WAG tricep push ups - why are they so hard?

[mandy]

hello! my little sister is a level 6. she trains 3 Times a week for 3 hours. the First Hour is spent on conditioning.

usually they do
3 Sets of 30 push ups
and 3 Sets of 10 pull ups for Upper body.

she has no Problem with the "normal" push ups where the elbows are out. but they tried "tricep push ups" with elbows in the last time and she couldn't Barely do 3 of them!
but they should so 3 Sets of 15-20!

whats the matter with that? she can do about 5 pull-ups (no one of her Team is able to do the 10 deadhang ones
yet) but whats the matter with those tricep thing? why are they so hard and why is it important to be able to some of those? what so you need this strength for?

she was a a Little dissappointed because she is normally one of the stronger ones. Hope somebody can help!

 

[Aussie_coach]

It just uses a different muscle group that she hasn't worked out as much as the others. There are so many muscles groups in the body, even a very strong gymnast will find a few areas where they are weaker than others.

Practice, practice, practice and they will come, just like anything else in gymnastics.

 

[Muddlethru]

Certainly using a different muscle group that is also not used as often (as Aussie coach states). As a side note, gymnasts in general do push ups with elbows out (as OP states). My understanding is the proper position for a push up is elbows have to be parallel to the body. Position your like you are about to push a car. That is suppose to be the proper push up position. Most gymnasts cannot do as many push ups in the proper position.

 

[BlairBob]

Elbows in loads the triceps more than if the elbows flare out and recruit more of the shoulder to handle the load.

Strong triceps are important for all support positions.

 

[kimute]

Close grip push-ups use triceps as mentioned already. Wide grip push-ups use your pecs more (chest), which is a larger and often stronger muscle group. Most people can do a lot more wide grip push-ups. I'm a former personal trainer, not gymnast so I don't know about what gym skills require triceps, but it looks like the kip sure would.
Personally, I think 3 sets of 30 close grip push ups sounds killer, but wide grip I could handle (of course, I'm a 45 year old mom...)

 

[iwannacoach]

She needs to be patient and give those muscles time to learn how to move through the motion. That will happen over the next four to six workouts and she'll likely do an increasing number of them on each occasion. The number she gets to by the fourth, fifth, or sixth session is really the measure of how strong those muscles are right now, and the increased numbers she's able to do is the result of "muscle education." Once she's through that phase she'll increase her numbers more gradually as her strength slowly improves.

 

[BlairBob]

Muscle education?

Interesting term.

It us cnd adaptation but more so glycogen storage and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

 

[iwannacoach]

Muscle education?

Interesting term.

It us cnd adaptation but more so glycogen storage and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Well if there's such a thing called muscle memory then they should be able to learn something to remember.