Baby Clap Pushups

Baby Clap Pushups

For lack of better have to I call these “Baby Clap” pushups because they are a great way to start your workout progression that will lead to clapping pushups.  Clapping pushups are a great ballistic exercise that is good for all punching sports but even when you can easily do normal pushups, its a BIG leap to move up to clapping pushups. This baby clap pushup is a great intermediate step but its still an advanced exercise, if you cant do 8 pushups with flawless, slow form then please do my basic pushup progression instead.  This baby pushup is also a great exercise to work up to doing a one handed pushup.

OK lets get started with the baby clap. You need a step about as long as your forearm in height and it needs to be sturdy and one which wont tip over. First let me explain the motion of this pushup:

baby clapping pushups, start position Starting Position: Normal pushup position with hands touching on a sturdy, stable footstool. Torso is straight as an iBeam and abs are tensed.  Try and hold your shoulders back with your chest thrust out during the whole exercise.
baby clapping pushups, jumping off Jump off: Push up ballistically and off the footstool and spread your hands for landing. Try to keep your torso straight and your core flexed. Because you are on a footstool and you don’t have have to clap, you have a lot more time to move your hands into the landing position.
baby clapping pushups, landing position Land: The landing puts a large, sudden load on your pecs – enjoy the good pain!
baby clapping pushups crawling up Crawl back up: Now crawl back up onto the footstool one hand at a time. You can alternate which hand you crawl up with or alternate doing 4 with your left hand and then 4 with your right hand, its up to you

So thats it for baby clap pushups which will help you develop strength so you can do clapping pushups as well as one handed pushups. Now lets talk about a 5 step progression you can do to help you work up clapping pushups.

Workout Progression For Clapping Pushups

  1. baby clapping pushups (this exercise)
  2. hopping pushups from the knees.  Its a clapping pushup minus the clap, just get the hands airborne above the takeoff position.
  3. clapping pushups from the knees
  4. hopping pushups from the feet.  Its a clapping pushup minus the clap, just get the hands airborne above the takeoff position.
  5. a real clapping pushup!