Decreases in activity and increases bodyweight have created a strength-to-weight ratio challenge for kids. As a coach, you know how many kids struggle with bodyweight movements like the push-up.

 

Push-ups are an important stationary movement control skill that helps kids establish a foundation of posture, strength, and stability for activities related to sports and daily life. It’s important that we as coaches have a plan to help kids build this skill and others while minimizing frustration.

 

Just to be clear, by building a skill, I’m talking about the quality, not quantity, of the movement. From an overall health, development, and performance perspective, a child that can do 5 face-to-the floor push-ups is in a much better place than the kid who wins the Presidential fitness award for doing the “worm” faster and longer than anyone else.

 

Why Are Push-Ups Important?

 

Obviously, the local muscle strength and endurance of the chest, shoulders, and triceps required to do a push-up are important metrics of general fitness.  Moving beyond fitness test scores though, push-ups can help build a foundation of whole-body strength and stability.

 

As a child’s hips and spine are suspended perpendicular to gravity, their core muscles have to fight to keep everything aligned both while they’re static and while moving. This impacts strength and posture when they stand up to do upright activities.

 

Proprioceptors involved with their shoulder joint have to manage the compressive forces created by gravity.  This helps create a foundation for shoulder stability and mobility so whether a child plans to throw a ball or carry a heavy book bag, they can do it safely and effectively. This is all not to mention the impact of the position and action of the head, feet, and hands on their ability to control the movement of their entire body.

 

When your kids struggle with push-ups however, below is a step by step blueprint to  build the proprioception, body awareness, strength, and stability to make this movement skill part of their lifelong athletic toolbox.

 

Step 1: Prep the Proprioceptors

Realize that most kids spend a majority of their time seated in classrooms, couches, and cars. The proprioceptors in their muscles and joints that provide feedback about things like tension and force get used to this supported position.

 

When we flip that seated position to one that requires a lot of tension and force to maintain posture against gravity, i.e., a push-up,  these under-used proprioceptors are immediately overloaded and fire the “abort” signal. Shoulder blades come crashing together, chests arch towards the sky, and hips sink to the floor. Tah Daahh! A seal.

 

When children are young or deconditioned, it’s important to help their joint and muscle proprioceptors get used to the force demands that are going to be placed on them.  One of the best ways to start is with different types of crawling and climbing.

 

While crawling provides compression (gravity pushing on the joint) and climbing creates traction (gravity pulling at the joint) both are important in “teaching” the shoulder proprioceptors how to properly do their job during push-ups and other movements.

 

While climbing activities require  some specialized equipment (objects to climb, climbing wall, rope, monkey bars) crawling activities can easily be integrated into a fitness program with little to no equipment. Starting with the “baby crawl” (hands and knees on the ground) progress towards being able to support their body with their knees off the ground, crawling in different patterns, body orientations, and planes of motion. Integrate these movements into warm ups, games, obstacle courses, and other activities.

 

Focus your coaching efforts on helping create general body awareness for the functional anatomy necessary for doing a proper push-up. For example, have them crawl with their hips high, low, and parallel to the ground. Have them move with their hands wider, even with, and more narrow than their shoulders. This way, when you progress to teaching the specific posture and movement sequencing for the push-up, kids will be able to respond to coaching cues more effectively.

 

To build endurance, start with short activities where they may only have to support themselves against gravity for 5-10 seconds. Slowly build to being able to support this position for 30 seconds or longer.

 

Below are some examples of crawling activities that can help build the foundational proprioception necessary for doing a push-up.

 

Baby Crawl (6-Point Crawl)

 

 

Bear Crawl

 

 

Circle Crawl

 

 

Crab Roll

 

 

Step 2:  Static Start

Once kids start to demonstrate a general level of proprioceptive and body awareness, it’s a much easier transition into the more refined demands of learning how to do a push-up. Even with these improved abilities however, the coordination required to effectively put the movement together could be a bit much out of the gate.

 

Doing static exercises in different positions during a push-up helps build the specific strength and stability necessary for the movement.

 

In order to do a push-up properly, it’s important that a child’s core, shoulder, and lower body muscles can work together to keep their hips and spine in proper alignment. This is all initiated at the top of the movement, also known as the “set up”.

 

Begin by teaching the basic set up position, starting on all 4’s with shoulders directly over the hands then lifting the knees, as demonstrated in the activity below.

 

Quadruped to Standing Plank

 

 

Start to hold this position for progressively longer bouts of time, starting with 5 seconds, progressing towards a minute.

 

Standing Plank

 

 

This static “standing plank” position is the foundation of the push-up movement, so if kids are going to be able to perform push-ups for time or repetitions, they must be able to maintain this position. What I’ve repeatedly found is that most kids can’t hold this static position for more than 10 seconds, yet coaches are having them do “push-ups” for much longer time periods of time. I think we all know what that looks like.

Once kids can hold a standing plank for 30 seconds, have them hold different positions within the push-up. Exercises like “half plank” are great static versions of the push-up that progressively build the strength and stability needed to do the movement right.

 

Half Plank

 

 

Step 3: Controlled Cadence

Once they have developed the static foundations of the push-up movement, it’s time to teach them how to maintain these foundations while they lower and raise their body under control.

 

Despite building the proprioception, strength, and stability to hold their body against gravity, adding movement to this equation can be overwhelming. To help with this, we recommend introducing both the eccentric (down) and concentric (up) aspects of the push-up independently, with the coach controlling the cadence of movement.

 

For example, have kids set up in a standing plank position and slowly lower themselves towards the ground as you count backwards from 5 to 0. When they reach the ground or as low as they can go without losing alignment or completely collapsing, they can bring their knees down to assist them returning to a standing plank position.

 

Check out this activity in action below.

 

Eccentric Push-Up

 

 

In order to build the concentric (“up”) portion of the push-up, you can help kids by changing their body position or adding external assistance. For example, elevating the angle of their body by putting their hands on a box or bar decreases the amount of mass they have to push directly against gravity.

 

Another way to do this is with an elastic band suspended above that goes around their chest in order to help them up against gravity.  Making sure all other technical aspects of the movement are aligned (hips, spine, shoulders over hands, etc.), these forms of assistance allow kids with varying strength-to-weight ratios to practice the movement correctly.

 

Band Assisted Push-Ups

 

 

Controlling movement tempo during both the “up” and “down” portion of push-ups reinforces elements of rhythm and body control. Since kids generally have 2 speeds (“on” and “off”), teaching them to control their rate of movement is an important aspect of overall development.

 

Throughout the process of introducing and practicing push-ups, allow the kids to be their own coach whenever possible. Don’t overcoach. Most kids are able to process one coaching cue at a time. With kids under 8, one coaching cue to focus on per day for a movement could be the limit.

 

Remember, your goal is not to create perfect push-ups after 1 day. With this blueprint, you have a plan to help kids who may struggle with their strength-to-weight ratio develop an important skill that can help them stay active and athletic for life.

 

 

 

 

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