Correct PU hand positioning

[NoMoreRegrets]

I find that I can manage about 5 more pushups in the 2 minutes if I put my hands a little wider than what I can manage when I have my hands close-in. I referred to FM 21-20 and was not able to find any specific instructions on where one should place the hands.

What is acceptable and what is not? Do some hand positions yield better performance than others for everybody, or does it vary according to the individual?

With my hands in the wider position I can eek out about 46 now, so if I can use that hand position I'm certainly much closer than I thought I was.

[Ranger Hopps]

Well, you have to think of it kinda like benching. In benching there are close-grip, reg benching, and low-wide press. The first close grip, is where you place your hands approx. one foot or less apart from eachother, you bring your elbows down directly to the side of your body, and push up without letting your elbows flare out. That is where triangle push-ups come into play. You put your hands on the floor, so your index fingers and your thumbs form a triangle. You lower yourself untill your pecks touch your hands, and pushup keeping your elbows as tight against the side of your body as possible. These two types of workouts specifically target the triceps, and work on defining those three muscles. The next is a Reg. Pushup. You put your arms a comfortable distance apart, lower yourself so your elbow breaks a 90 degree angle, and push up. The same with Reg. benching, put your hands about shoulder with apart, lower and push up. This targets the pecks, shoulders, and back and of course triceps defining those muscles. The low-wide press, is when you put your hands approx. 1-2 inches farther apart than you do your normal benching. This still works your pecks, shoulders, and back. The only difference is you are using more peck muscle, difining that more than your triseps, back and shoulder. When doing this, most often than not, people can bench press more, with more reps (usually 2-3 reps). Same goes for PUs if you widen your stance a little 1-2 inches, you won't have to go down quite as far, and you should be able to do more rreps because you aren't putting so much work on your trisep. max out on reg. PUs then later that day, widen your stance and max out, since it you just started doing the low-wide press, your pecks will hurt, that is a good thing. Then do low-wide again the next day, i can almost guarentee your a 3-4 PU gain, in one day! Now your won't constantly gain 3-4 reps everyday, but i am confident you will see your amount of PUs grow faster than they were.

When i used to bench, i would do 3 sets of reg benching, then three sets of low-wide press. When i did my three sets of low-wide, i could do approx 15lbs more on my third set, than i could on my third set of reg benching. Same now, i will do a set of triangle, 2 sets of reg PU, then 3 sets of wide press.

I hope this helps.

Hopps

[Parabellum]

Any hand postion is exceptable. Obviously wide grip is easier.