Currently, home workouts have become especially popular. Most often, basic exercises are selected for them, which work several muscle groups at the same time and do not require the use of equipment. All this can be said about classic push-ups. When performed correctly, they primarily engage the pectoral muscles, as well as the triceps, deltoids, and core.
But what to do if you pay enough attention and time to push-ups, but there is still no progress? Most likely, the problem lies in incorrect technique. Together with World Class coach Alexander Karpov
we talk about five typical mistakes in one of the most popular exercises.
Lack of preparation
Push-ups are generally considered to be a simple bodyweight exercise, even for beginners. In fact, most problems with technique arise from physical unpreparedness and a simple lack of strength.
Alexander:
If a beginner immediately starts doing difficult push-ups, there is a high probability that he simply will not be able to perform the required number of times and will not do them correctly. Accordingly, the effectiveness of the exercise will be low. In addition to the strength of your pectoral, deltoid, and arm muscles, it is important to prepare your core muscles for full push-ups.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Therefore, before you start the classic version, try starting with preparatory and adducting exercises. Among them:
- straight arm plank;
- adduction of the shoulder blades in the plank on straight arms;
- push-ups from a bench or on your knees;
- holding the pose at the bottom point during push-ups;
- push-ups in 1/3 of the movement - at the top.
They will significantly reduce the load and teach you to include the necessary muscle groups in the work.
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What muscles work?
The triceps, deltoids, biceps, abs and pectoral muscles receive the load. Good pumping of the latter is especially important for girls - this is a good way to visually enlarge the breasts. This is what the muscle work pattern looks like during classic push-ups:
*Demonstrated using the example of a man, but there are no significant differences.
During the exercise, we literally use the entire torso. You can additionally load one or another area by changing the execution technique and hand position:
- Narrow hand position. The hands rest on the floor directly in front of the chest. There is about a few centimeters of space between them. When doing push-ups, keep your elbows closer to your body, and the pushing movement is performed by the triceps, chest and shoulder girdle muscles. They carry most of the load. To perform a proper push-up, you need to imagine that you are pushing the floor away from you.
- Diamond push-ups. In appearance they are very similar to push-ups with a narrow setting. The difference is in the position of the hand - the thumbs and index fingers touch each other, forming the shape of an inverted diamond. As a result of this positioning, the elbows move further to the sides, increasing the load on the triceps. The chest and deltoid muscles are used to a lesser extent.
- Wide hand position. When doing a push-up, the arm bends at the elbow, forming a 90-degree angle. With this setup, the triceps, biceps and deltoids work secondary. The main work is performed by the pectoralis major muscles. Choose this option if you want to visually enlarge your breasts without the effect of pumped arms.
Incorrect placement of hands and elbows
Quite often, inexperienced athletes place their elbows to the sides, while their hands are turned with their fingers towards each other. When viewed from above, the body in this position looks like the letter “T”. This error causes the load to be distributed incorrectly. The shoulders are overstrained, and the triceps and chest are left out of action - there is a risk of injuring the shoulder joint.
Alexander:
In the classic version, the hands are located slightly wider than the shoulders and under the shoulder joints, the shoulder blades are adducted, and the anatomically correct curves of the spine are fixed. We lower ourselves down, bend our arms at the elbow joints, continue to keep our shoulder blades adducted and maintain the position of our back. The elbows are directed at approximately 45-50 degrees from the body. Then we smoothly return to the top. The range of movements will depend on the level of training, ideally until the chest touches the floor.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Push-up program
There are still three training sessions a week.
This frequency of loading is optimal for rapid progress.
Remember, muscles need time to recover after strength training. And in addition to the muscular system, rest is also necessary for the ligaments, tendons and nervous system.
You should not copy the training schemes of professionals who train every day. Most often, the use of pharmacology and a high level of training help them recover.
At the first training session of the cycle, set a personal record - do one approach for the maximum number of repetitions until failure.
This figure will be the starting point in calculating the load.
For example, you managed to do 12 push-ups. This is your maximum.
Next we work according to the formula:
4×(max−4). That is, 4 sets of 8 repetitions.
Week 1
Workout 1 – 4 sets of (max−4) reps
Workout 2 – 3 sets of (max−3) reps
Workout 3 – 2 sets of (max−2) reps
Week 2
Workout 1 – 4 sets of (max−3) reps
Workout 2 – 3 sets of (max−2) reps
Workout 3 – 2 sets of (max−1) reps
Week 3
Workout 1 – 2 sets of (max−2) reps
Workout 2 – rest
Workout 3 – new maximum record!
At the end of the three-week cycle, you will set a new personal best in push-ups.
If you want to progress further, then the new program will be built according to the same scheme, starting from the new maximum in push-ups.
The body does not form a straight line
Two more fairly common errors are a deflection in the lower back and a protruding pelvis. In both cases, the execution technique is grossly violated, because during push-ups the body must copy the anatomically correct position of the spine. About what we take when we stand on our feet. It is important to ensure that the natural curves do not increase.
Alexander:
It is necessary to feel that the weight of the body is on the arms, the shoulder blades are connected at all times and the correct position of the back is maintained. Remember, failure reps are when you are unable to perform an exercise with proper form.
