If you're a keyboard jockey like me you probably have or are prone to have shoulder issues. You really should be doing 2:1 pulling:pushing, or even omit most pushing entirely.
Nothing helped me as much as learning this. Spend more time doing facepulls, rows, pulldowns, and any weird variation you can come up with which works your back muscles. I went from a hunchback to mostly not a hunchback and my shoulders are better for it.
There are few things that will blow up your shoulders as quickly as doing pressing movements wrong. If you want to embark on a pushup journey at least learn good form.
I must take a moment to second the bit about proper push-up form.
Fantastic exercise you can do just about anywhere.
I went an hour out of town to watch the Perseids a couple months back. I'm a bit of a gym rat, so I did sets of push-ups to keep my body temperature up, though I'm already shivering by the time I'm starting each set. So, I completely neglected to even think about the proper form (I made the classic mistake of squaring outward my elbows), and further aggravating the circumstances was dealing with the awkward road angles/grades.
With just a handful of sets, I'm pretty sure I permanently damaged my right shoulder. Ugh. The Perseids were fantastic, though :)
To be fair, I got into distance because I wanted to run without pushing myself to the highest heart rate zones, which you naturally do in shorter distances. But with an ultra, I can make a zone 2 run sound impressive. So even an ultra can be a form of moderation. At least I'm telling myself that.
If rings are included in calisthenics and not counted as machines, then that opens up a lot of variation. Facepulls with rings is a really nice exercise
You can do bodyweight rows if you have a low bar or even using a table. Way back before I even set foot in a gym I built strength at home doing press ups, pulls ups/chin ups (using a door frame bar), rows using a table and dips using the back of two chairs.
I think the best is to use gymnastics rings. They aren't expensive, but you do need to attach something solid to the ceiling to connect them to (I use a piece of iron angle painted white, lagged screwed into ceiling joists). The straps are quickly adjustable and you can do a bunch of pulling exercises, including the rows. The real advantage of the rings is that they allow your wrists and elbows to change angle through the pull path which can greatly reduce the stress on the joints and feel more natural too.
Some form of horizontal pulling such as Aussie pullups. It's even better in this scenario. If you have the pullup bar at home already, get some gymnastic rings for example.
Nothing helped me as much as learning this. Spend more time doing facepulls, rows, pulldowns, and any weird variation you can come up with which works your back muscles. I went from a hunchback to mostly not a hunchback and my shoulders are better for it.
There are few things that will blow up your shoulders as quickly as doing pressing movements wrong. If you want to embark on a pushup journey at least learn good form.