The Perfect Push Up

The pushup is one exercise that truly works the whole body.  Doing a pushup activates your abdominals, para-spinals, gluts, hip flexors, triceps, chest, shoulders and quads.  If you cannot perform a perfect pushup, don’t worry.  I am going to discuss 2 modifications to help you progress to the standard pushup.

Modification #1: Kneeling pushup (1:00-1:56)

• Get into a pushup position

• Drop your knees to floor

• Knees should NOT be directly under your hips, rather a few inches inferior

• Keep hands shoulder width

• Slowly lower to the ground

• Once your nose hits the ground, explode upward to the starting position

• Repeat

Modification #2: Eccentric pushup (1:56-2:56)

• Start in a pushup position

• Hands shoulder width

• Engage gluts and abdominals

• Descend toward the floor as slow as you can until your nose touches the floor

• Come up however you like (the up portion is not important)

• Repeat

*Tip: As you go down toward the floor, retract your shoulder blades and keep abdominals engaged

Consistency is more important than reps and sets, but 3 sets of 10, 3 times per week is a great place to start.  Have a great day and remember to live, laugh and love.

Written by Kenneth G Kells III, DPT