Listen up everybody. I have the secret to doing pushups. I found it on a body building discussion forum about doing really heavy bench press. I wanted to see what would happen if I applied the same principal to pushups and WHALA! Here's the link to the article

http://www.discussfitness.com/showthread.php?t=18333

and here's the trick to applying it to pushups:

Keep your shoulder blades pulled together and tight while doing pushups. Instead of just doing pushups with the arms and chest, get the biggest muscle in your body involved, your back. The main reason that I had so much trouble doing pushups was not because I wasn't strong enough, it was because it was hard keeping my body stationary and stable with just my arms. If you squeeze your shoulder blades together tight and then try to do pushups, it creates a sturdy base for you to "bounce" out reps, EASILY! Plus you're contracting muscles from the strongest muscle in your body. That adds tons of extra power. Just be sure to sqeeze your shoulder blades TIGHT. I hope this helps, it certanly helped me. Try it and tell me how if it works for you guys.

why push up when you can strenght train and get way stronger?

If you have to cheat or use poor technique to do push-ups, which it sounds like you're doing, you're wasting your time. Concentrate on your form, not how many poor-quality reps you can crank out.

I wouldn't call it cheating...there's nothing wrong with positioning your body in a way that makes it able to work more efficiently. Not much point in doing that with push ups though, there's just not enough resistance there for most people.

How is it poor form if it is used to get a 500lb bench press!!? During any exercise, you want your whole body tight, not just one part of your body. If your body is in a relaxed state, you won't be able to preform well. Doing pushups with just your arms is stupid, you'll only be able to bang out like 15 for one set. However, if you utilize your abdominals, lower back, and upper back, you'll be using your entire body to preform a movment. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd rather use my whole body to move my body, rather than just my arms to move my entire body.

navy seals bust out like 200 push ups in a minute, they are so badass

So whats the secret? Theres no pushup to end all pushups. Different variations of pushups do different things. Your suggested technique of doing pushups may be alot differnt than anothers guys pushup because he might not be concerned about abdominal or back muscles when doing pushups.Theres close armed pushups, wide armed pushups, inclined pushups, pushups off raised handles, and pushups with just about every countries name in front of it. THey all do different things.

Don't get so defensive; you've made your point. But, I've used pushups as one of a handful of core exercises for my enitre life, and I stand by my previous post. It goes without saying that the lats are used in the exercise. But, the standard pushup works your chest, shoulders and triceps, with a lesser emphasis on the back and abs. You can vary the emphasis by changing the exercise in a number of ways, as described above. So, you're not just using your arms. You also mention that you can "bounce" out alot of reps by doing them your way. If you're "bouncing", you're doing them wrong. The movement should be slow, deliberate and under control, to gain the full benefit. And not that you asked, but doing them my way, I can do 50 good, standard pushups at a time, while wearing a twenty pound weight vest (but it just about drains me). So, I'll stick with what I'm doing, thanks.

If your talking about me being defensive I didnt want to come off like that..I'm just saying be carefull how you advertise your own personal preferance in pushup.Some young guy might some on here thinking thats all she wrote, this truly is how god meant for pushups to be done. Myself ive done the standard pushup in my routine and had great results in the tricep and chest area, but the pushup you propose really does sound very usefull to a martial artists routine....i'm just too lazy and caught up in my own workout the give it a try

Skin - Not at all, my comments were directed to mma. He seemed abit defensive when I questioned his methods. Sorry for the confusion.