Creating a stability challenge component to the push up can make for a very effective full body exercise. The spiderman push up does just that by alternating which leg is raised on the down phase to the push up. This adds a lot of extra load into the abdominal corset as well as the front aspect of the hip and knee joints.
This exercise is not necessary a great choice for increasing muscle mass however its difficulty across the whole body ensures it’s a good choice for HIIT and tabata sessions or anyone wanting to put a load transfer challenge across the front of the pelvis
Other cues
Hands in a comfortable position
Do not drop a balancing imaginary drink between your shoulder blades
Do not drop a balancing imaginary drink on your lower back
Take your knee to your elbow
Targeted muscles trained
Pectoralis major
Triceps
Rectus abdominus
Rectus femoris
Key movements trained
Shoulder horizontal adduction
Elbow extension
Lumbar anti-extension
Hip anti-flexion
Considerations
Kinetic chain component of this exercise is demonstrated when you go onto a single leg. If you manage to control your lower back position and do not allow it to extend further then You will be creating a large co-contraction of your abdominals and hip flexors, these will be controlling your lower back and pelvic positions through the movement. Therefore those will weakness in the abdominals and have difficulty controlling extension will need to build up to this high stress exercise
This same component of the exercise helps to train an important trait called load transfer. This is the name of the process of passing force through the lower limb, across the pelvis, into the abdominals and into the upper body
Driving the lifting leg too high will put a lateral shift through your lower back, if you do not desire this then it's worth feeling the first couple of reps to find the point you need to stop before it occurs
Comments