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00:00 I'm pretty sure you cannot do 100 push-ups even if you say you can do 100 push-ups.
00:04 At least you can't do 100 push-ups the right way and in a way that will actually get you gains.
00:09 So here's the thing with plenty of guys. Everybody thinks they can do a whole ton of push-ups.
00:13 They think they can do them consecutively and they think they are badass.
00:16 But nine times out of ten, the people who tell you they can do a lot of push-ups
00:20 are just cutting corners on their push-ups. Let's take a look at three stealth push-up mistakes
00:25 that may make you think you're a lot stronger and better at push-ups than you think.
00:30 But if you actually want gains, you're going to cut these mistakes out, do fewer push-ups
00:34 and get a lot better of a chest pump out of it. So before we get into these push-up mistakes,
00:38 let's take a look at what an ideal push-up looks like. When we do an ideal push-up,
00:43 we're going to get our chest to within an inch of the ground and then we're going to press
00:48 all the way up. And very often the mistakes that we're going to see with the push-up
00:52 are essentially just people cutting corners. Again, that way they can tell you they do like
00:57 50 to 75 to 100 push-ups that they don't actually do. So our first mistake, our stealthiest mistake
01:03 on the push-up is actually just cutting it short and not going all the way to the top.
01:09 Very often you'll see people not complete the rep at the top. And a couple things happen on that.
01:18 One, it's easier because we have less time under tension total for every single rep. And two,
01:25 they're not getting anything out of this push-up for their triceps. When we're training our push-ups,
01:30 we're training our chest, our shoulders and our triceps primarily, but the triceps are most
01:35 involved during that lockout sequence. So what we should see at the top of every single push-up rep
01:42 is that my hand, my elbow and my shoulder are all stacked and tight and flexed. And that is
01:49 how we want to handle the push-up. So our first mistake is cutting things short at the very top
01:56 and not going through that full range of motion. Hardest part of the push-up is actually that
02:00 moment where we are an inch from the ground. That is also the position during the push-up where
02:07 we're getting the most stretch on our chest. And we know that being in those stretch positions
02:10 and getting that stretch on the muscle under tension is critical for growth. But we cut that
02:15 short by just not going all the way down. And this one is imperceptible very often,
02:20 but you'll just see people cutting their push-ups short. So now I'm going all the way up to the top,
02:26 but I'm not going nearly as far down to the bottom as I'm capable of. I'm cutting two to
02:33 three inches out of that. So I'm not going to get that maximum stretch on my chest. I'm not going
02:37 to really take advantage of the push-up to its full extent. And again, I'm cutting time under
02:42 tension. This time it's almost worse too, because I'm cutting time under tension in that critical
02:47 stretch portion of the rep. So I'm not really getting everything out of the push-up. Again,
02:50 it's just making it easier for me to pile up a better number, but it's not giving me the
02:54 chest development I want. And our third mistake is leveraging off of the push-up and basically
02:59 taking tension off of our chest. Our goal on the push-up, whether I'm in the bottom position
03:03 or the top position, I want to be a straight line from my shoulder all the way down to my feet. And
03:09 I want to maintain that as I do every single push-up rep. But very often, and you'll see this
03:15 often as people, you know, when they get, let's say 30 to 40 reps and they start to fatigue,
03:20 what they start to do is they cheat from this position into this position. And suddenly,
03:26 my hips are up a little bit higher and I've taken some load off of my chest. I'm no longer moving
03:33 as a single piece. I've taken tension off of my core that way. So I've essentially deloaded my
03:38 push-up so I can sneak out a couple more reps. I've also changed the angle a little bit for my
03:46 chest, so I'm not getting as much out of it as I could be. So our final mistake winds up being
03:51 cutting out that load, moving away from that totally straight torso position. That way,
03:55 I'm not getting as much out of the push-up. Again, it's going to let me pile up more numbers,
03:59 but if I really, really want chest development, that's not what I want to do. Now, if I really
04:04 want chest development, if I really want to show that I can truly do push-ups and dominate push-ups,
04:09 and if I want to pile up big numbers, but in a useful way that's really going to enhance chest,
04:13 shoulders, and triceps and give me max training stimulus, here's how you're going to do the
04:18 push-up. All we're going to do is we're going to add pauses at the top and the bottom, and we're
04:22 going to essentially count out one full second. You're not going to be able to rush through these.
04:26 You're not going to be able to do cheap push-ups because what we're going to do,
04:29 we're going to get into our push-up position, start with our glute squeeze and our abs tight,
04:34 and when I get down to the bottom, I'm going to hold for one full second,
04:38 and I'm going to press all the way up. At the top, I'm also going to hold for one second.
04:44 And working back and forth between these two positions,
04:53 know there's a very good chance that you're not going to be able to do 100 push-ups or 75 push-ups
04:59 or maybe even 50 push-ups because now we're piling up time under tension. We're working
05:03 through a full range of motion. We get that time under tension in the stretch position,
05:07 and so you're not going to be able to pile up any reps, but you will pile up a lot more muscular
05:13 tension, and you will pile up a lot more stimulus for muscle growth because now you're doing push-ups
05:17 the right way. So stay away from the stealthy mistakes. Learn to take your time on every single
05:22 rep. This is not a race, and it doesn't matter how many reps or how many hundreds or thousands
05:27 of reps you do. It's better to do 30 to 40 push-ups with that really controlled tempo
05:32 than do any of the other push-ups that you're seeing anybody do on Instagram if you really want gains.