How to Build Shoulder Strength for your Pilates Push-up

exercise tutorials Sep 23, 2020

Push-ups are a fantastic exercise to improve coordination of all the shoulder stabilizers and build upper body and abdominal strength. They are found in just about every method of fitness. Unfortunately, many people perform Push-ups with poor form. The most common mistakes in Push-Ups are:

The shoulders sliding up to the ears
Shoulder blades squeezing together
Elbows winging out to the sides
Core collapsing
Overly protracting the scapulae in an attempt to keep them stable and/or the rib cage from flaring

As you can see, there's a lot that can go wrong. The key is to start slow and build strength in your stabilizing muscles to support the movement. Follow this path to build the foundation of strength that's needed for perfect push-ups.

1. First, let’s assess your shoulder strength in the narrow push up

Did you notice that your elbows are trying to flail out to your side? If they are, slow down the movement and focus all your attention on the direction of the elbows. Make sure they go straight back and towards the waist. You don’t need to do a ton of repetitions. Instead, try going very slowly. The intensity will come by trying to fight gravity over a longer time period.

If your elbows are kicking out to the sides no matter how hard you try to keep them in, don’t worry! Practice the variation in step 2 to build strength in the rotator cuff then try the exercise in this video again to see if it helped. Building strength takes time. You might need to practice step 2 for a few weeks or months to build the strength you need. But it's worth it! Remember to enjoy the process of making your body stronger and healthier.

2. Use a yoga strap to keep your elbows narrow and a yoga block to support your weight

Practice Makes Perfect. I recommend practicing this regularly (how about daily?) until you are sure that your shoulders do not creep up to your ears during the movement.

The next step would be doing this exercise without the block, but still using the strap. Try it on your knees to start.

Common mistakes are:

Your shoulder blades squeezing together on your back
Your head is lower than your shoulders
Your head gets pushed forward
You can’t keep your abdominals engaged and are sagging in the center

3. By now the shoulders should be strong enough for the whole Push-up Flow.

How did it go? It's a powerful feeling to crush Push-ups with great form. Practice this for a while and when you feel ready, keep in mind some fun progressions you can try, like:

Start with a one leg balance - reach the leg higher as your torso pivots forward until palms are flat on the floor.
Keep leg lifted while walking your hands forward into Leg Pull Down position.
Perform Push-Up with one leg in the air. Reverse. Repeat with other leg.

Push-Ups are a fun, powerful exercise that can mostly be done anytime, anywhere. When you get the details right, it's an awesome part of your Pilates program. Which suggestions did you find helpful? Which ones do you have questions about? Shoot me an email!