When I began in the industry over 25 years ago, I often thought of exercises like the push-up as a nice beginner exercise, or a good finisher to a workout. It never crossed my mind that a push-up could really be a powerhouse drill, or even how important it was to build up the qualities of the push-up.

Fast forward to my philosophy and mindset of training movement and the push-up has become a cornerstone in my training and those of my clients. Sure, it is easy to see some of the obvious aspects of the push-up. Yes, it is pushing pattern so we can cross that off our list. Push-ups are a moving plank, so we are getting great core training at the same time. Is that it though?

One of the big reasons that I became refocused on push-ups and their variations was thinking about how the upper body worked with the rest of our body. Even the functional training crowd generally thinks of the push-up as a “chest exercise”. Of course the chest is involved, but if we delve deeper we see something so much more.

A Corrective Shoulder Drill?

A big part of my excitement of making push-up training a priority came from my growing understanding of how our body is connected. We often think that drills like push-ups are difficult on the shoulder, but that is if we do them incorrectly and continue to think of them as “chest exercises” versus what we can learn about full body training that transforms them into a shoulder corrective.

It all begins with understanding why people hurt their shoulders so much during many horizontal pushing drills like push-ups. Due to the fact we focus on muscles and not movement, people put their body in compromising positions like the elbows away from the body, they don’t know how to stabilize their core, and they fail to realize all pushing comes from the bottom up.

Bringing the arms closer to the body as though we were going to push someone away from us accomplishes a few important goals. The first is we are engaging the lats more into the push-up. Why are the lats important in pushing? The lats are important to the shoulder because of their connection of the shoulder to core and even our pelvis. Since the lats are essential core stabilizers as well (how many people think of them that way?) we want to use them to press as the more stability we give the shoulder the greater force it can create. This is why how Powerlifters bench press is greatly different from how we see many general population lifters bench press at the gym. Powerlifters know the importance of the lats in pressing and their technique reflects that!

The lats play a big role and that is why we need to actively create tension in our hands. Whether it is “grabbing the ground” or creating tension against handles (as you will see in some of our progressions), this tension connects to our shoulder, upper body, and yes lats. Using this tension during the push-up allows us to maintain the integrity of the movement and spare our shoulders, but it also allows us to make an important connection to our core.

As I mentioned, everyone can see the plank in the push-up, yet, many still struggle to know how to use their core correctly during the push-up. Many coaches spend a lot of time trying to position their clients’ hips, but that really isn’t what is happening. We “brace” our core by grabbing the ground and driving through the balls of feet. When we create this force into the ground in causes a “lock” in our pelvis and activates our core correctly. You can quickly see how we are transforming the push-up to a full body exercise!

Why is the core SO important to the shoulder and push-up? As spine expert, Dr. Stuart McGill explains...

“Consider the pectoralis major muscle – it attaches the rib cage at its proximal end, crosses the shoulder joint, and attaches to the humerus of the upper arm at its distal end. When muscles contract they try to shorten. Consider the specific action here – the arm flexes around the shoulder joint moving the arm from muscle shortening at the distal end. But the same shortening also bends the rib cage towards the arm at the proximal end of the muscle. Thus simply using the pec muscle would not result in a fast nor forceful punch. Now stiffen the proximal end of pec muscle attachment – meaning stiffen the core and ribcage so it can’t move. Now, 100% of pec muscle shortening is directed to action at its distal end producing fast and forceful motion in the arm. In the same way a stiffened core locks down the proximal ends of the hip muscles producing faster leg motion. A loss of core stiffness causes the torso to bend when sprinting, and a loss of speed – some force was robbed that should have been expressed in leg velocity. Thus, a universal law of human movement is illustrated – "proximal stiffness enhances distal mobility and athleticism”.

If you are left scratching your head a bit, that is okay, there is a lot to digest. Simply, our core is the foundation for both our legs and arms to perform. Both are joints that have mobility as a dominant trait and need the stability of the core to optimize their performance. When people learn to brace their core correctly during push-ups they find they have minimal shoulder tension and feel much stronger.

This takes us full circle, seeing that the glutes work with the core and lats to create stability in the spine. Yes, this is often seen in gait patterns, but we use this strategy all the time in other movements. Why do lifters try to break the barbell during a deadlift or the handle of a kettlebell for a swing? They want to make this lat, core, glute connection to allow the lower body to create more force. This works for the upper body as well.

Constructing Smarter Push-Ups

Even with this great knowledge and benefit of the push-up we are going to find those that simply don’t have the strength and skill to do push-ups well. Does this mean we take them to bent knee positions or squat racks? Many times when we are teaching push-ups, we don’t have the intent of all these variables so we create motions that are easier, but don’t teach success of these concepts.

Instead, what we wanted to show in this month’s Metabolic Stability is how we can build better progressions. Still allow your clients to get challenged, but have better direction with their training and success as well.

When you watch the following series, think back to the principles we discussed and see how they are reflected in different ways all throughout.

Josh Henkin

Josh is an international presenter and strength coach who has taught in over 13 countries worldwide and consulted with some of the top fitness and performance programs in the world. You can check out his DVRT online fitness educational certifications/courses HERE