Strenght training AND push ups

[BORATZ]

If i am doing strength trainig twice a week (low reps big wights) and doing push ups on my days off (about 4 times a week) with a goal to do over 100 push ups, is one hindering the progres of the other?

PS what is the best routine to do 100+ push ups

[jarrettmeyer]

The routine sounds good. You must be using free weights or bowflex or similar. No machines.

Depending on what the weight ratio is, you may have to take it easy on the days after you workout. i.e. You weight 180, but are only benching 75. Once you're benching about 60% - 70% of your weight, you have developed the muscle mass to do plenty of pushups. You will get better at pushups by doing more pushups.

For most people, it isn't the muscle that gives out, it's the support that comes from ligaments and tendons. (That's why you were using free weights.) That's my problem right now. I'm limited to about 50 good quality pushups not because of my bicep/tricep stregth, but because the tendons start to really burn. Bench press isn't going to help that because I will burn the muscle before I start working the tendons. (Or I would need to weigh down until I found at what weight I could do 60, 70, or 80 reps - something I've never done. Usually, I'm working at a weight where I can only do 3x10 and no more.)

And this assumes all pushups on your fists, of course! Your palms absorb a lot of the "structure". I can do 50 on my fists, but over 80 on my palms.

[Maddwraph]

is it better to just do as many push ups on a given day, or is it better to do sets? im not sure which one helps you overall better.

[jarrettmeyer]

I'm usually not a fan of "maxing out" on anything. It is much too damaging and then you're down for 1 - 2 days. I am a fan of slow, steady progression.

Start off with sets, with graded time. Let's start with 40 pushups (modified for your level, of course)....

Do 10, wait 10 seconds;

do 10, wait 20 seconds;

do 10, wait 30 seconds;

do 10, wait 40 seconds.

Then, knock 2 seconds off...

10, wait 8;

10, wait 18;

10, wait 28;

10, wait 38;

When the last 10 are as good as the first 10, knock off 2 seconds. When the first "wait interval" reaches 0, add another 10.

20, wait 10;

10, wait 20;

10, wait 30;

10, wait 40.

Under this pattern, every 10 days you'll add 10 high quality pushups. The goal is to make the last set of 10 as good as the first set. If it's wobbly and weak, you're not ready to knock off time.

I'm up to 30 (4s), 10 (14s), 10 (24s), 10. Those last 10 a little flimsy, so I know I'm not ready to take off 2s.

It may sound weak, but slow is the way to go.

[AnonymousOne]

Weights will not necessarily help you build up to do 100 pushups.

I know guys that can bench press 300 lbs and yet they cannot do 100 pushups... why?

They are used to doing between 8 and 12 reps.

Pushups are also an endurance exercise.

100 pushups are a good goal but learn variable pushups. I feel the best pushups are the plyometric ones that you push yourself off the ground and land back down again. Thats power

[jarrettmeyer]

After doing some pushups last night, I realized something else that I cannot believe I forgot!!!

You MUST have a solid core to do pushups! While your arms don't have to be able to lift that much (like I said, about 60% of your body weight because of the fulcrum action), your core has to keep the rest of your body flat and stable. I've found that the best things for working your core are pilates and bicycling.

[swdw]

The pushups in between ar slowing your progress. Strength is built from stressing the muscles and giving them time to rest.

Drop the pushups if you are lifting weigths.

Now a comment on jarretmeyers routine. There are several good ways to train pushups if you aren't lifting. His way is one of them. Here's one of the benefits of his type of training that has only been recently discovered. Multiple sets of pushups done each day and while progressively increasing the sets/reps increases the number of capillaries in the muscle tissue. It used to be believed that all you did was improve circulation and oxygen exchange.

This will increase the endurance of the muscle tissue.

[BORATZ]

The pushups in between ar slowing your progress. Strength is built from stressing the muscles and giving them time to rest.

So it is posible to excel at both strenght training and push ups at the same time?

Just for the record I do wighted dips, weighted chins on saturday and squats, deadlifts and military press on fridays, all of these 3x5 + warm-up

as for my push up routine see: http://www.musclenet.com/100pushups.html

[jarrettmeyer]

So it is posible to excel at both strenght training and push ups at the same time?

It is possible, but remember that they are two different activities. Bench press is high weight, low rep (i.e. 3x10 or even 2x8). Pushups are less weight with much higher rep (i.e. 1x100 or 4x25).

Like AnonymousOne said, it is very possible that you can bench 2x your body weight but not be able to put together 10 pushups. That's because there is so much more going on during a pushup (core strength, tendons, stabilization, etc.)

But, pushups will limit your max weight to a function of your body weight.

If you want both a big bench press and 100 pushups, you will have to train both. One does not beget the other. Because I do not have access to a bench press, I don't do them. Also, if you work the bench hard, you MUST give your muscles time to rest (see SWDW's post above). Although this will be great for your max bench, it will slow your pushup progression. If your goal is to get to 100 pushups, then you need to be doing pushups.

[Saotome]

Analyze your routine based on your goals. Is training to improve your martial art a priority, or do you want to train your absolute strength more, or are you more interested in your appearance?

I've been drawing parallels between martial artists and male gymnasts recently. The male gymnasts have a goal that I think applies to martial arts training - they want maximum strength gains with the minimum possible muscle growth.

Sounds funny, doesn't it? But they don't want mass, because mass slows them down, and disimproves their power-to-weight ratio.

Power to weight is critical for martial arts, too - if you want to get faster and more powerful at the same time.

USA Gymnastics strength training has pretty much shot down traditional mid-weight, mid-rep workouts. (You know, the traditional 3 sets of 8-12 reps). Said that it causes too much muscle growth (hypertrophy) for the actual increase in absolute strength you get.

They are using a program that is like a powerlifter's routing - big weight, low reps. As in, one rep at max weight, then two reps at 90%, then another two reps at 90%, and so forth. Then of course on their off days, they run through their gymnastics (bodyweight) routines and half-routines.

If you're interested, punch 'male gymnast strength training' into a search engine.

I'll let you know when I can do an "Iron Cross"