Pilates push-up

5 reps · intermediate

Take care: Do the push-ups on the knees, or skip them, with a wrist, elbow or shoulder problem; bend the knees in the roll-down if the hamstrings or lower back are tight.

The classical pilates push-up: standing tall, the chin drops and the spine rolls down until the hands reach the mat, the hands walk out to a straight-arm plank, three push-ups with the elbows brushing the ribs and the body in one line, then the hands walk back to the feet and the spine rolls up to standing. A flow: every frame between the keyframes is solved, so the limbs keep their length.

Load and joint demand

Bodyweight: no weights. Joint demand below is your own body's weight in this position.

Faults

Faults grow with knee bend and apply to lifts standing on the floor. The fault check flags a knee caving more than 10° inside the line of the toes and a load split beyond 60/40. Knee cave shows best in the front camera.

Body

Femur changes keep standing height fixed by shortening or lengthening the torso. Longer femurs force more forward lean in any squat.

Muscles worked

Effort and your quota

5 slow, controlled reps. Pilates is practised for control, balance and mobility, never to failure, so this does not change with your limits.

Level: intermediate. One round counts like light conditioning work: 4 legs points, 86 push points, 29 arms points, 18 core points.

Prime movers

Pectoralis major, triceps, anterior deltoid, serratus anterior, rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis (holding the plank), hamstrings (stretched in the roll-down), spinal erectors.

What to look for

• Roll down one vertebra at a time, then walk the hands out without moving the feet.
• Elbows hug the ribs as you lower; the body moves in one piece.
• Walk back to the feet, lift the hips and roll up through the spine.