The lumbar deflection occurs due to the fact that the abs are not included in the process, but they need to be strained. Incorrect pelvic position also occurs when the core muscles are mistakenly relaxed. If you allow your butt to stick out, you will put extra stress on your lower back and shoulders. And this, in turn, will lead to painful sensations.
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Can girls do push-ups?
Very often I have heard really funny arguments against push-ups for girls. All of them are somehow connected with the chest. To close this issue forever, let’s look at the most common “cons”:
“Push-ups enlarge the breasts and deteriorate the mammary glands”
The interesting thing is that not a single person who told me such nonsense could explain what “worse” means. Firstly, no exercise can enlarge your breasts. Secondly, push-ups enlarge the pectoral muscles, which have nothing to do with the mammary gland.
“Push-ups make breasts smaller”
To reduce the percentage of fat in your chest, you need to actively lose weight. Push-ups, of course, help get rid of fat, but not as much as a regular treadmill. Have you ever noticed that almost all models from the world of sports have silicone breasts? Now, it's not because of the push-ups. These are diets and fitness.
“If you do push-ups during lactation, your milk will disappear”
This argument amuses me the most. My good friend answered him very wittily: “If women lose milk from push-ups, then men can’t pump up their abs - sperm will disappear.” I will repeat once again that the pectoral muscles have nothing to do with the mammary glands.
Note! There is a risk of the opposite situation - there may be more milk. Exercise increases blood supply to organs located near working muscles.
Doing push-ups incorrectly can backfire, but this applies to both men and women. Below we will talk about the benefits and possible harms of exercise.
Turtle neck
The head and neck should be kept in a natural position during push-ups: they continue the correct line of the spine that we talked about. It is incorrect and, moreover, dangerous to lower your neck and head down, closer to the floor. In this case, the cervical vertebrae are overstrained. In the most unpleasant outcome, this is fraught with accumulated injuries.
Photo: istockphoto.com
Some tips
If you eat just one bite, you won’t have enough strength to do full push-ups. So read this article on how to eat healthy to gain strength and power.
If regular nutrition is not enough, start taking a gainer - it will give you strength and energy.
When you have gained a little strength in your frail little arms, but they still resemble thin twigs from afar, you need to pump up your thin arms so that they have even more heroic strength.
Chasing quantity rather than quality
A large number of push-ups with a small amplitude will simply be useless and will not work the body. Therefore, it is better for new athletes to pay attention to quality.
Alexander:
Everything again depends on the current level of physical fitness - beginners are different. You can start with any number, be it one repetition or 21. You can increase them as soon as you can, but without compromising your technique. By the way, it is possible to add load in push-ups not only due to the number of approaches, but also with the help of additional weights or resistance, changing the rest time and tempo of execution.
Remember that high-quality execution of an exercise is always as complete as possible. Therefore, try to lower your chest as low as possible, as much as your strength allows. And then rise as you exhale. Yes, it will be much more difficult, but progress will not keep you waiting.
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Learning to do simple push-ups
Next, let's remember about push-ups for girls. To learn how to do push-ups like a male , you need to go from the very beginning, gradually strengthening your weak arms.
Find some kind of crossbar or bench in the gym, place your hands on it and start imitating push-ups.
It's easier to do push-ups from higher ground. At home you can use a sofa .
You can also do push-ups from the floor, but from your knees.
The main thing is not to stick your buttocks back so that they don’t find adventure in the gym. Now is the 21st century, the century of tolerance.
Therefore, try to keep a straight line from your knees to your shoulders and then your buttocks will not find any adventures.
Effect of massage on the body:
For medicinal and health purposes, massage has been used by many peoples since the times of primitive society. Scientists have not decided which people this discovery belongs to. It is generally accepted that people on different continents and living in different civilizations began to rub and apply pressure to the back, neck and other parts of the body to achieve a healing or relaxing effect at approximately the same time. Today we offer to learn this simple task at home.
In this section we tried to collect a large number of educational video lessons for beginners. Each of us can perform a massage with our own hands on those areas of the body that are accessible to you. And for other problem areas, it is recommended to seek help from a professional or a relative.
You can learn how to perform massage at a professional level. You can watch video lessons at any time convenient for you. Below you can select the massage lesson you are interested in and study it. Good luck.
You lift your hips up
A slightly less common mistake when performing push-ups is the tendency to lift your hips upward. This is also an attempt to cheat the system, since this movement reduces the load on the abdominals, making the exercise easier, but it is less likely to lead to injury or back pain compared to the previous mistake. If you try to cheat the system, then you are only cheating yourself and simply missing out on the opportunity to work on your abs.
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You're holding your breath
The last, but no less important mistake is common to almost all complex exercises. When people begin to have difficulty performing, they hold their breath and try to overcome the difficult movement. If you are already finishing a set and have used all the resources in your body, then there is nothing wrong with holding your breath. But if you do this for the entire set, you're simply approaching the basic physiology of the exercise incorrectly. Your body needs a steady flow of oxygen to support your movements, and proper breathing can even allow you to perform better during an exercise.
