CrossFit Athletic Group

The old CrossFit Journal articles are surprisingly ripe with information that has held true almost 20 years later. In his 2003 article, The Push-up, Coach Glassman gives a lot of detail regarding the importance of developing an honest push-up and how it progresses into other things. The only real change in the movement standard is the shoulders travelling forward/vertical forearms that Roger Harrell introduced in 2006 and Carl Paoli connected all the dots in 2011.

The Push-up by, Greg Glassman

The thing that stood out to me most, though, were the goals he set:

Here is a progression that should keep anyone busy for a couple of years.

1. Fifty honest basic push-ups

2. Ten handstand push-ups

3. 100 honest basic push-ups

4. Fifteen handstand push-ups

5. Tabata interval basic push-ups with 20 reps in each of 8 intervals

6. One handstand push-up without use of wall

7. Ten handstand push-ups without use of wall

8. Fifteen handstand push-ups without use of wall

9. Twenty handstand push-ups without use of wall

10. One handstand push-up without use of wall and on fingertips

First, at the time I'm sure he didn't forsee how quickly the CrossFit community would adapt to handstand push-ups, nor the natural progression of kipping ones. But in the heading, notice how he used "years" as a measuring stick for the milestones, not weeks or months. The world of gymnastics is full of movements and holds that kids work on for literally 15+ years, slowly making progressions towards the end goal.

When setting our own goals it's usually good to think long-term like that. This helps us resist the urge to rush important learning steps and embrace mistakes that happen.