Thread: Push-ups

Try doing 41, that should work..

hahahahaha

Originally Posted by Toine

How can I increase the number of push-ups I can do? I can do about 40 right now

push ups are all about muscle endurance and have nothing to do with muscle strength.

the only way to do more is to do more sets and reps of them...

Sorry, gonna have to call bullshit here. I have had to do pushups for 20 years (military) and heard the same thing. Then I took 6 months off from pushups and worked on my strength via other workouts. Ony pushups I did was finishing up my chest workout I did 3 sets of diamond pushups to failure. I went from doing 70 in two minutes to doing over 100 in two minutes. Strength is strength. Pushups are a mind fuck muscle memory exercise though it seems, but stength matters and you can get there without doing shitloads of pushups.

For bodybuilding, push-ups are a waste of time unless it's a friday night and your looking for a quick pump, something a bunch of losers at my school do to impress the ladies.

Originally Posted by MTN WARRIOR

Sorry, gonna have to call bullshit here.

It will increase strength only to a point, it is not OPTIMAL for strength at all. Otherwise we'd all be pressing 95 and curling 20s to get stronger.

We dont?

Originally Posted by MTN WARRIOR

Strength is strength

not quite sure what you mean by that...

but by your logic the stronger a person is the more muscular endurance they have...I hoep you see how that logic is flawed as muscular strength and endurance are in no ways directly proportional...

is a push up like a bench press?
how much percent of your bodyweigh are u lifting when u do a push up?

Originally Posted by trixr4kiddz

is a push up like a bench press?
how much percent of your bodyweigh are u lifting when u do a push up?

I suppose that would depend on how your body mass was distributed.

I read an interesting Article on this in Mens Health or Mens Fitness which I can't find!!!

But push ups are very important for strengthening the smaller muscles underneath your major muscles in your chest, shoulders and arms, quite often muscles not worked by some bodybuilders, these basically enable you to work and use your major muscles more effectively and give you more strength balance.

If you can do push ups "too easily" then weighted rucksacks or somebody spotting you with weight discs on your back is a good idea to lift that extra 20kg required.

Originally Posted by LAM

push ups are all about muscle endurance and have nothing to do with muscle strength.

the only way to do more is to do more sets and reps of them...

You honestly believe you can have one without the other? Are you kidding?

I state that it is similiar to the old saying that for a muscle to be big it must be strong. but a strong muscle doesnt need to be big,

My son can do 100 pushups in two minutes. Does that mean he has big muscles, no it means that he has very high endurance.

I on the other hand can do about 70-75 pushups in two minutes, meaning I have piss poor endurance.

I agree with LAM and Mudge on this. You must obviously have some strength to lift your body, but beyond that it is meant to build endurance. Does that mean you shouldnt do them? I dont think so, i still enjoy doing them, so does my son cause he can do more, but I dont use them in my weight training routine, I save them for my HIIT days.

Originally Posted by MTN WARRIOR

You honestly believe you can have one without the other? Are you kidding?

Yes

Muscle endurace and muscle strength are as different as slow and fast twitchers.

Originally Posted by MTN WARRIOR

You honestly believe you can have one without the other? Are you kidding?

it has nothing to do with what I believe it's what science has proven...

I do one arm push ups with 35 pounds of weight on my back.

i like cheetos

Pushups have added bulk in my arms and chest. I had to do sets that were steadily increased untill I was doing 2 series of 125-100-75-45-25-10 with only 20 second pauses between counts twice a day. I did inverted in the evenings and military in the mornings. I was also doing dips and crunches as well as some leg work. I was sho-rae-kenpo training in LA for full contact tourn'ys and the sensei was a freak about not using steel but rather using the bodies own weight to train with. He worked from a very good premis of never having any injuries or issues with energy. Took a lot of dedication to keep up that pace but it was a hell of an advantage come fight time. I eventually moved to Texas and now am going back to steel.

I was stuck at 75 until I met a guy from the military
who could do 200. He said I needed to decrease my
rest interval between sets. I dropped it to 30 secs or
one minute. Of course I could not do
as many on the second and third sets, but the body
trys to adapt to the stress on it.

I worked up to 131 after that.

You can do pushups every day too.

Go get em.

Originally Posted by milliman

You can do pushups every day too.

why would you want to?

even with a push-up I think recovery is still necessary, especially if you're doing 130 of them.

I work long hours during certian times of the year (tax season) and can not get the gym. So to relieve my stress at work and try to maintain some sort of level of strength, I do pushups and pullups.

If I had a choice of gym or pushups, gym would prevail.
But when the choice is getting my work done or losing clients, I have to resort to push ups.

Originally Posted by milliman

I work long hours during certian times of the year (tax season) and can not get the gym. So to relieve my stress at work and try to maintain some sort of level of strength, I do pushups and pullups.

If I had a choice of gym or pushups, gym would prevail.
But when the choice is getting my work done or losing clients, I have to resort to push ups.

ok, but you should not do them everyday, maybe every other day at most.

I know the old weightlifting theory was only lift everyother day and has now changed somewhat. But why would you have to do pushups everyother day.
In weight lifting, you are actually making little micro tears of the muscle, so they need time to heal. But pushups of only body weight are more of an endurance type thing similar to running or sit ups. So don'g you think you could do them every day.

I never noticed any problem with me. But it was not like I was looking for a problem either. . .