How to master the Push up progression for FLETC

“Push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and squats, oh my.”

Looking back over the years it was rare to find people who enjoyed these movements. Yet, for time invested in skill work there are few movements that give you a better return on your training investment in the way of improved performance and overall fitness. Making these core movements a regular part of your training will make you more fit, providing the core strengthening foundation to assist in other movements, like Olympic lifting. Let’s take a closer look at the push up.

What’s required to master the push up for FLETC?

Shoulder strength
Core strength
Leg strength

Basically your entire body is involved with a push up. Understand it will take strengthening your entire body and getting it used to coordinated movements that will allow you to progress from an assisted push up to a ring push up to a hand stand push up to a ring hand stand push up.

What does it take?

For one it takes consistent effort in practicing the movement. But what if you can’t even do one push up? What then.

Push ups on the knees? No.

Bench press? No.

How about just struggling through doing regular push ups as best you can? No.

Why not? Primarily becuase all of these versions of the push up do not involve the coordinated effort of the lower body tightening to hold you in a “plank” position while moving your body with a push. (If I may borrow the Yoga term “plank”). Struggling through push ups, does get you there, but it is time consuming and difficult to do the volume of push ups needed to develop the skill and strength to complete the movement.

To progress with a push up here 4 steps.

1. Use an assist band that is resistant enough to assist yo holding your body weight, but no too resistant remove your effort. The video below shows a women using a resistance band to do an assisted push up.

What I like about this video is how she demonstrates the use of the band. Loop one end of the band on a pull up bar and position the band in a comfortable area across your chest. What I didn’t like about the video is the lack of form. Look closely and you will see her mid section drop while performing. When doing this movement it is better to go slower and work on keeping your core muscles tight and your back flat and in straight alignment with your legs, moving your entire body in unison. The band can assist you with taking weight from your arms, however, it is up to you to focus on keeping tight core muscles and your back flat.

2. Progress by using different sized bands. The thicker the band the more the resistance. I would suggest starting with a thicker band first and then focusing on your form. As you decide to progress you have two options. Buy the next or two sizes smaller band to progress into using (suggested), or you can add weight to your upper body with the use of a training vest. Plenty of other movements can be done with a vest and if you only have so much of a budget, having a band and a vest gives you many more options of training than two bands would. I suggest the latter for someone on a budget. You can also buy two smaller bands and use them together as one large band. As you get stronger, drop to one of the smaller bands.  Use the chart below to estimate the amount of resistance you need for your bands. Keep in mind these bands can also be used to do assisted pull ups, which is what the chart was designed for, but you can use them the same for push ups. We will discuss pull ups later, a post for another time.

3. You can start today with push up training by holding a “plank” position as long as you can. Then rinse and repeat. Do at least 10 reps at a time. You can start at 1-3 times a day to get you started until your bands come in the mail. But, keep in mind, holding a plank will get you good at plank, not doing push ups. When doing this move, focus your attention on keeping your core (abdominal) muscles as tight as possible, while still allowing for normal breathing. Also focus on keeping a straight back in alignment with your legs. Don’t let your midsection drop towards the floor. It is best to look in the direction of the angle that is in alignment with your back and legs. Imagine a straight line from your head all the way to your feet (As the picture demonstrates). Use a mirror if you need to examine your form, or have a friend look at you for weak areas, or even have them take a picture for you to see for yourself.

4. Scale, scale, scale. It takes time and effort to improve on your push up. Scale the movement by using bands. As you progress to thinner and thinner bands you will notice your skill and strength improving. It wont be long before you are doing strict pull ups, chest and chin to floor at the same time. Here is a link to a good discussion on the Crossfit Forum regarding scaled workouts and where to find them. You should make these a regular part of your warm up routine as well as getting in additional push ups (10 reps a day to maintain, 20 or more reps to improve) when you feel up to it. You will be sore at first, but progress quickly. Have set goal to improve to the next step where ever you begin. If you can do a push up, then it is time to progress into ring push ups using parallette bars and raised feet. this will help build the strength needed to get you on your way to hand stand push ups and ring hand stand push ups.

Final thoughts: Crossfit.com provides a Workout of the Day (WOD). Often push ups are omitted. Does this mean you will not improve in push ups? No! Doing pull ups, squats and all the other multitude of movements helps to strengthen your core muscles and hence improve your push up. I suggest do as much as you can with Crossfit, train your weak areas and stay with it, it will pay dividends by making you fitter and more well rounded. Buying bands and doing only push ups is not only arguably, boring, it will not make you well rounded in General Physical Preparedness, which is what is needed to not only pass FLETC PEB, but also to keep you fit on the job.

What are your thoughts? Let me know how your push ups are progressing. What other questions do you have. For you progressive FLETC Forum fans, are you doing hand stand push ups yet? Got questions about scaling them, drop me a line.