I hope everyone has had a great week so far. For your Weekly Wisdom, I wanted to give a Technique Tip on Push Ups!  For this article, we are just discussing the typical “wide” pushup, not the tricep or diamond variation. I’ve attached the video here and to the Instagram account to give you a helpful visual along with this email. 

WHY WE TEACH PUSHUPS

• this ONE exercise can help you torch calories, build and tone muscle, gain strength, and positively impact your overall fitnessPushups are very versatile and accessible with a lot of potential add-ons to program for your classes
• They offer core and posture benefits along with compounding many other upper-body muscle groups

COMMON MISTAKES

• Clients will set up with their hands too far forward. This limits their range of motion and will cause them to shrug their shoulders. This distributes the load between the neck and the shoulders and stresses the shoulder joint. The hand should be aligned closer to your shoulder blades instead.
• Clients will flare their elbows out wide! This causes the shoulder to internally rotate and can be at risk for a shoulder impingement. This also causes you to miss out on properly engaging your core for control.  Instead, the elbows should be pulled back at about a 45-degree angle to ensure the workload is placed in the chest. 
• Clients will fail to protract the scapula at the top of the pushup! This joint action is key for shoulder health and strength, and without it, your clients are subject to injuring themselves. 

MODIFICATIONS

• The best modification is for the clients to perform push-ups at the barre. They can practice good form and progressively build the strength necessary to do pushups from the floor.

USEFUL TALKING POINTS ONCE YOU GET MOVING

• “If there is tension in the shoulders, try shifting an inch forward and drop the elbows back!”
• “Push your hands firmly into the floor as your rise up to engage your chest muscles”
• “Push yourself as far away from the floor as possible”
• I give a good ball-pushing example in the video that gives a good visual!

This is a tough adjustment to make! When I started out teaching my natural inclination was to flare my elbows out and I didn’t think much of it. But once I made this change I felt a lot stronger! Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions I’d love to hear them!