Your elbows are doing too much

If your shoulders are sore after pushups, your elbows are probably doing too much.

This is one of the most common pushup form errors, and it's invisible until someone tells you to look for it.

What's happening

When your elbows flare out to 90 degrees — perpendicular to your torso — you're essentially doing a chest fly with your bodyweight. The chest gets loaded at a mechanical disadvantage, the rotator cuff compensates, and over time the shoulder joint takes the stress that the chest and triceps should be handling.

What should happen instead

Your elbows should track at roughly 45 degrees from your body. Not tucked all the way in (that's a close-grip pushup), not flared all the way out (that's the problem). Somewhere around 45 degrees is where the geometry works best for most people's shoulder anatomy.

A cue that helps: imagine you're trying to screw your hands into the floor as you go down. The external rotation that creates will naturally bring your elbows into a better position without you having to think about the angle directly.

Check yourself

Next time you do your 26, put your phone in front of you on video. Watch your first rep from the side and then one from the front. You'll see it immediately if it's there.

The fix takes about two days of conscious attention. After that it's automatic.

If you're already sore

Rest, ice, and drop to wall pushups for a week. Wall pushups done correctly build the same neural pattern without the load. Come back to full pushups when the soreness is gone, and start slow.

Form first. Reps second. The streak catches up.