diff push-ups

[Sevan]

Thought I'd rekindle a subject... push-ups. :)

First off verticle hand stand push-ups. Which muscle(s) are taxed the greatest? Also on the idea that you dong get full range of motion, I'm building a small apparatus out of wood that allows full range of motion. When I started doing them I could only do max of 30 pushups(with my feet 3 ft of the floor). Then I decided to start doing them off the wall, and I could only do bout 10, now up to 14 and I've been doing this for bout 1.5 weeks. And just last night I decided to do a free handstand push-up and well after arriving at a handstand, took me a while ;), I managed one. I know a lot of ppls in gymnastics do this a lot, but hey for me it was cool. One thing that I'm not sure of is that I've seemed to have the biggest size, and strength, increase in was the shoulder, sorry dont know the names.

Also the one handed push-ups, they seem to be great for all the stabilizers(ditto for the handstand push-ups).


Enough ranting.

[IronFist]

The more verticle you get, the more your anterior (front) deltoids are invovled and the less your pecs are involved. In true handstand pushups, your pecs are barely stressed, if at all. The triceps are invovled in all kinds of pushups, as they are responsible for straightening out the arm. So it's like this:

Regular pushups: Pecs, front delts, triceps
Feet elevated pushups: Pecs (less) front delts (more), triceps
Handstand pushups (against a wall or free standing): Pecs (almost none) front delts (a lot), triceps

The pecs are usually stronger than the front delts, which is why the less the pecs are invovled, the harder they are to do. Make sense?

Iron

[Ka]

as always value reply Iron,I like those handstand push ups.
Recently have been shown some gymnastic floor and pommel horse excersices,all involving swinging motions and control of the swing.It really increases my overall control of excerses like handstand push up and one arm chins.
And how you going with the one arm crank?

[Sevan]

One the one arm push-up,

How do you ppls do them? ie. feet together vs spread out and body bent vs straight, and arm off to the side or straight out in front.

Also.. dont know the name but i had another question on another variation...

when you have your body spread out as far as it will go, on toes and fingers then thrust and lift your body up.
I have yet to do it, but hey i'm closer than when I started

[IronFist]

Ka,

one armed pullups are coming slowly but surely. I tried to test my progress last night by doing a totally unassisted one armed pullups but I only made about 30-45 degrees (assuming a straight arm hang is 0 degrees and half way up would be 90 degrees. Degrees referring to the angle of your forearm to your upper arm).

My goal is to be able to do one on both arms in one month.

Sevan,

There are basically two ways to do a one armed pushup.

1. The "normal" way most people do them. Feet apart, one arm behind the back, shoulders more or less square to the ground, with your working hand under your rib cage.

2. The "other" (i guess) way that no one does them any more, however I've seen this method described in old (and I mean old) strength books. This way is kind of like having your side facing the ground. Um, this is the best way for me to describe it:
Stand arm's length from a wall, with your side to the wall. Now raise your arm to the side so your palm is touching the wall. Now, lean towards the wall so that your elbow bends but your body stays facing forward. Now push yourself back up. Ok, got that movement? Go do that on the floor now. I think one foot is usually all that touches the floor. At first it will be very hard to go down all the way so begin with partials. Have fun.

Good luck. If you want I can give a link to a photo of this second way online.

Iron