Pump like a true pro!

Hello to all, 

New blog post and today we are going to talk about the pump and how to make it like a real pro! 

Push-ups. Symbolic exercise, even universal.

Everyone knows what they are. And to say the least, we often see different people doing them in different ways. Ready to get your push-ups done?

 And in this article, we're going to break down this famous pump and give you the best recipe for it. Let's quickly look at the minimum warm-up to do before going through theperfect execution of the floor pump and let's finish by seeing how you can alter its level of difficulty, either to make it easier and strengthen yourself to succeed in your first real pump, or, on the contrary, to progress towards more difficult variations. 

Warm up before you start!

First, the specific warm-up for doing push-ups. The only real critical point here is probably the wrists. Don't hesitate to warm them up sufficiently beforehand, for example with some mobility movements on the floor. Then, a few shoulder reels or dislocations will never hurt. And finally, if the pump is still a difficult exercise for you, you can do a few reps of a simpler variation to finish preparing your body for what's coming next.

Now let's take a look at the execution in detail and in pictures of what is the perfect floor pump. 

The perfect positioning for a successful pump 

Let's start with the most important: initial positioning.

  

First of all, the hands that we want to place, the fingers slightly spread forward, at shoulder width or slightly wider. Since we are going to push with the palm, but also the fingers, we want to have the shoulders directly above the center of the hand, where we are going to put the weight, which implies not having the arms perpendicular to the ground, but to be slightly bent forward. 

Then, very important, the shoulders in which we do not want to fall, on the contrary, we will want to push them forward as much as possible, then down.

You can also turn your arms so that the inside of your elbows are forward, and you can stretch them 99%, which is a way of saying that you always want to have a slight contraction in your arms. So that you're using your muscles to support yourself, not resting on your joints.

The rest of the body is equally important. Specifically, it must be straight and contracted from the shoulders to the heels. To do this, you will proceed to a retro version of the pelvis, which will prevent the lower back from digging in or falling. And it will also allow you to voluntarily contract your abs and glutes. It remains only the legs that you are going to tighten, to stretch well and also to contract, while holding firmly on the tiptoes.

And there you have it, you're in a solid sheathing position, with almost every muscle in your body engaged, ready to string together your push-ups and nail them.

Perfect execution of the pump

You go down until your pecs are just lightly touching the floor, then you go all the way back up until your arms are almost fully extended. We use our muscles to keep control for 100% of each repetition, we don't let ourselves fall. At the top of the movement, the upper back should form an arc as the shoulder blades are pushed outward. On the way down, however, they will come together in the middle of the back before returning to their own sides again.

This is more important than it seems, and it allows you to avoid a common mistake which is to constantly stay with a hollowed out upper back. Otherwise, for the rest of the body, nothing changes, it must remain straight from the beginning to the end, like a bar that can neither bend nor break. So pay attention to the hips. The head remains neutral. We don't force it down. 

Last important point: As with any exercise,you breathe in as you descend and breathe out as you push yourself against gravity.

First, if you haven't managed to get your first perfect push-up yet, the best method is to do incline push-ups where you will elevate your hands on a surface higher than your feet. 

Inclined pumps

This way, you will find the right incline for your level and you will be able to gradually reduce it to the ground. 

Another very effective and useful method, especially if you don't have a lot of incline options is to do negative push-ups, which is to just focus on slowing down the descent by maintaining a nice body position before coming back up as you can and starting over.

This is a great way to learn any exercise in general.

Negative pumps

 Finally, you can also do push-ups on the knees, but in this case, be very careful, because there's often a tendency to bend at the hips when you're just starting out, whereas the important points of execution should be the same as for the normal push-up.

Pump on the knees

Now, when the classic pump becomes too easy for you, if you want to continue to gain strength and muscle as well as endurance, you'll have to make the exercise more complicated.

To do this, there are several ways at your disposal, you just have to play with the inclination, by raising your feet this time, but be careful that your shoulders are not the only ones to work! 

In addition, you can do deeper and deeper push-ups using parallel bars or much more unstable ones if you do them on gym rings, also we offer push-up handles, these are also great options to consider if floor push-ups tend to hurt your wrists. 

Finally, you can aim for the one-arm version, making the pump increasingly one-sided.

Single arm pump
 

If you enjoyed this article and learned a few things, especially how to do push-ups, don't hesitate to share or comment, also if you have a question or if you want to share your progress with us.

You can also watch the video for successful push-ups.

In the meantime, work hard and take care of yourself!

See you soon,

Eric Flag