Mastering The Push Up Part 2 – The Hollow Body Plank Push Up

Ryan | December 26, 2011

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So now that you’ve had a chance to practice the basics of a Push Up, it’s time to build upon that by adding the hollow body plank position to your push ups. As we’ve said before, pushing is fundamental to parallette training work, so don’t overlook this component of your training program.

 

 

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So once you get the basic push up down, it’s time to move on into the hollow body push up.

Now, hopefully you’ve been working on your hollow body plank holds. This is going to be difficult because we need to keep that hollow body plank position. Only go down as far as you can while keeping that position.

We start off in a hollow body position, make sure that we squeeze our bodies (Ryan demos the hollow body position). This is not the standard plank – this is the hollow body plank (Ryan demos both the standard plank and the hollow body plank positions). From here, all we do (making sure to keep our elbows close to our bodies) is we lower ourselves, keeping this hollow body position. From here, push right back up.

One more time, from here, lower down as far as you can, push right back up. Make sure your elbows don’t flare out to the side when you go back into the top position. That’s the hollow body plank push up.

Keep the hollow body plank position while you move into your push up, and watch out for elbow flare when you go back into the top position.

More Tips For Mastering the Push Up

• Did you miss part 1 of this tutorial? Watch it again, here: Mastering the Push Up Part 1 – The Basics
• Here’s why you’ll want to avoid elbow flare on the p-bars

Try it Out

With the New Year coming up, there’s no better time to start correcting your Push Up form and work on mastering this common yet effective movement. Give it a try, and share your feedback below! Or better yet, join our 800+ GMB Posse members on Facebook and let them know how many you’re able to do.

 

Ryan Hurst

GMB Program Director - Ryan has a passion for movement, playing with his kids and being outdoors. That's why you're more likely to find him running, lifting, jumping, balancing, and climbing than anywhere online.

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1. Mark

   Happy New Year Ryan (and GMB); So there are a lot of sites that show how to hollow body, but none that say why we should have a hollow body (for positions beyond handstands as demo-ed by you). Why maintain a hollow body in the push up or plank/planche position? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

   Reply
   • Andy

     Cheers, Mark.

     We’re not suggesting that you should use the hollow body position for everything, but it is very good for building the exact stability needed for various inverted movements. It’s also something that almost everyone is weak at, which is why we recommend practicing it. That’s how you get strong.

     For push-ups, this isn’t the only right way to do them, of course. There are tons of push-up variations, and you’re welcome to choose the ones that suit your goals. We like this particular variation for building the type of pressing and core strength that we’ve found best carries over for handbalancing.

     Reply
2. Strus

   AFAIK keeeping hollow body allows to train far more efficiently. Look for Scott Sonnon “Power Chamber”- he gave this technique for free.

   Reply
   • Andy

     “Far more efficiently” than what?

     Recently, a few people have started teaching the hollow body position – it’s like when Tabata intervals caught on in mainstream fitness.

     It’s not some kind of magical ninja technique that makes everything better. It’s simply a description of something that every strong person since the beginning of time has intuitively understood: you’re stronger when your body is tight.

     The HB position is a learning tool, not a panacea.

     Reply

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