Old Forum OAP, Bruce Lee style

[stormcrow]

Greetings everyone,

I've been a follower of Pavel for a few years now, own 2 kettlebells, and have always been fascinated with bodyweight feats and strength. My question has to do with the 1-arm push up. I'm sure all of you are familiar with Bruce Lee's famous 1-arm/2-finger push up. If you haven't seen it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WCQGghedDM

It looks to me that his arm is about a 90 degree angle to his body. We are always taught to keep our elbow in and avoid "flaring out" to prevent injury. My main question is this: I would like to start practicing 1-arm push ups like Mr. Lee (but with my whole hand), is this going to be bad for my shoulder? If I actively engage my lats and try to pull myself down will the shoulder still be protected at that angle? Was Bruce wrong to do them this way? Thank you!

 

[luciusluke]

I don't tell you if Bruce did this or that wrong.

I can tell you that from my point of view, you should practice your OAP from Naked Warrior, when you will master the basics then you can experiment. With Pavel's book you can't go wrong, for sure. It is safe and powerful method.

Another thing, this one arm/2 fingers pushups are great FEAT. Read the last blog plost about topic. Exercises are quite different kind of things.

If you wanna do pushups on fingertips, do Spider-ups from Brad Johnson arsenal.

If you wanna do one arm pushups, just do it from Naked Warrior.

And one more thing: learn and master "corkscrew" technique. In any exercise.

 

[Joey van Hoek]

I think the way main reason for having his arm out at a 90 degree is because of the two fingers.

You need the 90 degree angle to keep a straight wrist. This isn't such an issue when using the whole hand.

 

[Journeyman]

For me, using the above 'Lalanne' style technique made strict OAPs easier for me, not sure about anyone else....

And you can engage the lat almost as well as the elbow-tucked form, it just requires a bit more practice.

 

[Pavel]

Aaron, from the video it appears that his lat was still very strongly engaged.