Categories
Education

Skill of the Week: Mountain Pushups

The Mountain Pushup is a great exercise both for general fitness and to improve upper body strength for gymnastics bar skills. It is also a relatively simple exercise that with just some basic instruction, most kids and parents can accomplish with the correct form and positioning.

Skill of the week is a little section about introducing at-home exercises for your athletes. At our gym we do a skill of the week every week with our recreational classes so we can introduce fitness in a fun way and also so that we can take the time to breakdown the proper technique for conditioning exercises to our students. I have found that many of our once a week students and their families are completely unfamiliar with basic fitness. Skill of the week is a way to introduce fitness to our greater gymnastics community in a fun way. Sometimes we add in little challenges or prizes – not just for our students but for the whole family to learn and practice together.


The Mountain Pushup is a great exercise both for general fitness and to improve upper body strength for gymnastics bar skills. It is also a relatively simple exercise that with just some basic instruction, most kids and parents can accomplish with the correct form and positioning.

MOUNTAIN PUSHUP:

Start with your toes on the floor, arms straight, and hips up high. Your arms should stay close to your ears. Keeping your downward dog (mountain/tunnel) form, bend your arms then push back up. Your body should remain in a V position the entire time. Only your arms bend, your knees should remain straight and head in neutral.

I give out to the students a little sheet with the photo and explanation of the new skill of the week. Then on the bottom we list a few short homework of the week exercises.

DAILY PRACTICE:

30  second wrist rotation stretch

30 second ankle rotation stretch

3 sets of 15 mountain pushups

Check out another skill of the week here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *