what's up everyone Coach Jim from nerd fitness here dressed a bit like a bro today dance off bro
me and you and here to talk to you about push-ups specifically how to get your first push-up
now there's a ton of information out there and in this video I just wanted to distill things down to
the simplest concepts the most powerful takeaways so that you can progress with your training
so let's get right into it so the first thing that you want to focus on for your push-up training is
to find a useful push-up variation so by this I mean a variation of the push-up where you can do
around 8-10 reps this is going to give you enough work to progress in your push-up training if the
only thing you're doing for push-up training is just testing out the push-up every so often so
moving it's not going to really work again you're not going to get enough work to actually progress
now we'll talk about programming and workouts later but in terms of finding a useful push-up
variation you're probably going to have your hands elevated to start in many cases
so if you're looking for an elevated push-up right now at home this might mean having your hands on
the wall or a countertop maybe a solid dresser or the edge of a sofa so there's a lot of different
things around the house that are sturdy enough for training that are at varying heights so take
a look around for them at the gym this might be a matter of using a bar and a rack at varying
heights or a box or a bench so again different things in the gym that are of varying heights
now if you'll allow me to get a little bit nerdy right now
research data from Zatsiorsky pardon if I butchered that name and others shows that when
you do a push-up a regular push-up you're lifting about 64 of your body weight if you're doing knee
push-ups that's about 49 of your body weight if you were doing a push-up and elevated push-up with
your hands on a three-foot-tall surface so this is like the standard surface the standard height
of a countertop that is lifting about 20 percent of your body weight if you are doing an elevated
push-up on a two-foot surface that's about 36 to 41 of your body weight and if you're doing
a push-up with your hands elevated on a one-foot high surface that's about 54 of your body weight
lifted so again in terms of finding a useful push-up variation you can see hey where you might
want to start or where you would be progressing as the weeks progress and as you get stronger
now of course those elevated push-ups at the varying heights you might also be doing an
elevated knee push-up if regular knee push-ups are too difficult so again play around with
those different variations test things out and see what you're able to do for 8 to 10 reps
now the next thing in terms of getting your first push up no matter what variation that you work on
please practice good form it is going to help you much much more in the long run to practice good
form now rather than get ugly form and break down trying to push things too far ugly man now we've
got a great video that myself steve and stacy shot at camp nerd fitness uh diving into some
of the good form and some of the pointers for a push-up but let's just talk over some common
mistakes that I see with people's form in the push-up the number one is elbows jutting out
so the elbows lift up it's a way for the shoulders to stabilize but it's not a very strong position
and it can actually be a little bit detrimental and maybe even injure you in the long run so if
you're looking at someone from above doing a push-up their elbows should be slightly tucked
looking more like an arrow rather than like a t the next the big common mistake that i see is the
head jutting forward with the head jutting forward like you know you're like a chicken at a feed yard
this is another thing that will limit a range of motion can possibly pull muscles in the neck so
focus on pulling the head back in line with the body slightly so that as you're lowering down
to the ground or an elevated surface it's your chest that's touching first rather than your face
the next thing that I see a common mistake is hips sagging they'll lower down and then as
they push up their shoulders will uh lift up but their hips will remain down nice and low now with
this one this is a matter of keeping a tighter midsection we want to keep a nice strong solid
line from shoulders to hips to knees no matter what variation that we are doing and the very
final common mistake that I see is not getting a full range of motion if you're able to do that
pain-free then work to again touch your chest to the ground or the elevated object that you're
doing a push-up on if you get a full range of motion in your push-ups and your push-up training
you're going to get a lot stronger a lot faster now with all these different points of performance
here if you still can't correct your form then this is a great indication that you should be
adjusting to an easier variation all right moving on let's talk about accessory push-up exercises so
you've got your main push-up variation it's your bread and butter of your training but there's
also some accessory exercises which will really help push the training along the first one is
the negative push-up now the negative push-up is where you start at the top of some push-up
variation maybe it's elevated maybe it's a regular one and then you're going to lower on down control
to the ground and then you'll get back up to the top however you'd like whether it's shifting your
weight back or getting your foot underneath you you're only really working the lowering
down motion the reason we do this is because we are actually stronger in that lower down motion
than we are pushing back up so it actually allows us this negative push-up it actually
allows us to work harder variations and stress the body more avoiding stress isn't the secret
so we'll talk about how that integrates into workouts and programming but the negative push-up
is a great addition to your push-up training the next exercise I want to talk about is the front
plank or the top push-up hold so the front plank is where you're in a position resting on your
forearms body's nice and strong from shoulders to feet the top of the push-up hold exactly like it
sounds where you're holding the top of a push-up nice and strong and stable from the shoulders
to the hips to the feet this is going back to that common form mistake that I talked about of
sagging midsection we want to be able to keep the body nice and tight from top to bottom
to be able to do a push-up all right boys keep tight now if you aren't able to hold a
good solid plank a good solid top of a push-up for 30-60 seconds then it's going to be really
hard to actually do the exercise itself all right and lastly the most important thing with push-up
training is consistency all the exercises all the tips and tricks in the world will not matter
if you don't get the consistent training in so for that working push-ups three times a week
is a pretty solid number to shoot for now with that one you'd want a day of rest in between
you can start off nice and easy uh with the workout with some arm circles maybe an easy plank
and then you're going to want to pick that main push-up variation that we talked about for about
three to four sets of eight to ten reps now that's a great workout to start off with as things feel
good you can also start to alternate the days of eight to ten reps with another push-up variation
or that you can only maybe do for five to eight reps so one day would be eight to ten reps
next day would be five to eight reps harder variation after that push-up variation you
can add in two to three negative push-ups at a harder variation so again as I mentioned before
lowering down we're going to be much stronger so whatever level you're at whatever percentage
of your body weight you're lifting see if you can push a little bit harder with those two to three
negative push-ups and then after that working the plank or the top push-up hold for up to 60 seconds
is a great idea up to 60 seconds by that i mean maybe it takes you two sets of 30 seconds to amass
60 seconds of total time maybe it takes you six sets of 10 seconds to get 60 seconds total but
look to do those 60 seconds in as few as sets as possible and then as the weeks progress with
this workout you want to do as much as you can and each week look to push a little bit further
so this might mean another rep maybe you did sets of eight last week can you get sets of nine or
ten this week maybe you add another set you've been doing three sets for a while hey you know
what i'm going to add a fourth now or of course you can change your variations so that push-up
variation you started off with hey you know it's feeling pretty easy for 10 reps maybe i'm gonna
lower down a little bit more and then continue with my training keep on pushing things like
that and you will eventually get to the ground and you'll eventually get your first push-up
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if uh you allow me to get a little bit nerdy right now
in terms of now if you allow me to get a little bit nerdy right now
research data from Zatsiorsky and others yes i probably butcher that name
david