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Pushups

Start face down, with hands and feet on floor, palms flat about shoulder width apart, and body extended straight. Lower yourself with your arms until you are not quite touching the floor (some people recommend just touching the floor with your nose - but don't slip...). Make sure the body stays straight - no bending at the waist or knees. Then push yourself back up again. Modifications for beginners

and for possible progression

are at the bottom of the page.

Muscles trained:

Primarily pectorals (chest), with some triceps and abdominal. Use pushups with hyperextensions for extra rotator cuff and serratus anterior development, both important for archery.

Start
Down and push back to start

Beginners

Pushups can be quite hard to start with. There are two ways to start easier:

	Bend a bit.	Stage 1: bend at the waist. Start face down, and push up, allowing yourself to bend at the waist so your hips don't leave the ground.
		Progression: bend at the knees. Rather harder - just as for stage 1, but keep the waist straght and bend at the knees.
	Start vertical.	Stage 1: Against the wall. Instead of starting horizontal, start at arms length from a wall, put both hands at shoulder height against the wall, and lean forwards, pushing back upright with your arms. Progression: Instead of a wall, use a horizontal bar at about waist height (a good, solid fence should do), so you're doing your push-ups at about 45 degrees from the vertical.

Progression

There are several ways of making pushups progressively harder, to increase strength.

	Add weight	A simple method, working in pairs with someone else, is to use their body weight. Stage 1: Partner adopts a pushup position with their feet on your shoulders and hands on or near your ankles. You push up as before. Stage 2: Partner sits on your upper back, facing towards your feet and with their feet on the floor for stability. You lift them up. This is HARD - your arms are feeling well over twice the weight they feel with ordinary pushups.
	Incline	Progressively place your feet higher. For example, on a bench to get them 18" (50cm) off the ground; then higher, using wall bars. Ultimately, you can be nearly vertical, pushing into a handstand - but this is substantially changing the muscles you use, and could be quite nasty if you slip - landing on your head or overbalancing from a handstand can be very nasty. You're probably better off using weights or a multigym, which can train the same muscles without turning you upside down!

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