[John Peterson]

Hey friends,

A man e-mailed me asking about the wrist soreness and stiffness that he has been experiencing as a result of going on an intensive Atlas III Push-Up program. He mentioned that he did not experience this same soreness and stiffness while performing Standard Push-Ups on the floor. I e-mailed him back because I wanted clarification as to whether it was soreness or pain? He responded and very clearly indicated 'stiff and sore' but not acute 'pain' in the usual sense of the word.

What to do? Let me just state that when one is performing the Atlas III Push-Up he should not have his shoulders forward of his hands. In other words his hands should be directly in line or slightly behind his shoulders. To make my point please do the following: get down the floor and put your hands in perfect alignment just outside the shoulders but in direct line with the shoulders so that your shoulders are not forward of your hands. If you were to move your shoulders so that they were ahead of or forward of your hands you would feel a definite 'Over stretch' in your wrists. This extra stretch is necessary and good for handbalancing but it is not what you want for high repetition Push-Ups due to excessive stretch/stress to the wrists. Remember, to prevent wrist soreness DO NOT place shoulders ahead of hands.

---John Peterson

[blackbelt]

Hi John,

Talk about timing.

Recently I decided to “play” with Atlas II push-ups, with feet elevated. I thought this version should at least give me a small taste of what Atlas III’s feel like.

Although I haven’t noticed any sort of soreness myself. I definitely have noticed a stretch in my wrists. This post is serving as a nice reminder to be cautious of my hand position whenever I’m doing push-ups with my feet higher than my hands.

Thank you.

[John Peterson]

Hey Rob,

The reason I took the time to post what I did is because if one person is asking the question chances are better than good that someone else may have the same question. Thanks for your post.

---John Peterson