You TOO can make pushups more challenging, and, therefore, a more muscularly stimulating exercise.
BUT, you should consider 2 important factors:
1. Focus on intention. I see people all the time perform exercises (especially bodyweight exercises) without any focus on actively contracting the muscles. Everyone just chases their reps and tries to get through the set with as little muscular pain as possible. Nah-ah. That's not the way, grasshopper.
It may sound foo-foo, but this is where the idea of "mind-muscle connection" actually makes a big difference. When doing pushups, initiate each rep by contracting your chest. Focus on a big stretch. Control every moment of every rep. None of this push & pray, heave & retrieve garbage.
2. Get creative.
The other day I did the following superset (as shown in the video):
A1: Feet elevated deficit pushups x 12-20 reps
A2: Hindu pushups x 5 reps
I did the deficit pushups & immediately followed each set (I did 3 sets) with 5 Hindu pushups. I rediscovered how effective Hindu pushups can be. It felt like my chest & triceps were splitting into pieces.
I also warmed up with some standard pushups, Hindu pushups, and child pose pushups.
I've been messing around with dive bomber pushups, half deficit pushups, shoulder tap pushups, supinated grip deficit pushups...
You name it, I'm experimenting with it. I'll continue to experiment with it.
In a way, this shoulder injury has been a blessing in that it's led me to focus on some really fun challenges, such as swinging various clubs in close proximity to my head and trying to make pushups a solid hypertrophy option. Both have proved to be fun to experiment with. I'll share more pushup variations and thoughts in the future.
Does this mean I'll never do bench press variations again? HA-HA! Of course it doesn't mean that. I love dumbbell bench presses too much to give them up. But, at the moment, bench press variations are the only exercise variations causing any problems in my shoulder, while pushups feel good.
This has been an eye opening experience for me and it's opening up opportunities for more exercise variation within my training, which could be a good thing.
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