1. the amount of tissue that is under tension
2. dominating your workout with rotational and stabilizer exercises
3. challenging your muscular coordination with complex movements
These pushups "with a twist" hit those points. The exercise itself achieves the objective of recruiting a lot of tissue, emphasizing both rotational and stabilzer work, and providing an overall challenge to the neuromuscular coordination. This is another great general strength exercise to add to your circuits after a recovery run: