100 Pushup Challenge and another review

Way back in the day when I was stationed with the Marines, we did a lot of push ups. A lot. Large quantities. Numerous push ups of every shape and size. Now that I'm older, fatter, and in dire need of getting into shape I've been reevaluating the push up. I've started a push up regime with a goal of 100 consecutive push ups (done correctly, none of this bobbing up and down junk) and I've been experimenting with a piece of equipment that has been kicking my butt. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the Perfect Push up (cue angelic music).

First, a little bit about the push up. While push ups themselves are very simple exercises to perform, they are actually bio-mechanically a very sophisticated exercise, recruiting nearly every major muscle group in some way to support the body during the movement (provided you are doing them with correct form.)
The push up is also extremely versatile, letting you emphasize certain muscle groups by simple changes in hand-arm positioning (wide versus narrow), incline or decline, or through elevation of the hands, which deepens the range of motion.

I don't have a very good history with push ups, for some reason my elbows like to drift out to the sides and I recruit more shoulder than chest. This has given me some problems with my shoulders and they tend to get rotator cuff injuries fairly often. Also, because the hands are in a fixed position, the wrists tend to become strained fairly easily. The Perfect Push Up corrects these problems for me, and also offers some added benefits.

The Perfect Push up basically takes a standard push up bar, which keeps your wrists in a neutral, non-bent position, and attaches the push up bar to a rotating base. This base allows you to maintain neutral wrist position while simultaneously rotating your arms (primarily at the wrist.) This ability to rotate is intended to allow you to compensate for your own bio-mechanics by taking stress off from the wrists and shoulders. If you've seen the commercial, it's like throwing a punch at the floor. The added twist in the movement recruits more stabilizer muscles and gives you a better bang for the buck. I've noticed new soreness in my lats, shoulders, chest and surprisingly in my abs. Doing the push ups correctly (IE SLOWLY and in good form) has really helped my abs and lower back.

Overall, I highly recommend the Perfect Push Up. Using this as an aid has made me pay more attention to form and offered a greater challenge than just push ups alone. I think I'm about 4 weeks from doing 100 consecutive push ups in good form, and it's been almost 10 years since the last time I could do that. You can pick one up for about $20 at Wal-Mart or any other retail store.