Fingertip Pushups

[Connor Davies]

A couple things.

First, I was wondering about finger position during the pushups. I've been trying to keep my fingers straight, spread as far apart as I can, but I seem to be increasing the backward bend of my middle joints of my fingers. Is this a problem? On the worst fingers I'd say it's a good 45 degrees...

Second, In coaches warmup series he includes the fingertip pushup, am I to interpret that to mean he has his athletes do fingertip pushups every day? That seems like a lot of volume for the relatively little bones of the fingers.

Lastly, I've considered claw pushups but I have a tendancy for my middle finger joints to "give out" and straighten under heavy load, both re-inforcing the hypermobility problem i've already mentioned, and loading up the end joints of my fingers.

[Adam Bodestyne]

I keep my fingers splayed wide, with a very very slight curve to them, as if I'm grabbing a ball that is way too large to hold. When doing the actual pushups, I'm also trying to 'grip' tightly.

Try to scale the fingertip pushups back to a point that you can manage them. They should probably feel challenging to some extent, but if your fingers collapse, perhaps it's too much. You could try scaling them by doing them on your knees with your knees close to your hands, or even standing and doing them against a wall. I do them with my knees actually just a couple of feet behind my hands.