Explosive push-ups

CrossFit uses a few basic bodyweight exercises. One of the most popular and effective are push-ups from the floor. The peculiarity of this exercise is that with its help you can develop not only the pectoral muscles, triceps, front deltas, but also significantly improve the speed of hand movement.

In this article, we will take a closer look at a complicated version of the exercise - explosive push-ups from the floor. It is they, when correctly performed, that most effectively develop both muscle strength and speed of movement. How this happens - read on.

What muscles work?

First, let's look at what muscles work when doing explosive push-ups. As in the simple exercise, the muscles of the chest, anterior delta and abdominals are involved. However, in the case when you make an additional movement with your legs, the muscles of the buttocks, quadriceps, iliopsoas and square muscles of the lower back are actively involved in the work. In fact, you are turning on the so-called "core muscles", which are responsible for the correct position of the body in space and maintaining the correct geometry of the spinal column.

Exercise options

There are several options for doing explosive push-ups. We have selected the most effective ones for you and have listed them in order of increasing difficulty. In each case, the starting position is the same - the rest is lying. Then there are variations with the position of the hands, the use of the muscles of the legs, etc.:

With hands off the floor

1. We put our hands a little wider than the shoulders, lower our chest to the floor, by bending the arms at the elbow joints. We push ourselves off the floor with both hands, the hands are torn off the floor, but they do not change their positions - they pushed off the floor - the phase of “arms release” - touched the floor with our palms.
   
2. We place our hands shoulder-width apart, lower our chest to the floor and powerfully push off the floor. In the "flight" phase, we spread our arms wider than our shoulders and land in this position. Having landed, we perform push-ups from the floor with a wide grip, again push off and in the “flight” phase we change the position of the hands to the original position, that is, shoulder-width apart.
   
3. Before starting the exercise, on both sides of the hands, place small bars 10-15 centimeters high. They can be placed both on the outside and on the inside of the hands, but at a short distance from the hands. We lower ourselves with our breasts to the floor, sharply straighten our arms at the elbow joints and tear them off the surface, moving our palms onto pre-prepared bars. We perform push-ups on the bars, again push off and return to the floor.
   
4. Starting position - hands shoulder width apart. Next, we lower ourselves with our chest to the floor, then sharply straighten our arms and throw them over our heads, as if we are trying to dive into the water. At the end of the exercise, we land in the starting position.
   
5. We put our hands shoulder-width apart, do push-ups. Next, we push off the floor with our hands and in the “flight” phase we do one clap in front of the chest, after which we lower ourselves on the palm of our hand.
   

With the whole body off the floor

1. This movement is similar to that described in point 5 of the previous section. The difference lies in the fact that in this version you need to push off with your hands, but at the same time tear off not only your palms, but also your toes from the floor. You must land in the same position in which you were originally.
   

   

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2. We also begin this exercise by placing our hands shoulder-width apart and lowering our chest to the floor. Then we sharply push off the floor with our hands, go into the “flight” phase, while practically in the air we turn around with our whole body, changing the direction of the body by 90 degrees, and land on outstretched arms.
   
3. We left off the so-called “Aztec” push-ups for completion. This is the most difficult variation of the exercise, so if you are a beginner athlete, then you should not try to do it right away, as you can get injured. Take a starting position with your hands shoulder-width apart. Push off the floor with your hands, while also tearing off the surface of the socks. Taking off from the floor, in the flight phase, sharply pull the pelvis up and, as it were, fold in half, touching your toes with your fingers. Immediately lower your pelvis downward, returning your body to its original position. Land in the starting position, that is, again taking the support while lying down. Ideally, you should not bend your knees in the "flight" phase, however, if you cannot do this exercise in the correct technique, pull your knees to your chest - the range of motion of the pelvis will be less, and the exercise will become easier to perform.

Exercise technique

Regardless of what type of explosive push-ups you decide to practice, there are a number of general technical points that are important to observe when performing the exercise:

• The muscles of the chest and triceps must be tightened sharply and at the same time, in order to create an impulse of the required strength. The more powerful the impulse, the longer the "flight" phase, and the more actions you will have time to do in this phase (we are mainly talking about push-ups with clap).
• Immediately after the push, the hands must be relaxed - this is the only way you can quickly change their position relative to each other or perform some kind of movement.
• The abdominal muscles must be tense to keep the pelvis in the correct position.
• When you need to push off the floor and tear off not only your arms, but also your legs, the right decision is to put your hands shoulder-width apart, below the level of the shoulder joints, and at the moment of the push, additionally give yourself an impulse with your toes.
• If you are doing "explosive" push-ups to develop fighting qualities, the most optimal mode of work is to perform the maximum number of push-ups for 10 seconds, followed by 50 seconds of rest. Such approaches need to be done from three to five. If your goal is endurance, then you do not need to try to do as many push-ups as possible in a certain period of time. Instead, concentrate on continuing to do the exercise for as long as possible.

Development of speed qualities of hands

The speed qualities of the hands, which, in addition to the strength ones, help to develop explosive push-ups, will come in handy not only in strength and playing sports, but also simply in life.

Neuro-muscular synapse

The rate of contraction of the muscle fiber is strictly limited. The nerve that transmits an impulse from the brain to the muscle cannot perform its function faster than a certain time interval. However, if we talk about the everyday concept of speed (and force, by the way), then this quality does not depend on the time of the impulse along the nerve fiber, but on the ability to arbitrarily include a large number of motor units in the work at once.

One motor unit is a muscle fiber, to which a nerve approaches, forming a neuromuscular synapse. In order to perform a certain movement quickly and with maximum strength, many muscles must be involved in the work at the same time. And this quality is gained not so much by training muscles as by training the nervous system. Exercises, in this case, should be performed as quickly as possible, and the movements should be sharp.

Quick response

One of the best exercises for this purpose is explosive push-ups. In most cases, in the "flight" phase, when you have just kicked off, you need to have time to perform some additional movement with your hands, for example, a clap. Landing is required, in any case, on the palm of your hand - and this must be done before you hit your face on the floor. That is, the speed of reaction and the speed of hand movement are important. Therefore, explosive push-ups are most often used to train athletes in boxing, kickboxing, ARB, combat sambo, MMA-martial arts, where a quick and powerful punch is needed. However, explosive push-ups have a number of modifications that will be useful for crossfitters, so we recommend including them in your training complexes.

The benefits of exercise

The benefits of explosive floor push-ups are as follows:

• they develop intermuscular coordination;
• increase the speed of movement;
• give the explosive power needed in martial arts.

The only drawback of explosive push-ups is the risk of injury. For example, you can not calculate the forces and hit the floor with your face. Therefore, it is better to start your training on something softer than a rubber or concrete floor - a wrestling carpet, in this case, is ideal.

Crossfit complexes with exercise

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Circular training

Watch the video: How To Do EXPLOSIVE Push-Ups (November 2024).