PUSHUPS: WHY DO TRAINERS DO THEM SO OFTEN?

female pushup image

Pushups. One of the most common exercises on the planet. Trainers do them. Trainers dish them out. But why? Are they really that good for you?

Well the simple answer is “YES” because when done correctly they deliver big bang for your buck. One of the oldest exercises in the book will work several muscles groups all at once. Now that’s worth it I think. It is not just an exercise to work your shoulders, triceps and chest. Importantly it is also a great work-out for your core, back, glutes and inner thighs (yes, inner thighs!). You can spice up your workout using different variations of the humble push up and up the intensity by increasing the load. So let’s stop thinking about pushups as just an arm workout and start giving it full respect as a full body workout.

How to do the pushup correctly:

Hands just outside your shoulders, elbows aiming on a 45 degree angle towards your hips (this is important!) and keep your body parallel as you lower. You are starting in a full plank position so engage your core. You’ve probably heard all of this before right?

Now what’s the secret to making pushups really work for you?

Do your shoulders hurt more than your chest? Well I will let you in on my little secret. If you aim your chest down on an angle as you lower, try and bring your body slightly forward as you come down, you will load the chest and there is more of chance your elbows will stay in the right spot. Hitting your chest and triceps which is the main aim. Don’t get me wrong, they are great for making your shoulders “pop” but this is where most people go wrong. What is also likely to happen if you don’t pull your weight forward as you lower? Your bum could end up in the air, which means no ab work. Now everyone wants more ab work right?

Variations of pushups:

My favourite part! You can focus on whatever muscle you want depending on what you want to achieve. Manipulation at it’s best LOL

Tricep pushups

Put your hands narrower and slightly closer to your ribs. See you later tuck shop arms. Make way for my triceps please!

Wide pushups

You want to nail the shoulders? Yeah me too! Take your hands out wide. This is going to hurt (all in a good way). All same principals apply to doing the pushup though.

Fitball pushups

Hands on the fitball, and depending on your level, you can have your feet on the ground or feet on a bench. This is going to take more of the focus to your core and stability muscles in your shoulders. I am all for functional training and things that look cool, so you will see me doing this ones from time to time.

Decline pushups

You want to add more load without putting a weight on your back? Sure. Feet on a bench and hands on the ground. Wahla! You have load. Everything is working harder here because you are heavier (in a good way!)

Modified pushups

You can start on your knees if all of the above is a bit too scary and you are new to doing pushups or new to doing them correctly 🙂 All rules apply as above but just have your knees on the ground. These pushups are important to master first before starting with any of the above circus tricks.

Happy pushups everyone!

Tricep Pushup

Wide Pushup

Fitball Pushup

Decline Pushup

Modified Pushup

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Posterior Chain – What’s the big deal?

Posterior-Chain
WHAT IS THE POSTERIOR CHAIN? WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO EVERYONE?
WHY TRAIN THE POSTERIOR CHAIN?

Not only can tapping into your posterior chain get you extremely strong, help improve athleticism and give you the butt of your dreams, it can leave you significantly less injury-prone, especially with low back and knee injuries.

I am here to discuss how and why posterior chain strength needs to be a priority in training (that is, of course, if you want to decrease your chance of getting injured.)  Training your posterior chain doesn’t guarantee injury prevention but it sets you on the right track for building a strong foundation.

What is the Posterior Chain?

In the strength and conditioning world, the posterior chain consists of the erector spinae, gluteal muscles, hamstrings, and gastroc/soleus complex.

Why is the Posterior Chain So Damn Important?

I truly believe that incorporating posterior chain strengthening into training can save tons of money on healthcare costs for low back and knee injuries, but more importantly, keep you healthy!

As the PT profession is constantly evolving, my goal is to get clients in the door and teach them ways stay healthier, versus having patients in for rehabilitative purposes.

Lets dive into two of the major joints that are especially vulnerable to injury in the lack of adequate posterior chain strength:

Low Back:

Over $80 billion spent each year on low back in healthcare… simply unacceptable.

To me, if you know how to strengthen your posterior chain, that means you know how to hip hinge (i.e. load the glutes and hamstrings effectively while keeping lumbar spine neutral).  For anyone who knows what a freak I am about preaching this movement pattern, this right here is the primary reason why!

Am I saying that if you can hip hinge you will never get back pain? No.  I am saying that understanding the hip hinge pattern will give you a much better chance at preventing low back pain.  The simplified reason is two fold:

1) Lifting loads from the ground with a neutral spine= less likely to hurt low back

Spines ARE resilient, we need to be able to tolerate both flexion and extension.

Yet, if you are like me, and respect the work of one of the most influential low back researchers (Dr. Stu McGill) then you know that repeated flexion especially under loads; leave the lumbar spine vulnerable to injury.

Therefore, learning how to properly hip hinge and maintain a neutral, stiff, spine throughout the movement can not only prevent injury, but can also get you the butt of your dreams.  Enter strengthening the posterior chain.

2) Strengthening posterior chain = less likely to hurt low back

Simply put, a strong butt (Gluteals) will decrease your risk of low back injuries.

There is a ton of research out that indicates how important gluteal strengthening is for low back rehab.  Lets simplify this in the pre-hab lens.

Glute Max is one of, if not the most, powerful muscles in the human body.  Unfortunately, most individual’s glutes are offline thanks to endless hours of sitting.  If we can strengthen the most powerful muscle in the body (which just so happens to neighbor and play intimately with the lumbar spine), wouldn’t it make sense that it would be good protection for the lumbar spine?

Knee:

The knee gets a little bit more technical, but I will try to keep it simple.

The knee as a joint is extremely vulnerable, to say the least.

It is literally two bones sitting on top of each other with little to no bony stability…meaning it gains its stability primarily from soft tissue structures both inert (meniscus, ligaments) and contractile (quads, hammies, and a whole lot more).

Believe it or not, the knee actually has more evidence online than low back for its correlation of posterior chain strength preventing injuries.

A lot of the research is specific to ACL injury prevention, but honestly, mechanics resulting in various knee injuries are often similar to ACL mechanics.

One of the predisposing factors to knee injury is what is known as dynamic valgus (knee collapsing inward) mostly brought on by quad dominance.

The other major way it can be brought on is by lack of posterior-lateral hip control.

Most individuals are quad dominant because of sitting all day, turning off the glutes and hammies, and leaving the quads as primary movers.  Here is a photo of one of my favorite examples of a dynamic valgus brought on by quad dominance (i.e. the quads winning the tug of war on the femur and pulling into dynamic valgus:

 

Notice how his knees cave in as he develops power, this is a great example of when even “healthy” people can be predisposed to injury.

How do we combat this? Well, this answer is multi-faceted, but Ill give you a hint… one of the best ways it to strengthen the posterior chain.

It’s really that simple.

There are TONS of ways to strengthen and target the posterior chain.  As a matter of fact, just peruse Tony’s awesome website, and you will find tons of exercises… as I did when I was just a newbie in the S&C world.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1) Glute-centric: Bridging, every bridge variation….

2) Hamstring-centric: Nordic Hamstring curls (also AWESOME evidence for preventing hamstring strains)

3) Compound post chain: DEADLIFT, RDL, KB swings

Conclusion

You still need to train your anterior chain too! However, in a world where we’re stuck sitting for hours on end and prone to training our “mirror muscles,” placing more of a premium on the posterior chain is never a bad idea. For many reasons.

http://tonygentilcore.com/2016/05/why-train-the-posterior-chain/

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