Arm Strength

[Hart]

Does anyone have any tips for increasing upper body strength. I've been doing martial arts for a year and half and I still can't do a proper push-up to save my life. It's embarassing! Any suggestions?

[scad]

lay face down on the floor and put your arms on the side of you as if you where about to do a push up, keep your back straight and push straight up. thats the best advice i think i can give you for push ups.

[Spirit At Choice]

Hart:

I hear you! I could barely pull off ten knee push-ups when I started this. But, I would think that after a year and a half you would have built up some strength. I can now (four months later) do 10 toe push-ups with pretty good form, though I can not go very low.

I do push ups every day whether I train or not. I try to do lots of knee push-ups with my arms in different positions (fingers touching, shoulder width, wide, on the knuckles) until I really feel the burn. Then I rest, and do it again.

My understanding is that muscle builds during the resting process, so it's important to push yourself to the limit and then rest, rest, rest. Calsithenics don't take hardly any time at all. It's easy to get into a routine of rolling out of bed and spending 5 - 10 munites on push-ups, crunches, lateral crunches, etc, before hitting the shower.

[AikiGuy]

If you struggle doing pushups on your toes, you will get little results from doing training that way since you will not have very good form. Do them on your knees and at least occasionally, do a set that really pushes you hard. In other words, maybe once a week or so, do a set of pushups or light bench presses until you can't do any more. That's very taxing on the body so don't do it very often but as long as you don't have any physical limitations or injuries, it should jump start your strength gains.

[DokterVet]

Keep in mind when training that "feeling the burn" is actually lactic acid which is detrimental for building muscle. While high repitition exercise will improve your endurance, it won't do much at all for strength.

Spirit At Choice is right that muscle is built during the resting process. So avoid overtraining. Rather than doing pushups every day, why not start a weight lifting routine and just do pushups once a week?

[Hitman]

WOW...it's so nice to see people advising someone correctly. Muscle only builds after it has recovered, and you will not build strength without at least toning that muscle (and even that is actually BUILDING).

You are generally trying to get your muscles to grow accustomed to a greater workload than it currently has (of course, you can continue this until your muscles are accustomed to a HUGE workload, but it's still the same principle.) As a beginner, you should find that ALMOST anything over and above your current daily activity will help you make SOME gains, but it's best to do things with as perfect a form as you can. Not only will this ensure that you are not usng other muscles to "help out" the weak ones, but it also helps avoid injury.

However, even if your chest is as weak as a 9 year old, you should only need 3-4 days to fully recover from a decent workout. I would suggest doing push-ups once a week- perhaps 2 sets of 10 from your knees with a solid minute rest between sets. Then feel how sore you are the day (or second day) after. If you can move without pain, gradually up the repetitions and/or sets until you DO feel sore and then back down again. If you want to add some bench presses with a barbell or dumbells, do this also only once a week- and divide out the week, so that you can FULLY recover from the workout before you do the other exercises. In other words, do push-ups on a Monday and do not do bench presses until Thursday at the earliest. Start with VERY light weights and concentrate on proper form instead of trying to move around huge weights with bad form- your back will thank you later.

Once this becomes easy, or you find that you are recovering fast enough to allow it, you can go up to a 3/week deal. You should not go more than this even as a beginner because overtraining will result. Also, after you have done this for perhaps a month, if you find that 20 push-ups still makes you sore after a 3-4 day rest, consult a doctor. An active adult should not have that kind of problem with what is considered a "light" workout for any length of time- it could be a sign of something more serious.

That's enough of a lecture...sorry I have insomnia

[UseoForce]

I usually do one set of 60 push-ups evey other day unless it conflicts with my chest workout day or chest workout recovery time.

I usually only alot one day for rest of a muscle group, is that enough? If I drink protein right after my workout, I'm not even that sore on the rest day.

[Ben Martin]

hmgdcx

Edited October 5, 2013 by Ben Martin

[Hitman]

Useoforce...GENERALLY speaking, one day is not enough time to allow for recovery. This is if you are lifting weights or doing serious calisthenic activity like multiple push-up sets. 60 push-ups every other day should be fine, unless you start feeling soreness or joint pain. 60 push-ups twice a day, every day would be bad though.

What I am talking about is doing 3 sets of flat bench presses, then another 3 sets of incline benches followed by 2 sets of dumbell flyes...you are gonna need to allow more time for recovery than just a single day following that sort of routine.

It is also useful to "confuse" your muscles occaisionally. Doing the exact same routine for long peroids of time (several months) can make your muscles get "used to" that activity. Try doing 2 sets of 40 push-ups for a couple of weeks, then 2 sets of 50 for a couple more, then go back to that one set of 60 for awhile. Allow yourself a good long while between these sets...even one set in the morning and the second at bedtime. After having done that single set of 60 for awhile, that first set of 40 should be no problem- you may not even feel like it did much for ya. That second set should shock your system a bit though- you would be doing 1/3 more work than your body is used to doing in the same time span, even though each individual workout is spaced apart.