The Push: How To Progress In The Movement Part 1

Did you know that from 30 to 80 years old, your muscle mass can decrease by 40%?! What type of wild statistic is that?! The way that I clutched my chest when I found that out, I was truly flabbergasted. 30 years old is way too young to be worrying about injuries that make us feel so much older than we are. Luckily, there are ways to slow down this process of age-related muscle breakdown. One of those ways is by incorporating strength training into your lifestyle. The push movement and the other six functional movement patterns have the power to protect your joints from injury. They also increase bone density and improve flexibility, balance and mobility.

My challenge to you is to give your upper body days your best for three months. Give yourself some grace and try it out. You’ll be surprised how much stronger you are in 90 days.

I know that most women don’t enjoy training chest as much as the other upper body muscles. I get it because I used to be the same way, when I first began training. That was until I realised that having a well balanced physique means training each body part with the same intensity. My goal has always been to increase my overall strength and muscle mass. Over the years, I have found that training chest frequently has helped me build my shoulders and triceps more. In sum, my bench press strength has improved tremendously. In addition, I have the strength to lift heavier for my lower body which is a huge benefit for deadlifts.

What Are The Functional Movement Patterns

There are seven functional movements that your body performs on a daily basis in everyday activities. You may not realise the connection between placing your suitcase in the overhead bin on a plane to the overhead shoulder press. It mimics the action of the vertical push movement. Altogether, these movements target all the muscle groups and optimises your body to perform and function at its best. When the movement patterns that you practice in the gym imitate the movements that you perform in everyday life, you become stronger. You become more efficient and slow the clock down on age-related muscle breakdown. Once you start to view your exercises as movement patterns, you can build a well-thought out and solid programme tailored to your goals.

Check Out the Pinterest Functional Movement Series

To understand how to train the muscles used in the push movements effectively, you need to know what muscles are there and how they function. Your chest muscles are made up of two major muscles: the upper chest (pectoralis major) and the lower chest (pectoralis minor). Your shoulder muscles (deltoids) are made up of three heads: the front (anterior), the side (lateral) and the rear (posterior). Lastly, your triceps are the muscles that run down the back of your arm. They are made up of three long heads: the long, the lateral and the medial.

The chest muscles are responsible for moving the arms across the body, up and down, as well as other movements such as rotation and adduction. In terms of functional fitness, you need your chest muscles to push the door open and wash your hair. The stronger your chest muscles, the stronger your entire body is. Whereas, your shoulder muscles are responsible for supporting and stabilising the most flexible joint in your body. As we use our shoulders so often for rotation and elevation, they are most prone to injuries. Finally, your triceps are responsible for extending and straightening the arm.

What is The Push Movement

The push movement is one of the most effective ways to building upper body strength. It is one the most over – and under-utilised movement patterns in most gyms. For example, when you are getting up from the ground from a stomach-facing position that counts as a the push movement. The push movement can be broken down into two parts: vertical pushing and horizontal pushing.

The Vertical Push

The vertical push movements strengthen your ability to push weight above your head. As a result, this targets the development of your shoulder and tricep muscles. By training the vertical push, your shoulders will be more stable and it will improve your power overhead for more advanced lifts such as push press and jerks. Moreover, overhead pushing also strengthens your core which is critical for success and safety in this type of pushing.

The Horizontal Push

The horizontal push movements strengthen your ability to push weight away from you. As a result, this targets the development of your chest and tricep muscles. By training the horizontal push, your chest muscles and triceps become more stable and powerful. What is great about this particular type of pushing is that you can change your hand placement to target different muscles or emphasise one muscle group over the other.

There is an overlap between the horizontal push and the vertical push as they both target the triceps. In most training programmes, you won’t see a separation between these two types of pushing movements. It only works in practice. In training, one type of pushing movement will always affect the other type of pushing movement. For example, if you hit a plateau in the bench press (horizontal), you can work on your overhead press (vertical) to push through that stagnation. Why? Because they work similar muscles that effectively strengthen and build better together.

In the next instalment of this series, I’ll show you how to progress in the push movement using the two different types.

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I hope that this post has provided you with the basics of the push movement. I also hope that it has given you the confidence to efficiently continue building strength and muscle over time. Stay tuned for part 2 of the push movement. Make sure to hit that subscribe button to join the community and never miss out on a post. Find me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more powerlifting and wellness content.

Until next time,

Folakemi