Your Push-Ups Suck

Sorry to break it to you, but chances are-- you are doing push-ups wrong. I know it is tough to hear, but its true. It was hard for me to realize that I was doing them wrong for years (even though I could max out the PT test). But my inefficient push-ups (that were correct by military standards) was why I was always rehabbing a messed up shoulder.

So, first thing we are going to address is just that...the push-up. In the upcoming posts (and upcoming topics), the goal is to have you start to see how other communities all address the same problem. I will be posting videos of how a great triathlon coach, and a world class gymnast, a yoga teacher, a powerlifter, a physical therapist and a strength and conditioning coach all look at a movement.

Each expert will develop a slightly different correlation about how incorrect push-ups effect their specific athletes in their field. But, what I hope you see is that all of these coaches see the same big picture concept about how to do them correctly.

Over this series, we are going to break down the push-up...not just the movement, but also pain related to the movement, scaling options, recovery/prep and how the military can improve on its teaching/execution of the push-up. First, lets look at what a perfect push-up means/looks like, in order to establish a baseline of how they should look.

Here is a great part 1 & 2 video from elite gymnast/coach Carl Paoli breaking down how to do a perfect push-up:

Part One

Part Two