Ive been a strength and coniditioning coach for over 10 years now working with athletes and fitness enthusiasts of all levels. Over those ten years Ive used just about every new type of training and exercise under the sun.
With this type of expirience you really start to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Ufornutantley, many of the exercises that really don’t work are the very same ones that the health and fitness magazines are promoting and making popular. This ends up sending many eager exercises down the wrong path
The other isssue is that many less expirenced fitness instructors are also following the magazines and using these same un-effective exercises on a regular basis with clients who are spending their hard on money on something that they hoped they couldn’t get on their own.
My goal with this article is to show you why one f the most poplar exercise specialy amoungst women, the kneeling push, is pretty much a watse of time.
In addition, I will provide you with a much better alternative push up exercsise fro those who cant do regular push ups. This alternative is mouch more effective at building muscle definition and strength while burning more calories.
No More Kneeling Push Ups
My issue with the kneeling push up has nothing to do with mechanics or safety, in that respect the movement is okay. My issue is one of progression, or in this case, a lack there of.
In the past, I have used the kneeling push up as a regression strategy. I did this in the hopes that it had some progression potential and would eventually lead into normal push-ups
Unfortunately, I have found little to no carry over from the kneeling push –up to the regular push-up.
I can’t tell you why the kneeling push-up doesn’t carryover, it could be lever arm length, it could the angle difference, I really don’t know, it just doesn’t.
What I can tell you is that I have seen 100’s of people who could bang out endless reps of kneeling push-ups but still couldn’t even come close to performing a single regular push-up.
The kneeling push up is what I call a “dead end” exercise. Keep doing them and you will go nowhere!
Luckily, we have found a much better regression / progression strategy.
Incline push-ups
An incline push up is performed basically like the traditional style push up except you hold onto a object like a racked barbbell in the gym or the side of your bed if your at home.
The concept here is pretty simple, because you are at an incline there’s less force on the moving muscles and torso stabilizers. Which intern makes the push-up easier?
The best place to do this is on a smith machine because it’s easy to adjust and keep track of the bar depth from session to session.
Once someone can perform 20 quality reps at one height, we simply lower the bar one or two pegs. The lower the bar gets the harder the push up becomes.
As I said earlier, just because someone can easily perform kneeling push-ups doesn’t necessarily mean that they can do any real push-ups.
However, I can promise you from years of experience that if someone can perform 20 reps at a low bar setting; they can definitely bang out a few good reps from the floor.
In the end, this means that your getting stronger. If you’re stronger than you have more muscle. Because muscle is the shape of your body, you will most definitely look better.
