knuckle push ups

Hi,
I just want to know what is the proper way to do knuckle push ups.
do you do them using the first 2 knuckles or the three knuckles or on the whole fist??

thank you in advance

 

first two knuckles.

 

Pauli is right. First two knuckles, otherwise you rock about on your hands, you compromise posture, and it hurts. Also keep your elbows tucked in to your sides

 

Why is this important?

 

I wouldn't say it is. What was described was a different style of push up that targets the shoulders more than the chest. The type of push done is irrelevant to the question, since you could do normal push ups on your knuckles too.

 

Yukuji is right - it does generally denote a different kind of push up. If you keep your elbows tucked in it isolates the triceps therefore making the pressups harder as you can't rely on the rest of your upper body as much. Probably should have mentioned that bit before

 

conversely, it also makes them less broadly beneficial.

 

hi,
THANKS everybody for your replys
I really appreciate it
cheers!

 

Also true I suppose. But then again you should vary your pushups to target different muscles anyway. Just happens to be that my regular push up is the one mentioned above, if that makes sense

 

First 2 knuckels because you would normally
punch with your first 2 knuckels and it's harder.

 

There have been a few threads on this.

I think wing chun guys punch with lower 3 knuckles?

Upper 2 would make more sense to me since the bones these are connected to form a straight line down the wrist. The force is therefore transferred into the arm more efficiently (and safely?).

 

Honestly, my index and middle knuckles are three times larger than the other ones, so naturally i perform my knuckle pushups on just these two.

 

Whichever knuckles you punch with.

 

ok, one doubt i've been having lately. i've seen pantherfist pushups mentioned elsewhere before, so i have to ask: how the heck does one do a pantherfist pushup??? what with fingers being of different lengths and all.....

 

Well you can do both with 2 different pushups.

The normal pushups are done with the fist two knuckles.

Then there are the WingTsun and KungFu pushups where by fists are facing inwards, and the last few knuckles are used instead.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znRQpvAFwso"]Kung Fu Conditioning : Kung Fu Knuckle Push Up - YouTube[/ame]

I find doing this makes all my knuckles harder instead of just two of them.

 

First two knuckles (seiken in Japanese); arms tucked in to sides, as you would move them when punching.

 

is it OK too perform nukl pushups with your fists on a foam/antifatigue mat, or is contact with the hard ground imperative?

 

knuckle push ups are primarily used for wrist stability and alignment training, so it doesn't matter where you do it if you keep said good alignment (in fact i suspect they'd be harder to do on a soft or shifting surface).

 

I find it easier to keep my arms tucked in and isolate the triceps when I'm on my knuckles. With my hands down my elbows stick out a little

 

Pantherfist pushups, brace with thumb, and put pressure on the first two knuckles (these two IMHO are the ones that see the most action anyway).

You can also switch it up by putting pressure on the last two knuckles, but it's impossible to do all four at once.