Explosive Push Ups - Ouch!

[OakLeaf]

[drift] Doesn't hanging your fingers off the mat take pressure off the fingers (and necessarily transfer it to the wrists)? What are some of the cues your teacher uses to help you take the pressure off your wrists? (some of the ones my teacher uses: keep all five metacarpal heads on the mat ... grab the mat with your fingertips and "pull" it toward you ... seal the webbing between thumb and forefinger to the mat). [/drift]

Most people probably have the arm and chest strength to do plyo push-ups - it's the small stabilizer muscles in the hands and wrists that get de-emphasized in some programs, and those are the ones that keep you off your face. Good on V and her trainer.

[jessmarimba]

[drift] Doesn't hanging your fingers off the mat take pressure off the fingers (and necessarily transfer it to the wrists)? What are some of the cues your teacher uses to help you take the pressure off your wrists? (some of the ones my teacher uses: keep all five metacarpal heads on the mat ... grab the mat with your fingertips and "pull" it toward you ... seal the webbing between thumb and forefinger to the mat). [/drift]

When your full hand is on one of the professional mats (like I use at the studio) the weight on your wrist causes them to sink into the mat and your fingers bend backwards so the angle from fingers to forearm is less than 90 degrees. If your fingers hang off the mat, that angle widens back up to 90 or greater. I still pull towards me. One of my wrists is full of scar tissue from a cyst removal so I don't like to bend them backwards, but it's a pretty common modification with us.

The boxing bag sounds like it might have enough give to not be as painful as those pushups sounded originally - but I certainly won't be trying them anytime soon!