How to Seven tricks to take your push-ups to another level and increase the muscle mass of the pectorals

How far apart do you put your arms during push-ups? Are the elbows more open or more closed? How can you increase or decrease the intensity? Any extra trick? If we do not have material to train, or we simply like push-ups, we must take these details into account to maximize the stimulus we get from these push-ups. Use these tricks when doing push-ups, How far apart do I put my arms? A little narrower than the width of your shoulders, Normally we use an excessive distance between arms in push-ups. This wide position activates the pectoral less and forces the elbows to open a lot, which increases the risk of injury. The ideal position is a narrow position (50% of shoulder width) or at most a neutral position, (shoulder width). This is because, with a narrow position, the pectoral performs its two main actions: shoulder flexion (stroke gesture in swimming) and shoulder horizontal adduction (hugging gesture). On the contrary, an excessive separation of the arms allows us less activation of the pectoral and will make us place the elbows too open. Elbows close to the body or open? The angle between the side and elbows should be about 45 - 75º. With a very large separation between the arms, the elbows will tend to go out and form a perpendicular line with the trunk. To visualize it, think that from above your trunk and your arms should look like an arrow, and not like a cross. The more your push-ups resemble an arrow, the more activation your pectoral will take and the less risk of injury to your shoulders. When we open our arms wide and separate our arms too far from the side, the subacromial space (space in a shoulder joint) is eliminated. That doesn't happen if our arms stay glued to the sides or a little open. Anything else? Yes, scapular retraction for the health of your shoulders We already have our hands located at a maximum width of our shoulders, and we know that the elbows should not open excessively. Now we have to place our scapulae. The safest position for our shoulders will be a scapular retraction that consists of Scapula adduction: think that you have a pencil in the middle of your back, and you have to be able to hold it between your muscles. Scapula descent: think about bringing the scapulae into the back pocket of your pants. How do I adjust the intensity? Varying the inclination between feet and trunk The intensity of the push-ups depends on the inclination of our body with respect to the ground. In this study, they explain the percentage of our body weight that we support according to said inclination. From easiest (lower percentage of body weight to support) to more difficult: With the trunk raised with respect to the legs, resting the hands on a surface raised to 60 cm, we support 41% of the body weight. With the body parallel to the ground and the knees resting on it, instead of the toes, we support 49% of our body weight. With the trunk raised with respect to the legs, resting the hands on a surface raised at 30 cm, we support 55% of the body weight. With the body parallel to the ground and supporting the tips of the feet, we support 64% of the body weight. With the legs elevated with respect to the trunk, supporting the tips of the feet on a surface raised at 30 cm, we support 70% of the body weight. With the legs elevated with respect to the trunk, supporting the tips of the feet on a surface raised to 60 cm, we support 74% of the body weight. Can I further increase the intensity without adding an external load? We can further increase the percentage of body weight by doing one-arm push-ups, or explosive clap push-ups, but we must be careful with technique and disc compression if our hips sink in, and we don't keep the body aligned (straight line of ankles, hips, and hips). Shoulders, and head. This care must be special in people with low back pain. It is only advisable to increase the intensity when the exercise is already fully controlled, and we will be able to increase its complexity. Any extra trick? Try to bring your hands closer, but without moving them Based on Newton's third law (action-reaction) we can, without moving our hands, try to bring them closer by applying force against the ground. With that intention, we generate a new force vector. If we do not intend to put our hands together (hug gesture) the force will only be up and down. But adding that intention that we discussed, forces from left to right come into play. The hands will force them to come together, but they will not move from the site at any time. Any other extra trick? Mind-muscle connection Another way to increase chest activation is with the mind-muscle connection. In this investigation, they observed that doing the same exercise (push-ups) obtained different muscle activity depending on the muscle group on which they focused. When subjects were asked to focus on the triceps, pectoral activity decreased and triceps activity increased. When study subjects focused on pectoral activation, the opposite occurred: pectoral activation increased and triceps activation decreased. Therefore, before the same exercise, depending on where we put the focus, the activity of that muscle can increase. The mind is a tool yet to be exploited, as we already explained in a previous article, where we described what the mind-muscle connection consists of.