push ups

Yanks1996

Hi everyone. I'm about month into Stage 1 and just realized that I'm not doing push-ups the way that they're described in the book. I can do a full set when my elbows go out to the sides, but I can hardly do one or two when I keep my elbows close to my body. Is keeping them close to your body the right way to do them?

terrie_k

I think it uses more of your muscles, that is why it is more difficult. I would say focus on form and of you have to do push-ups on angles to get the form then work your way back down to the floor.

MissB46

....you can do them either way, the ones with the elbows tucked in are focused more on the tricep muscles

BarbellCowgirl

I do a mixture of both. They work different muscles. When I am doing a lower rep set, I do elbows in. If I doing higher reps and just want to pound some out, I let my elbows go out a bit. When I first started, I did them the way that Lou describes them in NROL4W. It took me a long time to work down to doing them correctly on the floor. But man, they really work those triceps.
Now that I'm in Supercharged, I'm figuring out that when you do the exercises exactly the way that Lou tells you to, every muscle in your body will get worked during the workouts. If you don't do them as stated in the book, it's easy to ignore certain muscles (like the triceps and calves).
Good luck!

Yanks1996

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to go back to an incline and see if I can do them with elbows in!