Let’s stop cheating our pushups and making the injury rehabilitation process more challenging!
There is a simple way to make our pushups easier. Allow for your shoulder blades to pinch together and limit the motion’s range of motion . Less distance required for the push up=less effort.
However, is this better for you?
Allowing your shoulder blades to pinch together excessively when performing a pushup places more strain onto the shoulder joint and may lead you to a physical therapy clinic like ours. Because the shoulder blades are pinched together, they are no longer able to move effectively and contribute to the exercise. More strain is placed onto the shoulder joint as it is forced to pick up the slack.
Correcting this common compensation may prevent you from “repping out” the same number of pushups however you will get more out of the exercise. In addition, your shoulders will be healthier in long run!
The video below helps to illustrate this difference.
Video 1: The shoulder blades immediately come together.
Video 2: Begins by reaching away from the floor thus helping the shoulder blades to start in a more protracted (spread apart) position. From there they move slowly together as the body descends to the floor and spread apart again on the way back to the starting position.
