Thread: quick question...

eventually you are going to get to strong for push ups and they are going to turn into more of an endurance exercise then a strength exercise. So, you are going to have to go to the weights sooner or later to increase the amount of load/tension you are placing on your muscles and to keep on growing and getting stronger.

welcome to IM.

But, its a good adjunct exercise to keep in your routines, as a finsher for bench/chest day. Pull-ups, chins, and dips are another example of similar body weight (although you can do them weighted) exercises. You can difficulty by changing hand position and raising the feet onto a step / box. Highly recommended for the beginner to intermediate strength training enthusiast.

thanks for the replys guys! like i said, i'm new to this, but appreciate all the help i can get.

Trouble pretty much said everything i was going to say. Free weights are of course needed, but body exersices like that are always good to incorporate somewhere in your routine.

You have more options with weights but you can still get a great workout with just your bodyweight. I understand what P-funk is saying that "... eventually you are going to get to strong for push ups and they are going to turn into more of an endurance exercise then a strength exercise" but I only agree with that to a point. Sure if you are super strong, doing regular push ups can become more of an endurance exercise so that's when you move to other types of push ups that are more challenging: hindu pushups, dive bombers, one arm, pushups between three chairs, clapping, handstand etc.. You have a lot of options with push ups... They are great for building a strong base...

If you have no money for a gym pass you can still do a really great full body workout using your own weight (hindu squats, one legged squats, push ups, pull ups, dips, turkish get ups etc.). You can get very fit doing this type of routine 3-4x a week, but a lot of people get frustrated with this type of training because 1) It's hard to keep up the intensity needed to get results. So they move to a weight lifting program for the ease of using machines and free weights because of their ability to increase or decrease the amount of weight they are lifting. 2) Also, if your main goal is to get HUGE then lifting heavy weights are the way to go. 3) They get sick of the discipline and imagination it takes to advance with body weight routines.

It comes down to your goals and your drive...

Body weight exercises serve their best purpose in the beginners program as whole body circuit routines necessary for strengthening the connective tissue and to begin resistance load training of muscle and nervous tissue in preparation for resistance weight training. Its what we call anatomical adaptation; it's critical, when used with moderate cardio, for (1) promoting proper breathing reflex during exertion and raising blood oygen levels for proper energy metabolism; (2) stepping up energy switching during the exertion at a specific effort intensity; (3) encouraging enhanced muscle and support tissue recovery and strengthening; and (4) preparing the nervous system for the rigors of resistance mass training.

Skip this part, and you'll have problems later on - immune, metabolic, and structural.