The Pushup
by Tom Meehan
Body weight exercises are unrivaled in their simplicity and serve as a necessary foundation to any fitness program. Achieving true mastery of one’s own body weight has numerous benefits that transfer into other areas of fitness— balance, coordination, core stability and strength. These movements require no equipment, can be performed anywhere and have variations that are often limited to the imagination of the person performing them. So, although you may be in a hurry to load up the barbell, remember that without a strong foundation of the basics, your house (or garage) of fitness will eventually fall. Let’s start this discussion with one of the most fundamental movements – the pushup. There’s a ton of variations to this simple movement, such as the elevated pushup, dive bomber pushup, and handstand 34
pushup. But, before you start trying the newest fad you’ve seen on YouTube, it’s important to learn the nuances of the basic pushup. How hard can it be? You just lower your body to the floor and push back up, right? Well, yes and no. While doing lots of pushups with that standard can be helpful, you’ll see better results (as in, more gains) if you adhere to the following points of performance: Points of Performance Stack the arms Place your hands on the ground approximately shoulder width apart, keeping your fingers pointed forward. Roll your shoulders back and down to pack them tightly in the socket and stack the arms
