The Push-Up Pro
Like bodyweight exercises? A firm believer in the ‘tried and true’ push-up? Then the Push-Up Pro could be just what you need to take your workouts to the next level without requiring you to head to the gym!
Simply put, these are “rotating pushup grips” and they do exactly what the name suggests. You hold onto them while doing push-ups, and they rotate in half-circles to give you a better workout.
The point of the Push-up Pro is to allow you to do push-ups using a more natural arm motion. Imagine throwing a punch – your arm rotates as it goes away from and comes toward your body. These grips incorporate that natural motion into your push-ups.
You can see the motion in the pictures below. In the up position, my arms are out like normal. But in the down position, my arms have rotated 90 degrees.
There are two main benefits to this. First, since it’s a natural motion, it’s easier on your joints. Since your arms are free to move naturally, there won’t be undue pressure on certain joints. (Normal pushups really put pressure on your wrists.)
That was a big selling point for me. I used these to improve range of motion in my arm/shoulder while rehabilitating a dislocated shoulder. My wrists have also taken a pounding from years of BMX jumps and aggressive mountain biking, so I liked how my wrists weren’t bent and pressed down into the floor.
Second, these provide a much harder workout. It’s also more of a full-body workout, since these hit all the muscles in your arms and shoulders, plus they bring your abs, back, and core muscle groups into play.
I can’t say exactly, but push-ups with these grips are much harder than regular push-ups. I’d say after 15 push-ups using these, I’m as tired as I would be doing 30 similar push-ups where my hands/arms stay locked. (And I already do a lot of core training. If you aren’t already using a core training program such as Cyclo-Core, these push-ups will be very difficult.)
Potential Problems with the Push-Up Pro
Slipping. The Push-up Pro base has five rubber grippers, and I’ve used these on carpet, cement, and tile floors without a problem. I doubt you will have any problems, but if you have a very smooth, slippery floor, or if you have bad form, or if you try some crazy push-up variation, these grips might slide a bit.
Durability. These grips are made out of plastic and they’re very lightweight. They have held up just fine in my tests (for the past few months,) but sometimes I can feel and hear the bearings inside scraping as the grips move. And I’m only 165 pounds…
New aches and pains. If your joints aren’t used to moving this much, start slow. If you do too much too soon, your joints might get sore.
I actually hurt my elbows the first few times I used these. I could feel a tendon moving back and forth in my elbow which was kind of painful. (Note: Some of that sensation is probably due to the fact that my elbows are hypermobile, or “double jointed” as it is usually called.)
Ease of use. My big gripe with these is that the bearings aren’t very smooth. You can actually do a push-up without the grips moving at all, so they require conscious effort on your part to make sure your arms are moving as smoothly as possible.
Comfort. I wouldn’t say these are uncomfortable, but the handle is hard plastic, so it’s not luxurious. The odd thing is, the underside of the handle is rubberized, while the top (where the pressure is) is still hard plastic. You would think the comfort feature should have wrapped around the entire handle…
So… is there a better solution?
I love this product because it gives you a better working than a standard push-up. I’ve also have had wrist issues from old sports injuries so Push Up Pro takes a lot of the pressure of of my wrist allowing me to do more reps!!!!