As a guy who used to do a metric shit ton of pushups, I don't agree but of course it depends on your form and your specific body type. I was in the army back when the physical aptitude test was 2 minutes of push ups, 2 min of sit ups and 2 mile run and my OCD wouldn't let me not train my ass off on those events when a test was coming up. I got so good at push ups that it was practically cardio, but I would flare my elbows out and bounce when my elbows hit 90 degrees to do them as fast as possible. On my last APFT I did 162 push ups in 2 min. But I started getting shoulder pain shortly thereafter and then fucked up my rotator cuff and AC joint benching heavy with the same form, which made it too painful to do bench or push ups for over a year. I've also fucked up my shoulder throwing overhand rights at a heavy bag with my elbow flared like that.
I still do (lighter) bench and push ups as part of warm ups for combat sports, but I don't focus on them anymore. Any lift that builds muscle is protective to your joints but as a middle aged dude, I've learned that SBD is the best way to build muscle. And once you're reasonably strong, it's about flexibility and ROM, especially dynamic ROM of your shoulders, hips, knees, ankles in the performance of lifts or sport specific movements. Like a lot of folks, I've found my posture getting worse and shoulders hunching forward as I've aged. And IME push ups and bench exacerbates that if they're not offset by an equal or greater amount of pulling exercises. I've become a fan of front squats, OH squats, cleans and snatches both for training full body balance and explosion and for the greater ROM they've given me. I did heavy (for me) snatches and OH squats on Tuesday and my posterior delts were sore as hell yesterday. Those lifts pull my shoulders back, improve my posture and have reduced my shoulder pain and injuries in grappling.
FWIW I also like knees over toes guy's shit and I believe they've made my knees less injury prone. A stiff joint is an injury prone joint.
