It is very likely that you know push-ups, that exercise that allows you to train your chest and triceps in an easy, effective way and only with your own body. Because of its benefits, push-ups are performed by millions of people around the world, although not perfectly. Some people make fairly common mistakes when starting pushups, which can even lead to injury.
For this reason, today we will see the 5 most common mistakes when doing push-ups, so that you learn how to avoid them, thus avoiding injuries and getting the most out of your training.
1. Bad positioning of the back
One of the most common mistakes when doing push-ups is poor back placement. Many people tend to arch their back downward, which will lead to ineffective bending.
In that sense, the correct thing to do to do push-ups for the first time is to keep your lower back completely straight, as if it were a board. In a push-up, what moves is the upper torso, that is, the arms and chest, never the lower back? In this way, you will achieve a flexion and, in addition, you will avoid annoying back flexions.
2. Do push-ups “half”
A typical beginner’s mistake is to do the pushup halfway that is, cutting back on the pushup to perform the pushup with less effort. Doing this type of push-up is not effective for working your chest and triceps. Just like when you do a bench press you have to lower the bar until it almost touches the chest, in the push-ups the same thing happens. Do a full-travel pushup, almost touching the ground with your chest. Better to do one pushup right than to do five pushups wrong.
3. Spread your arms too far
In addition to not warming up to do pushups, another mistake made by people who want to do more pushups than they actually can is spread their arms too far. The real push-ups are performed with separate arms at shoulder width as it is the most complete exercise in involvement chest, triceps and other auxiliary muscles.
Of course, you can also try doing the so-called “diamond” push-ups, which are done with your hands together. These push-ups are very complicated to do, since the triceps is much more involved than the pectoral, being a great exercise to isolate the triceps. We only recommend them for experts.
4. Not positioning the feet and legs correctly
In addition to hand placement, leg and foot placement is pretty important too, but one where newbies fail quite a bit. Some put their feet too far apart, some put the tops of their feet up, and some do weirder things like brace their knees. Needless to say, it is impossible to do a pushup this way.
The placement of the feet should be done with the feet almost together, with a separation of a couple of centimeters and resting only on the tips of the fingers. The foot should not make any force, but should simply act as a support, to be able to perform the movement correctly.
5. Make strange movements with the hips
Finally, many people not only arch their back, but do a very strange movement to do the push-up. Instead of using their arms to lower themselves, they lower their hips with a pelvic motion, even keeping their arms straight at times.
This is due to the usual, lack of strength and experience. If you cannot do a push-up correctly, it is better to train your chest in another way, until you have enough strength. At other times, you should also carry out a weight loss program, since logically, the less you weigh, the less weight you will have to lift and it will be easier for you.
