Copyright Men's Journal
The pushup might be one of the most common exercises you see in the gym, but according to Jeff Cavaliere, CSCS, DPT, of Athlean-X, it’s also one of the most commonly misperformed. Most guys have been doing pushups since grade school, so they tend to blast through reps without thinking twice about proper form. But when it comes to the bench press, suddenly they’re paying attention. The two exercises may not be so different, though, and to truly master perfect pushups, you have to start treating them the same way you treat your bench press. That begins with paying attention to overlooked details of proper pushup form, like the path your body takes during each rep. One of the most common pushup mistakes is moving your body straight up and down. When you think about a bench press in comparison, the bar isn’t supposed to travel in that path. It moves on a slight angle, pressing from low on your chest up toward your shoulders for maximum strength and stability. Accordingly, Cavaliere says your body should follow that same angled path during pushups. “As I go down into a rep, I want to allow my body to drift a little bit forward into my hands, so my hands are lined up along that lower chest line at the bottom of the repetition,” Cavaliere explains. “As I press up, I simply allow my body to drift back just a little bit, so my hands come back up to a position like they started, above that stable base of my shoulder blades.” If you watched someone perform both moves side by side, you’d see that the pressing mechanics are nearly identical. The key is to use the same movement pattern, control, and focus on form to get the most out of every rep. Think of a pushup as a reverse bench press where your body is the bar. Shifting from a straight up-and-down pushup can make all the difference in your form, efficiency, power output, and how much you actually feel your muscles working.
