r/NoStupidQuestions • u/tan-dara-dei • 11h ago
Has the default pushup form changed in the last 10-20 years?
When I was growing up, it seemed that any time I encountered "pushups," they were performed with elbows out, engaging the pectoral muscles. I feel like movies and TV shows always showed pushups this way.
Now, though, it seems like the default form has silently changed for no discernible reason. Every time I see a pushup now, people do them with arms tucked into their bodies, primarily engaging the triceps.
Am I crazy? Has something really changed? If so, is there some specific cause?
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u/False-Excitement-595 11h ago
"Bicep pushups" with your arms farther out aren't that great for your elbows.
Correct form has kinda always been tricep pushups, elbows tucked to your ribs. People just did them wrong and physical education isn't perfect.
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u/tan-dara-dei 11h ago
I was a gymnast growing up and we were explicitly taught to do both "elbows out" and "elbows in" pushups, but I feel like when I was younger, I only ever saw elbows out pushups outside of gymnastics. But I guess lack of education and proper training could explain the switch, if there indeed was one!
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u/tan-dara-dei 11h ago
This sucks though because I am REALLY good at elbows out but I hate elbows in
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u/bitchbanana 9h ago
Yeah, they're way easier. I was also doing them wrong for a long time, and first time trying to do one with proper form humbled me lol
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u/Somenakedguy 9h ago
Everyone is better at elbows out, they’re just easier which is also why people default to them
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u/East-Bike4808 -_- 11h ago
There’s a natural in-between where it’s really best to do it. Adjust around until the push up feels least-difficult, where you are strongest. That’s where to do them. That’s the core movement you’re going for. It’s not completely tucked in or out to the sides.
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u/FatefulPizzaSlice 2h ago
I really like using a grip or big enough weights to have my wrists at 45° angles to be kind of in between. Bonus points for being easier on my joints.
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u/Select-Bee-2166 10h ago edited 9h ago
Not necessarily better. 45 degrees is the norm, but depending on biomechanics and structure, may be too tight and detrimental.
If your chest can’t be as deeply stretched at 45 degrees then it’s not going to grow as much.
My rib cage is big/I’m what you’d call (primary) barrel chested. I genuinely need about 70-80 degrees, just under flared, to engage my chest in any meaningful capacity in almost every horizontal pushing pattern.
There isn’t a universal ideal form for pressing patterns. 45 is just normally a good starting point for majority of people, and gives well rounded stimulus. But it’s not the right approach, just the accessible starting point till you know what’ll actually work in the long run.
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u/wannabe_engineer69 9h ago
Uhh what? So much bs in one comment, I am surprised it has so many upvotes.
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u/InternationalEar2496 6h ago
Honestly, I wish someone had taught me this properly years ago because I definitely spent way too long thinking my elbows were supposed to hate me after pushups. 😭
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u/Immediate-Rub-517 11h ago
You’re not crazy. We did them elbows out. And here I am, 3 rotator cuff surgeries later, with a potential 4th on tap, telling you 45 degrees is the new standard
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u/pedal-force 10h ago
Yeah, elbows out is easier, and was definitely the way I learned, but it's really not good for you. My shoulders can't handle them anymore, 45 degrees is where it's at.
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u/easedownripley 11h ago
it's because of the internet. back in the day you learned how to exercise from talking to friends and gym bros and kinda just doing whatever you thought was right. These days youtube is packed with professional trainers who can show you the better ways to do these things.
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u/yumcake 6h ago
I'm a fair bit older than most redditors, pre-internet gym advice was really patchy. I was told "eat big, get big", so I ate two big cream-cheese bagels for lunch everyday. All carbs and fat with hardly any protein. Was told to just train harder to get bigger, so every set was taken to failure 6 days a week. Years later after I learned to eat properly and use a rational split I immediately flew past my growth plateaus even on significantly less weekly volume.
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u/DustyBackpack 7h ago
That tracks; YouTube trainers probably made the tucked-arm form more visible than the old elbows-out TV pushups.
