Emma Ryan has been doing Handstand Push ups for a short time now.
It was certainly very very exciting when she initially kicked up on the wall and proved she was able to lower herself down to the floor with reasonable control and explode up into a stable locked out position, completing her first handstand push up.
Weeks went by and workouts popped up where she would complete handstand push ups in large volume, often with a slightly reduce depth to allow for more work to be achieved in a short space of time. At times though she was finding that her form would suffer, lowering herself became hard mid workout and at yikes she would “plonk” (for lack of a better word) down on her head. Emma would finish workouts with quite a few reps under her belt and also a sore neck at times.
Today however, she explored the “Monkey Push up” with a new perspective. Rather than perceiving it as a scale, which many do, or a less effective version on the handstand push up… Emma chose to view it as a progressive assistance exercise which would fill the holes in her strength game. The monkey push up, would challenge her to build strength and control through both the eccentric and concentric phase of the push up and it did. Emma successfully worked her way through today’s session with a great appreciation for the Monkey Push up and a great appreciation for progressions.
Today we wncourage you to take a step back to step forward, or take a step across to move on, by using progressions or assistance exercises in your training.
Monkey push up:
– Hips elevated over shoulders and hands
– Arms locked out
– Legs straight if possible, bent if necessary
– Lower head to ground, slightly forward of fingertips to emulate handstand push ups
– Press back up to straight arms with hips elevated over shoulders and hands
