Choosing a wider grip will place greater strain on the pectoral muscles, while a narrow grip will emphasize the triceps. Avoid spreading your elbows too wide, as this can put excessive pressure on your shoulders and lead to injury. The closer your arms are to your body, the more your elbows will move backward. A wider grip will result in elbows that spread slightly wider, but they should still point backward rather than to the sides.
3. Range of motion
The principle here is simple: Don’t cheat. Perform the movement by going all the way up and all the way down while keeping your body straight. Don’t reduce the range of motion by moving your head forward or lowering your hips.
4. The movement of the shoulder blades
This point is often overlooked. As you go down, your shoulder blades come together, and as you go up, they spread out. It’s important to focus on pushing them down, not up. However, there’s a distinction between passive and active shoulder blade movement. If you’re weak in the shoulder girdle muscles, your shoulder blades tend to move closer together because you’re unable to maintain tension against gravity, which is especially noticeable at the top of the movement.
As you lower, make sure to maintain tension and actively move your shoulder blades. Don’t let yourself slump uncontrollably into your body structure. If you follow all of these points, you’ll find that push-ups become more difficult to perform. You might even see how many repetitions you can reduce. But that’s okay: Always focus on quality over quantity. In return, you’ll be rewarded with progress and a healthy body.
