It’s All About Progression: Push Ups

Beginners make a lot of mistakes when they first start lifting and it isn’t their fault. They see a workout in FLEX or SHAPE magazine and just go at it. Then their form is poor, they are complaining of soreness, and they don’t see results. Why? Because they don’t use progressions. Why start with reverse lunges or body-weight squats when you could be doing back squats with German volume training that promises 100 lb increase in your 1RM in 3 months? Same think with push ups to benching. I don’t let any of my untrained athletes and clients bench until they have shown proficiency in the push up. I mean they should be able to do 15 body weight push ups before I put them under the bar. Dumbbells are another case, but hopefully you are picking up what I am dropping you.

The Push Up

The horizontal press is another one of those movements that people tend to progress to rapidly. Should you really be joining in with your buddies on Bench Monday if you can’t do 12 bodyweight push ups? Probably not. What about doing dips, dumbbell press variations, or dumbbell flys? Oh yeah, and that brings me to my next point, stay the hell away from machines unless you want to get into bodybuilding (and can eat and train for it) or have a specific reason for doing so (training for EXTREME hugging does not count, although I am all for it).

Now let’s talk about the push up a little more before we continue. Personally I think it is in the argument when you talk about the top three exercises you can do for optimal strength, performance, and overall health promotion. Just for discussion (in the comments) I believe the other two are the single legged squat (or lunge) and the pull up and its variations.

How to do a perfect push up

Keep these things in mind when performing the push up:

• Keep a straight line from the back of your head to your heels.
• Keep glutes tight (will help you keep that straight line
• Chin tucked
• Don’t lead with your head
• Hands shoulder width apart (or more) and under your shoulders (don’t have your hands past your face when you are on the ground.
• 45-70 degree angle at the armpit
• Bring chest all the way to the ground for proper scapular retraction

Phase 1:

• Elevated Push Up (hand elevated)
  • If someone can not do push ups from the ground the best place to start is with their hands on a box or an elevated barbell in a rack. This way you can progress them by moving the bar in the rack closer to the ground or a shorter box.

Phase 2:

• Bodyweight Push Up
  • You should be able to complete a minimum of 12 push ups correctly before moving on

Phase 3 (Where the Fun Begins):

• 1-Legged Push Ups (Great for core and shoulder stability, I am a big fan of this as the first progression after bodyweight push ups)

• T-Pusp Ups
  • These are great for also addressing thoracic mobility as well.

• Feet Elevated Push Ups (12 inch box)

• Clap Push Up

Phase 4:

• Spiderman Push Up

• TRX Push Up
• TRX Atomic Push Up
• Slideboard Push Ups

• Valslide Push Ups

• Renegade Row

Spicing it Up

Now what if you have become a master of all of the push up variations and now you need more of a challenge that is where these come in play.

• Chains
• Band Resisted Push Ups

Now what are your favorite push up movements? I could go the rest of my lift just doing push ups… But I won’t… Because I love benching…

Off Season Soccer Training

On Episode 167 we got a question from Hannah about training for soccer. Jon and I had a little bit of a disagreement about what she should be doing. If you haven’t already, check out the podcast and let us know your opinion. Anyways, here is the article I told Hannah I would write.

When it comes to female high school soccer players, or high school athletes in general (just females more so because of their higher rate of ACL and MCL injuries) they tend to lack the lateral stability and endurance that is necessary for optimal performance and injury prevention. Mike Boyle wrote in his article titled, “ACL Injury Prevention Is Just Good Training,” that, “estimates run to over 100,000 ACL tears per year, with 30,000 of them high school age females.” So 30% of ALL ACL tears happen to high school females. That is a pretty astounding statistic. All thanks to the Q-Angle of the female hip.

Building a Solid Off Season Program:

During the podcast I argued that Hannah (the listener) should be focusing some of her time on lateral work. This includes

• lateral warmups
• ladder drills
• and lateral plyometrics

Of course she should also be focusing on a solid weight lifting program. Do your lunges, single legged squats and deadlifts, glute activation, and upper body work. My point was that if she has 75-90 minutes 2-3 times per week to train, she should have plenty of time to do all she needs to do.

I would only recommend you focus on the lateral aspect of the warm up and plyos every other session to make sure you still do some linear work. For example:

• Session 1 (Lateral)
  • Foam roll
  • lateral dynamic warmup: forward lunges, lateral lunge/squat, 3 direction SLDL, along with her upper body warm ups
  • Active warm up: side shuffle, carioca, ect
  • Ladder work
  • Lateral plyos (heidens, 1-leg later hops, ect)
  • medball/LIFT
• Session 2 (Linear)
  • Foam roll
  • Linear dynamic: walking lunges, toe touch squat to stands, and upper body (push ups, scap wall slides, reach roll and lift)
  • Linear Dynamic (part 2): butt kick pull backs, knee hugs, walking lunges, spiderman lunges, inch worms
  • Linear Active High knees skips, high knee run, butt kicks, back pedal, ect)
  • Linear plyos (box jumps, depth drops, ect)
  • medball/Lift
• Conditioning
  • Shuttles will be great for improving lateral movement speed and (when done correctly) teaching your body to decelerate.

I am not saying to do all of this, pick and chose and make a recipe that fits your training level, time of the year, and time you have for the session. Try to limit the hops to 20 each session. Also, keep in mind, this is just a basic outline for ideas, not a program.

Here are some videos of exercises and warm ups you should use:

(in regards to the video of me, make sure to land softly, toe then heal and stick the landing. You should be able to hold that position.