Pushups--form? Hubby says I'm not going low enough?

B

Biteset

Cathlete
My most burning question about form doing straight-leg pushups is:

Do you go down as far as forming a 90 degree angle with your arms?

Or,

Do you go down until your upper arms are parallel to the floor?

It differs according to hand placement, I've noticed. If my hands are close together, then when my arms reach 90 degrees my upper arms are not yet parallel to the floor.

I ask because DH saw me doing pushups and said "You're not going down far enough--your upper arms are not parallel to the floor." But I've always watched for the 90 degree angle.

I also like to place my hands a bit wider than shoulder width. What do you guys do? Do you usually do the same placement or do you vary it?

Another also: Usually my hands are not directly beneath my shoulders, but go slightly forward from that. (does that make sense? arms not perpendicular to the floor...)

I would love some thoughts about my burning question! Thanks!
 
Well, my DH said this to me once also. He used to work in a fitness center. Now I try to go really low keeping my body straight. Look at www.bodybuilding.com and go to exercises I think on chest you have to go through about 3 pages. They do go pretty low on the video clips.
Diane
http://wd.1ww.us
 
I touch my nose to the floor...keeping my head in alignment, of course.

As for hand placement...it all depends on where you want the emphasis. Certain placements put stronger emphasis on different muscles. I, personally, keep my hands close to the body so that when I go down, they are by my breasts. This puts a stronger emphasis on the triceps and shoulder. Also, I stay on my fists because going on the palms kills my wrists!

This is just how I like to do them...
 
Gee this must be something common with DH's! :) Mine said that once also. I can go down until my upper arms are parallel but I can't go any further. But I keep working at it! :)

Jo
 
Ever since I had to "bust" as many push ups out in 2 minutes while in the Navy, I always did them wrong. They didn't care what form you used as long as you did them on your toes and as many as you could.

Now that I am working out for myself, I am having to 're-train' myself to do them right, i.e. with my hands under my shoulders. I do them on my knees now and go down as far as I can to the floor using good form. Eventually I hope to work up to being able to do them correctly on my toes, but in the meantime.....

As to whether you are going down far enough, until I was able to work up to going all the way down to the floor, I went as far down as I was able with keeping my body in correct alignment. It took a while before I was able to get to the floor and back, now I am just working on increasing my repititons.
 
Going too low (like trying to touch the nose to the floor, or shoulders getting lower than elbows) can be hard on the shoulders. I think 'upper arms parallel to floor' is as deep as one needs to go. And that's usually about a 90-degrees angle at the elbow joint.

One thing I've found: unless they are exercise physiologists or physical therapists or something of that ilk, men aren't necessarily that good about good SAFE form!
 
I find that if I go down further than 90 degrees I can't get back up! My husband can - he apparently has more arm/chest strength, but I cannot go down that low. I'm happy if I can pump out 20 reps per set with good form so I don't try to go lower anymore.
 
I find if I go too low the exercise isn't as effective. As long as you're doing them with proper form (back straight, no sagging, etc.) you should go down only far as you comfortably can. As you build strength you can make adjustments later.
 
Hmm. HMM.

The thing is, by the time my upper arms get parallel to the floor, my arms have gone way past 90 degrees. 90 degrees and parallel to floor don't coincide for me!

Actually, though, last night I did them with my hands on
dumbbells, and that helped it feel less awkward.

Also, my arms are pretty dang long--maybe that adds to the confusion?

Speaking of the military, my DH just joined the Army last week. That's why he's got pushups form on the mind. }(


Gisela
 
This MUST be a thing with men...my SO says you're supposed to place an orange or baseball on the ground below you and touch your chest to that. I'm sticking with 90 degrees!!!
Brandi
 
But when you push up you're supposed to get enough elevation so that you can leave the floor and clap your hands.

Or you can set up 3 chairs one for your feet and one for each arm so you can go below the "level".

There's a lot of variety in push ups.
 
>But when you push up you're supposed to get enough elevation
>so that you can leave the floor and clap your hands.

And break my nose!!!!
:7 :7
 
>I say what does it matter + x(
>There are probably 20 variations of push ups.
>As long as you are doing them.
>As long as what you are doing works for you.
>Anne

Yeah, I've come to that conclusion. I guess I should have included a little detail: when hubby said this to me, it was right after I had completed a set of 10 pushups, which is a monumental number for me. So I told him "I just did 10 pushups!" And then I went for another set, and that's when he critiqued my form. x(

(he really is a nice guy, though, LOL)

Gisela
 
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