Deficit Push-Up
oec:deficit-push-up
A push-up variation performed with the hands elevated on platforms or handles to allow the chest to descend past hand level for greater range of motion and stretch.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: Deficit Pushup, Deep Push-Up, Extended ROM Push-Up, Deficit Push ups
How to do it
Setup
- Place two stable elevated surfaces, such as blocks, weight plates, or handles, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart on the floor.
- Place one hand firmly on each elevated surface and extend your legs straight behind you, resting on the balls of your feet.
- Brace your core, squeeze your glutes, and establish a rigid straight-line plank posture from head to heels.
Movement
- Lower your body under control by bending your elbows and allowing your shoulder blades to retract.
- Descend smoothly until your chest dips below the level of your hands, feeling a deep stretch across the pectorals.
- Pause briefly at the bottom without letting your shoulders roll forward or hips sag.
- Press through your palms to return to the starting position, fully extending the elbows and protracting the shoulder blades at the top.
Breathing
Inhale as you lower your body into the deficit, and exhale forcefully as you press back up to the lockout.
Cues
- Chest through the hands
- Keep the body stiff like a board
- Elbows at a forty-five degree arrow
- Push the floor away at the top
Common faults
- Sagging hips or hyperextending the lumbar spine to reach the floor.
- Squeeze the glutes and pull the ribs toward the pelvis to maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement.
- Flaring elbows excessively wide at ninety degrees.
- Tuck the elbows roughly 30 to 45 degrees from the torso to protect the anterior shoulder capsule in deep flexion.
- Craning the neck downward to fake depth.
- Keep the cervical spine neutral and focus on lowering the sternum past the hands rather than the chin.
Safety
- Ensure the elevation blocks or handles are completely stable and will not slip or tip outward under load.
- Only descend as deep as active shoulder mobility comfortably permits without anterior shoulder pain.
Muscles
Joints
- Shoulder: Horizontal adduction, Flexion
- Elbow: Extension
- Shoulder blade: Protraction, Retraction
- Lumbar spine: Isometric stabilization
Details
- Movement
- Horizontal push, Anti-extension
- Modality
- Calisthenics, Strength, Hypertrophy
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- push
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- closed
- Level
- intermediate
- Equipment
- Parallettes or Yoga block or Weight plate or Step
- Record
- Repetitions
- Load
- bodyweight, not applicable
Related
- substitute for Parallette Push-Up
- substitute for Dumbbell Push-Up
Sources
- wger: Deficit Push ups, by Rottekongen (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.