I have been watching push-up challenges on the internet for many years and there is something that they all have in common, something that everyone does wrong, even those who, just before starting the challenge, say that they are going to do them 100% strict, that they are going to do them full range of motion, etc. They still do it wrong. Nobody, in any push-up challenge, ever… completely locks their elbows, they never fully extend at the top. Not even when, before starting the challenge, they say that it must be extended completely, they never carry it out.

The concept is simple, extending completely is not extending at 90%, nor at 95%, extending completely is... extending as much as possible, until the elbow is locked.

If you look at this type of challenges, in the final part when they are already tired and stop at the top to rest, there they do lock their elbows well, because if not, you don't get any rest, and there you can see the difference between what they have been doing throughout the challenge and what it means to extend it completely.

When I try to understand why this situation occurs, it comes to mind that these challenges often have a time limit, and thanks to this "cheat" the repetitions can be done faster, which is certainly one of the causes. But it also happens when there is no time limit, in the typical challenges of "do your maximum number of push-ups" or "try to do x push-ups". There they also make this mistake, and in this case I think it is because with this maneuver each repetition is a little easier and less fatigue accumulates, but obviously that does not mean that they are correctly executed.

Also a third reason is a lack of knowledge about exercise. Most people think they know how to perform a push-up, but then this is not reflected in practice. And a lot of these push-up challenges are with random people on the street, so maybe we could use a little general awareness about what is a push-up and what isn't.

The same thing usually happens in pull-up and dip challenges, but that is a topic for another article.

To relieve tension, I decided to do my own challenge of 100 push-ups in the shortest time possible, completely blocking each and every one of the repetitions, and it took me 6'45", in case anyone dares to try it. Although, given what I've seen, I don't have many hopes that anyone can do it correctly.

Yerai Alonso