The almighty Aztec pushup!
Urban legend or actual exercise?
It’s quite real, but in the realm of pushups, it is considered fairly advanced.
By definition, the Aztec pushup is one where the practitioner explodes off of the ground, and in mid-air touches his or her toes before making the split second journey back down to the floor.
It requires not only power, but also some degree of hamstring flexibility. Let’s break it down below.
Dissecting the Aztec Pushup
The best tip I ever got when I was trying to learn the Aztec pushups was to pretend that someone has a rope tied around your waist.
When you launch yourself off of the floor, you want to visualize someone yanking that piece of rope from above you, so that your hips go flying high into the air. If ‘they’ yank hard enough, it should buy you enough hang time to reach down and touch your toes for an ultra brief moment.
So how do we work up to this?
Worry not boys and girls. I’ll explain the progression in a moment, but first let me show you a series of screenshots below so that you can see step by step what the body is doing mechanically when performing the Aztec pushup.
Unlike a lot of the other plyometric pushup variations that generally rely almost exclusively on power, the Aztec requires both power and really good hamstring flexibility to execute properly.
As someone with naturally tight hamstrings, it’s not a move that I can personally do ‘on-demand.’ Even in the final step picture above, you can see that my legs aren’t as straight as they should be.
So if you are anything like me, then one of the first things you need to start doing when training for the Aztec pushup is improving your hamstring flexibility by stretching.
The power aspect of the move can be developed by working some of the basic plyometric pushup drills discussed in the clapping pushup tutorial. Once you have an adequate level of both power and hamstring flexibility then you can work the progression below.
Progressions for Aztec Pushups
If you read through the clapping pushups tutorial I just mentioned above, then the concept for unlocking Aztec pushups will feel familiar.
Baby steps is the name of the game.
Just like how with behind-the-back clapping pushups we don’t go for the full clap right away, the same thing applies here. Trying to touch your toes in mid-air without giving your body any type of feedback of what that might even feel like is tough to do for most people.
You might even already have the innate ability to pull it off, but it’s about giving your body that gradual confidence to go for it and to do it safely.
Step One
As with many of the plyometric pushups, do 1-3 reps of regular reps to prime your CNS for take-off.
When you are ready, push off the ground as hard as you can while simultaneously lifting your feet and bringing your knees forward.
Your goal is to tap the front part of your thighs (quads) in mid-air and then come back down.
Step Two
Once you can do a few of those then your next goal is to tap your knees.
If you can, try to tap right underneath your knees instead.
You can think of the knee touch as step two and the under-the-knee touch as step two point five.
Step Three
Got that down?
Then we go even lower.
Try to tap the bottom of your shins.
After that, aim for the upper part of your ankles.
You’re almost there!
Step Four
If you made it to the step above successfully then it’s only another few centimeters / inches for the full Aztec pushup. Give it a shot!
Remember to lead up with the hips and let your feet come off of the ground first. If you notice in each of the progression pictures above, the closer you get to the full Aztec pushup, the higher the hips go.
Lead with the hips!
The whole thing happens in a split second so it’s impossible to think about the individual steps as you are executing the move. You just need to mentally prep yourself before you do it.
This is a tough one for most people but it’s fun to do when you finally achieve it. If you follow these progressions and you get the full Aztec pushup, post it on Instagram and tag @kalisthenics_nomad and #CalisthenicsNomad for a possible repost.