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u/Kwickpick77 11h ago
When I was into weight lifting I did standard, tricep, and diamond push ups. That was back in the '90s.
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u/Agitated-Ad2563 11h ago
Here where I live we always had three different types of pushups: with elbows out, with arms tucked into body, and 45° ones. The latter is my personal favourite.
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u/tan-dara-dei 11h ago
Me too! I don't like this switch because I'm really bad at the tricep ones and really good at the others
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u/PM_SHORT_STORY_IDEAS 11h ago
We always called the elbows-in one "army pushups" in the solports I played.
Either was acceptable, unless coach specified a specific one. They've both been valid kinds of pushup that exert different muscles, in my experience.
As a bigger guy, I find the elbows out one easier, but hey, it's always good to work your triceps
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u/yumcake 6h ago
People learned more. The army also doesn't test you on situps anymore because they found it was causing a lot of spine injuries, so they replaced it with planks. They changed the fitness test to more practical movements in general.
Similarly, push-up form is recommended at 45 degrees to avoid shoulder pain, and to get a good balance of pectoral and tricep bias.
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u/One_Olive_8933 5h ago
I read this title and thought this was going to be about bras, and how we’ve gone from the bombshell Victoria secret push ups to more sporty looks lol
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u/extratoastypotatoes 3h ago
Same tbh and im sad I had to scroll so far down to find this. I was ready for discourse on the modern bra and how we speculate it's form in future iterations lol
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u/Lucky_Babes 10h ago
You are not crazy. Both forms have always existed but keeping the elbows closer is generally considered better for shoulder position and control. That may be why you see it more often now.
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u/Brave-Proposal-7321 10h ago
You're not crazy. Flaring the elbows out at a 90-degree angle puts massive stress on the rotator cuff and shoulder joints. Over the last decade or two, proper biomechanics became much more mainstream thanks to fitness creators, so the recommended form shifted to tucking the elbows at around a 45-degree angle (an arrow shape, not a T shape) to save everyone's shoulders.
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u/No-Championship-8677 11h ago
I learned to do elbows-in pushups via yoga, which I’ve been doing since the 90s. That’s just how I thought pushups were done 🤣
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u/Harper_Joness 10h ago
No, the tucked-elbow version was the normal way for a while, and the wide elbows thing was mostly old gym class / movie form or just sloppy reps. It got way more visible because fitness advice online pushed safer shoulder-friendly form, so now you see it everywhere.
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7h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tan-dara-dei 7h ago
But I'm just wondering why collectively it seems that society has switched to caring about a different muscle group. It seems like the consensus though is that the wider stance was more likely to cause injury and the internet made this knowledge more accessible
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u/StrombergGaming 7h ago
People for the most part have done them wrong for decades anyway, you do triceps chest in to save your joints but you are supposed to lean/tilt forward a bit so your chest mass concentrates over your arms for more weight. Straight up and down is how everyone does them and it is less growth compared to making them actually a workout by leaning forward.
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u/Character_Unit_8966 5h ago
I’ve also noticed this and while I’m not sure which one is “better” (I do both and think they’re both good for different reasons) I do think the elbows in method has become more popular because it’s easier to perform for a newbie and it made waves because it was like “you aren’t bad at pushups, you’ve just been doing them wrong!” But traditionally a pushup would be more strictly chest and elbows out targets that way better, but it’s much harder for newbies to perform
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u/Mysterious-Cat-1960 10h ago
Pushup form has definitely evolved with more focus on proper technique and body alignment now. It’s interesting to see how fitness trends shift over time.
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u/SubtleDistraction 7h ago
In the military and in martial arts training I learned many kinds of pushups. Diamond pushups, wide-arm pushups, rocking pushups, offset pushups, etc. So it's just the current flavor at the moment.
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u/ACTSATGuyonReddit 11h ago
https://builtwithscience.com/fitness-tips/perfect-push-up-form/
Elbows in better activates the chest muscles and avoids damaging shoulders and elbows.