The Perfect Push-up: How to learn and how to teach the perfect push up position

The push-up is a great exercise.  Most people use it as a "chest" exercise, but it requires so much more than just chest muscles.  Depending on how it is done, it is a great rotator cuff/scapular coordination, shoulder stability, abdominal brace, glute/ham, quad, exercise.  There are numerous ways to perform push-ups to help develop strength, power and endurance.  

Ouch, this would be tough on shoulders

One of the more common questions I get about push-ups is hand position.  I remember learning push-ups with our elbows abducted to 90 degrees from our shoulders, and not to go past 90 degrees o elbow flexion.  I also remember learning this type of movement while I was bench pressing and it causing shoulder pain (due to impingement) to the point where I was shown by a strength coach how to perform a proper pushing movement.  After a minor decrease in strength due to learning a new movement pattern, I ended up stronger and with much healthier shoulders.

Not a natural pushing motion.  Would you do this through a

I still see people teaching and learning pushing with "elbows out."  I see a lot of guys who bench press with a wide grip with the misconception that it is the best way to workout their chest.  The best advice I got from my previous strength coach was that to think of the push up (or bench press) as a pushing movement.  Think about pushing someone away from you or pushing a door open.  You wouldn't do it with your elbows out.  So why do we practice this in the gym?

Simply put someone on their stomach and hands go to the right place

 I ended up stumbling upon a way to get people to position their hands.  I've done this with people who are 8 years old to people who are 80 years old.  Have them start with laying face down on the ground.  Simply ask the person to push themselves up to a kneeling position.  The first thing they will do is place their hands under their shoulders in the "perfect push-up" position.  The next amazing thing they do is that a person will automatically brace their abdominals before they push themselves up. So the 8 year old and the 80 year old have just completed a push up!  Now, of course you can modify intensity and the type of push up they are doing to fit their training goals, but it start with good technique!