, losing 4kgs more will get me to 80kg (lost 8kg so far, started at 92kg) but I really want to hit the bf% which is about 26% atm, and destroy the moobs (i was hoping press ups would give me a bigger chest and stretch out the flab a bit till it gets burnt off).
2. I want to work up towards a few cool moves - chin ups, pull ups and hand stand press ups partly for confidence and partly as i understand they are complete body moves.

I have been working on the following daily routine of bodyweight moves:
- squats (4x20)
- jumping jacks (4x15)
- plank (I was doing 3 1 minute planks and can do a 2min 30 sec plank but got advice on here from rabbitjb who suggested i mix it up and do a dynamic plank so i am now doing spiderman planks)
- lunges (4x10 - each leg)
- press ups (4x10)
- lying hip raise (4x10)
- bench dip (4x10)
(i got the list above from the schwarzenegger site and have just been working towards doing it all properly and slowly adding sets but added the bench dip because my triceps are rubbish)

jemhh

Have you thought of doing them less often? From experience, I found that I progressed once I started doing them less often. I was doing them 3x/wk and going down to 2x/wk pushed me past the point where I was stuck. I know that people in bootcamp, etc. do them way more often but for those of us who are not spring chickens, starting out daily may be more difficult.

Lofteren

Just keep at it. The amount of strength required to do a push up is pretty low so if you keep at it you should get there before too long.

One technique is to do 1 proper push up today, tomorrow do 2 proper push ups, the day after do 3, etc... etc....

Ian_Davies

I have thought about skipping days but I find I am happiest when I am in a habit and routine. Also I am hoping and didn't think i was doing anything so intense that would stop me trying each day. Guess I would prefer to reduce the sets or reps but still keep doing it daily. I don't feel tired, just felt like i needed to try a few new tactics to help me.

Ian_Davies

Hi gang, I just wanted to come back on this and thank you all for your advice.

I moved up from 4 to 6 circuits of a routine which included 10 press ups, which I was completing in various incline positions - from kitchen counter to side of bath.

I am now finally able to do my first circuit of 10 perfect form push ups on the floor. The remaining 5 circuits progressively reduce as I go back to my knees for reps 4-10 but I'm slowly increasing the number I can do.

Jemhh - Moving to training every other day, working on the various tips you gave me has really helped.
Lofteren - Each time I try to squeeze one more and then complete the reps but like you said just keep adding one, its working and I can tell I'm getting stronger.
jchite84 - adjusting my planks has helped make my core stronger which I think is helping me maintain my form.
jacksonpt - stairs - frickin legendary advice - that gave me a real logical 'step' (excuse the pun) change for my progress
Mathjulz - slowing things down was crazy hard but it also helped me remember breathing and concentrate on the move rather than just getting it done which I think has helped in maintaining the discipline - at first a killer but totally worked.
iloseityes - I added the dip progression - nearly killed me and was clearly a totally weak muscle but my arms are now gaining size and I can see my tricep - ALSO others can see it and thats sort of cool that people notice.

Finally - keithcw_the_first - great first post, great site recommendation and now working towards diamond on the stairs.

I bought some trojan pushup handles which helped my wrists and they rotate so I am now slowly moving them closer (on the stairs) to get that diamond.

Thank you for taking the time to help, love you all in a manly punch in the arm type of way.