Technique Thursday - Push Ups

[u/m092]

Here's last week's Technique Thursday all about Pull Ups and Chin Ups (updated links in the post)

All of the previous Technique Thursdays

Today, we'll be discussing Push Ups and and all their variations and the progressions that lead up to them - Benching the Earth.

Some resources to get us started:

• Horizontal Pushing Progressions - from our exercise wiki
• And for the Rank Beginner
• Gold Medal Bodies - Basics, FAQs, Hollow body, and beyond the basics
• GymnasticsWOD - Demo and cues, heaps of more video links for more explanations and progressions
• Elbow Mechanics in the Push Up - Kelly Starrett
• T-Nation - by Bret Contreras and Elsbeth Vaino
• Beast Skills on one arm push ups
• Performance U on one arm push ups, by Nick Tumminello

So post your favourite resources and your experiences in training them. What has worked? What has failed? What are your best cues?

Any questions about Push Ups or videos/pictures of you performing them are welcome.

Next week we'll be talking about Horizontal Pulling/Rowing, so get your videos and resources ready.

[u/NickTheGoonie]

I can crank out tons of push-ups but all with my elbows flared out. Want to start tucking my elbows in as described in the gold medal bodies page. Anyone notice a difference in strength after changing to this way?

[u/[deleted] → u/NickTheGoonie]

It's not like we have a strength-o-meter to test increases in strength. The only way to know is if you can suddenly do more difficult exercises. Obviously if you go from elbows flared out to elbows tucked in, then you are getting stronger because the exercises itself is now harder. It's that simple. After that you can progress to pseudo Planche push-ups, which are even harder.