For such an easy to do exercise Push-ups deliver a real punch to your body’s health. For as much as it can give you the great physique most of us are looking for, they provide a very unique way of strengthening our bodies and targeting areas that are commonly weak. We use this exercise in it’s various forms often in our rehabilitation programs, in particular for neck and shoulder pain, but also with overall integrated skill development with spinal injury and various nervous system disease. They are without doubt one of the oldest and most common of all exercises to every person around the world. They are often used as a fitness test in Police, Military and various sporting clubs as well as being a cornerstone of programs for martial arts and gymnastics. It is fair to say everyone knows what a push-up is and a rough idea of how to do one correctly. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of the amazing benefits this exercise provides. In this article, I will explain the true value of the push up, how to do it right, and also give you a few different versions to try out that will really challenge you.
The True Value Of The Push Up
Push ups are a great Functional integrated exercise to use, and I prefer this to the bench press any day.
While a bulk of the workload is performed by the chest, shoulders and triceps, the exercise cannot be done correctly without almost every muscle in the body participating. The abdominal muscles must stabilize your torso to keep your hips from sagging or lifting up too high, and various other muscles such as Serratus Anterior play a role in assisting the stability of the head, shoulder and spine. As with chin ups this exercise teaches you how to correctly sequence movements which is very important for developing great timing.
Even your breathing must be right to be able to execute this correctly. This is one reason why exercises like these work so well with people suffering from nervous system injuries or disease. It helps to rewire the faulty program being communicated to the muscles via correct timing and sequence.
We must remember that one of the very first times we ever used our arms to do any physical work was a push up off the floor when we were babies. We developed strength into the arms to a point where we could push our body up and get us into position to crawl, and eventually to stand. This is so important to remember when working with injury with shoulder and neck as it means you can go back to this stage to relearn how the program was first created.
Often our poor posture and movement skills we develop as adults sets up injuries as joints no longer align and work as they were designed.
The push up is unique for it is not strength alone that makes it work, but the complete integration of the entire body with muscles and the nervous system, breathing, flexibility and overall coordination & timing! Wow that is a lot for what many regard as an easy exercise. And as mentioned earlier developing strength with this exercise is critical for a healthy shoulder, but if your technique is not right you can do more harm than good.
My question to you is are you performing this exercise correctly?
What Is The Correct Push Up Technique?
Make sure you watch the video above to see what the common mistakes are so you can avoid them.
Below is the step by step instructions to follow. Pay careful attention to the breathing technique used here as this is crucial in developing the right timing and also creating enough pressure in your core muscles to provide stability to your spine.
Instructions:
1. Lie face down hands a comfortable width at shoulder height.
2. Take a diaphragmatic breath (belly breath) and set your core.
3. Exhale through pursed lips pushing yourself up to a plank position keeping your head and spine in alignment.
4. Inhale as you lower back to the ground.
5. Repeat for the prescribed number of reps.
Push Up Variations For Serratus Anterior Activation
Serratus Anterior is a key muscle for keeping healthy function of the shoulder and plays a pivotal role in maintaining the correct alignment of the shoulder girdle. Anyone with neck or shoulder pain you can almost guarantee this muscle is almost switched off and become lazy and weak.
Push-ups are without doubt one of the best exercises to activate this muscle and encourage perfect timing with pushing movements.
If you have ever completed a lot of push-ups and the next day you have that sore muscle feeling down the side of your rib cage, that is the serratus anterior you have worked so hard. Sure you will feel sore triceps and chest muscles but if you have performed the exercise correctly you will definitely feel muscles you never usually feel with exercises like the bench press.
We spend a lot of time working in four point position and push up position with all types of shoulder and neck pain for we know, and research has proven that the shoulder is more stable and stronger than when we stand. This allows us to work on areas that are weak without producing pain. Eventually we aim to stand up and complete pushing movements in this position but the stepping stone to getting there is using exercises like bird-dog and the push up.
Below is a video that shows you four different ways of using the Push-up to encourage Serratus Anterior as well as challenge the body.
Another great variation is the Yoga Push-up which is a great regression to use for those struggling with overhead movements and activating the serratus anterior.
This is one of those very unique exercises that allows people to work through a range of movement that is quite difficult to do standing up. We use this exercise a lot in our shoulder rehabilitation programs and in particular in the stage where we are trying to teach good scapula upward rotation and serratus anterior development which is critical with any shoulder injury.
The beauty of this exercise is it greatly encourages 2 key things many find hard to do with other movements.
- Generate great thoracic extension.
- Activates serratus anterior with good timing and positioning.
The purpose of strengthening Serratus anterior is to help the scapular (shoulder blade) sit more downward & facing up as this will help your shoulder joint move back into the right position and not cause any pinching.
Add on top of that the added bonus of pelvic stability and core control and you now have a great exercise that will teach good foundational stability for more advanced movements to come in your program.
We often use this as a corrective exercise to use between sets of “risky” movements and also as a home workout for the client to do. They often find this very relieving and a great stepping stone exercise to harder ones later.
Lastly, the Swissball push-up variations is an excellent exercise for improving rotator cuff of the shoulder.
The problem many face with using the push-up when recovering from shoulder injury or even if trying to address weakness as with winged scapula or neck pain is that the strength demands of the push-up are too great.
You need to find a way to minimize the strength demand and increase the stability demand to force the body to use the muscles that are often weakened and inhibited.
The exercise in this video featuring the bar on the ball is perfect for doing exactly that. The role of the Rotator Cuff muscles is to maintain the position of the top part of the upper arm while the prime mover muscles generate power. As you improve your scapular control, the stabilizer muscles are able to act more efficiently and independently of the scapular control muscles. Meaning you should be able to hold the scapula quite still in the neutral position while you complete various actions with your arm.
Don’t Forget To Evolve To Standing Exercises
It is important that you finally integrate your strength into standing exercises if you want to truly be functionally strong. One of the best ways to do this is to use The Turkish Get-up.
I must admit I love this exercise as it just does so much for your body.
Again strength is not usually the limiting factor in doing this, often it is lack of flexibility, stability and coordination preventing people from doing this exercise. It relates to the push up for they both share a common goal of pushing up your body weight to get off the floor. The Turkish Get Up is a bit harder in that it also creates more complex movement patterns needed to execute the movement.
Holding the dumbbell or kettlebell above your head also creates enormous shoulder stability and postural control.
This is most commonly seen in MMA training programs these days, but we also use this in rehabilitation with clients suffering back pain, hip pain and various other injuries or weakness that prevents them from completing the simple task of getting up off the floor. We have to regress this and break it into easier movements but the process or method of moving efficiently is still the same.
Do You Need More Ideas or Help?
If you are struggling with shoulder pain you will find our detailed report below for this invaluable.
This report includes all the assessments, mobility, stability, and strength exercises all explained and programmed for you so you can get your strength back in the shoulder.
Conclusion
As I said at the beginning the push up is so much more than just a simple body weight exercise.
It is wired into our system at such an early age and is a foundation movement upon which others are made and developed. Learning how to master this is essential for a healthy body, and also a powerful body if you play sports. The best thing is you need no equipment, you can do them almost anywhere and there is endless variations to continually challenge you.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References
Scapula Injuries in Sporting Athletes – By Sports Injury Bulletin
Muscle testing & function – By Kendall, McCreary, Provance, Rogers, Romani
Scientific Shoulder Training – By Paul Chek
Movement – By Gray Cook
Corrective Exercise Solutions for the Hip & Shoulder – by Evan Osar