fast push ups

[Maddwraph]

are they good to do? or the longer you take to do them, the better? when i see those army movies, they do them fast. right now i am doing 6 sets doing 8 push ups. i heard that if you do 6 sets, you can get muscle and big instead of 3 which i was doing. any suggestions? thanks

[June1]

I think it's better to do things like this s l o w l y. Sure, it's cool to do things fast, but if you really want your muscles to feel it, go slowly.

[busling]

My understanding (which is limited) is that for martial arts you can do a variety of push ups that serve a variety of goals.

 

Basically slow push ups for strength, fast push ups for muscle endurance/explosive power.

 

eg. Goal: Increased straight punching power. Push up: Hands close together underchest. Reason: These work your tri-ceps which generate the power of your straight punch. Speed: Slower the better

 

eg. Goal: Increased explosive power. Push up: Standard push up, but clapping your hands at the top. Reason: Having to push your whole body into the air increases your "explosive" muscle potential. Speed: The higher you push up the better, which sort of equates to speed.

 

In summary, I think you should be doing a combination of slow/strength pushups and fast/endurance pushups.

[Maddwraph]

thanks, btw, can you hurt your back doing push ups? thanks

[The Saint]

yes, you can hurt your back if you do them wrong, just keep you back straight.

 

Try knuckle push ups on your first two knuckles it will help build strenght in your wrists for punching. After your fast sets of pushups try doing push ups at a 10-15 sec hold. Go down and hold the pushup near the ground for 10-15 sec. This will help build endurance.

[VinnieDaChin]

it requires more force to move osmething fast than slow- so for fighting applications id recommend fast. that is, after id recommend weights.

[Cmon]

Do i put my hand into a fist position and then do them to do my nuckles?

 

BTW should i start with 20 push ups a day and then increase after a few weeks?

[busling]

Cmon,

 

Yes you do them with your hands closed in a fist.

 

My thoughts are your workout should always be hard to finish. So when 20 pushups becomes easy you need to increase your work load. Either more pushups or more sets of pushups or hard pushups.

 

If you keep pushing yourself just that extra bit, that is when you will see improvement. I expect that you will find 20 pushups easy in less then 2 weeks.

[SevenStar]

My understanding (which is limited) is that for martial arts you can do a variety of push ups that serve a variety of goals.

 

Basically slow push ups for strength, fast push ups for muscle endurance/explosive power.

 

eg. Goal: Increased straight punching power. Push up: Hands close together underchest. Reason: These work your tri-ceps which generate the power of your straight punch. Speed: Slower the better

 

eg. Goal: Increased explosive power. Push up: Standard push up, but clapping your hands at the top. Reason: Having to push your whole body into the air increases your "explosive" muscle potential. Speed: The higher you push up the better, which sort of equates to speed.

 

In summary, I think you should be doing a combination of slow/strength pushups and fast/endurance pushups.

 

doing pushups slow will not help anything really. Doing things slowly is actually counter productive to your goal with weight training in regards to MA. slow training does not build explosivity. explosiveness is the product of hard neuromuscular contractions. This is produced by powerful, quick movement.

 

second, pushups aren't good strength building exercises. pushups are endurance exercises. once you can do more than 20 or so, you really aren't building strength anymore, but rather muscular endurance. That's not a bad thing though - it's a good one - which is why many people still do them.

[SevenStar]

i heard that if you do 6 sets, you can get muscle and big instead of 3 which i was doing. any suggestions? thanks

 

my guess is you misunderstood. here's a very basic break down of obtaining various results:

 

low sets (1-3), low reps (3-5), very heavy weight: this builds power.

 

medium sets (4-6), medium reps (6-, heavy weight: this builds mass

 

high sets (6+), high reps (8-20), light - medium weight: this builds endurance.

 

unless you are very small and very weak, 6 sets of 8 pushups will not help much in the mass department. Also, you are basically doing 48 reps of the same muscle movement - you are in the endurance category. When you finish, you may notice that you look "pumped". you will also notice that the pump is gone after a few hours. The "pump" is mere your muscles being flooded with blood from the preceeding activity you had. this is common with mass and endurance workouts. I call it the false pump.

 

Definitely stick with the pushups, but not with the goal of gaining mass...