The pushup is a commonly used exercise for developing strength, endurance and size in the upper body. The exercise requires you to utilize your own body weight for resistance, meaning how difficult it is for you depends not only on your strength levels but also your own personal body weight. Pushups are popular because of their effectiveness and because they can be done nearly anywhere with no additional equipment.
Exercise Technique
To complete a basic pushup, position your hands on the floor so that they're slightly wider than your shoulders with your fingers facing directly forward. Rise up onto your hands and your toes, creating a straight line through your torso and legs. Lower your body down toward the floor by controlling your elbows as they bend and allowing them to flare out to the sides. Continue down until your elbows are bent to about 90 degrees and then extend your elbows to return to starting position.
Shoulder Adduction
As you push up from the floor, your shoulder joints perform adduction, meaning that your arms go from a position of being away from your body to moving towards your midline. To picture this movement at your shoulders, stand tall with your arms wide open as if you were going to hug somebody and keep them parallel with the floor as you bring them towards your center line. According to ExRx.net, the primary muscle that completes shoulder adduction is your pectoralis major, which is your major chest muscle.
Shoulder Flexion
Because of the position of your hands, as you push up from the floor, your shoulder joints also perform a bit of flexion, moving from a position of being behind you to in front of you. To picture this movement at your shoulders, stand tall with your arms relaxed by your side and raise them up in front of you so that they're parallel with the floor to perform shoulder flexion. Your deltoids, or shoulder muscles, are the primary muscles involved with shoulder flexion.
Elbow Extension
Your elbow joints also move throughout the pushup pathway of movement. As you push up from the floor, your elbows are perform extension, which means to move from a position of being bent to being straightened out. Your triceps brachii muscle, which is located at the back of your upper arms, is the primary mover of elbow extension.
Considerations
According to Kyle Brown of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the pushup is among the most versatile strength training exercise. You can change how your joints move and thus how your muscles work by changing your hand placement. If you were to bring your hands to a more narrow position, for example, your shoulder joint would perform less adduction and more flexion, placing more emphasis on your deltoid muscle.
Member Comments