Pushups

[folmerveeman]

First of all, I really didn't know where to put it,s o that's why I put it here. Sorry if it's in the wrong section of the forum!

But I've been doing pushups a lot in the past months, and this consists of doing 3 sets with increasing amounts of reps at night. I started at 7 and am up to 20 now
But I'm wondering, would it be more beneficial if I sporadically do pushups throughout the day? (For example, during commercials or when I'm dead in TF2?)

From a muscle building perspective
thanks in advance

[Nath]

Good job so far. If you're doing sets of 20, it's probably time to move on to a harder exercise if you want to keep building muscle, since at this point you're mostly just doing endurance training. Weights are the easiest way to scale up, but you can also try elevating your feet, varying the hand position, or working up to clapping pushups, one-arm pushups or handstand pushups.

If you want to stick with conventional pushups and focus on endurance, my guess is you are better off doing several sets back to back with relatively little rest. This seems like a good way to fatigue all the relevant muscle fibers, causing some muscle growth. It won't increase your max strength very much, because the resistance is too light.

The 'grease the groove' approach (doing a few short sets throughout the day) has been used quite successfully, particularly by people trying to increase their pull-up numbers, but I think that works by training your nervous system (i.e. building muscle memory) rather than fatiguing the muscles.

[folmerveeman]

Ok cool thanks! I really wish I had something available to do pullups with, but I won't have that available until july or so Does putting my legs up on something increase the potency of the workout?

[Nath]

Yes, elevating your legs makes pushups harder. It also changes the set of muscles being targeted to some extent, though. That's the down side of bodyweight training; it's hard to ramp-up the resistance while keeping everything else the same.

[folmerveeman]

Basically what I'm going for is stomach and arms, thats the only thing that's important to me so then I'd be fine either way right?

[Nath]

All pushup variants will work your triceps to some degree, if that's what you're wondering. As for stomach, if you mean you're after a six pack, that's determined almost entirely by your body fat percentage, and not your exercise selection.

[Annihilist]

I'd suggest doing about 20 every day. Then when you can do that well move up to 25 or 30. Then 40, 50 etc.

If you want to vary the difficulty of the pushups and the muscles strengthening, try a few different positions. Try moving your arms to shoulder width apart, (or if you're already doing that, move them further away from each other). Try on your fists - clench a fist and do push ups on your first-two knuckles. Try with your thumbs and forefingers touching to create a triangle shape with your hands & place them on the floor in line with the middle of your chest. This focusses more on the muscles around your shoulders.

I'm sure there is more, look some up. And for your stomach, sit ups do good.

[gaurwraith]

On the pull up bar availability, open up your eyes for anything that could serve as a bar, the typical kids structure in a park, etc, at one point I was doing them in a solitary bus stop

[freakish777]

Different hand stances for your push ups will exercise different muscle groups. For your 3 sets you're doing, try doing the first set more or less normally but with your hands closer to your waist (both horizontally and vertically) than you normally would. The next set, do with your hands even with your shoulders, but spread as far apart as you can go, and your last set as diamond push ups (hands comes together as a triangle/diamond with index fingers and thumbs touching) with your hands just above your solar plexus. Increase the reps in each set by 5 once a week.

Stomach work outs, do leg lifts. Basically, lie flat on your back, arms across your chest. Lift your legs 6 inches off the floor. Hold them their for 20 seconds. Put them down. Do however many reps you can. Then do that many reps in a set for a week (do 1 set of reps with your push ups). The next week increase how long you hold each rep for by 5 seconds. You'll also at some point want to move your feet apart, hold them apart for some amount of time, then move them back together (again, different muscle groups in your stomach). These are typically more time efficient for working out stomach muscle groups than sit ups.

[Kitutal]

Or alternatively go all the way like I did, get yourself a set of dumbbells and look up a list of different weight training exercises on wikipedia, there are some for every muscle group there, I believe, and then you can work out whilst actually watching TV rather than just during the breaks.

[SpaceFrank]

If you want to focus more on strength building than endurance, you can also add weight to your body while doing pushups. At the gym, people will typically put barbell plates on their backs, but if you're doing it at home, you'll have to get a little creative.

[gaurwraith]

i e backpack full of dictionarys

[piwakawaka42]

I'm having a different pushup problem: I can't keep my back straight while I'm doing them. It's not a problem with my arms lifting the weight, as some other exercises suggest I should be able to move that much, so my back must be weak. What sort of exercises should I be doing to strengthen it?

[madd0ct0r]

sit ups.

sit ups with your arms straight out above your head

from standing up, try to sit down without using your hands. now stand up without using your hands. repeat.

- also climbing and yoga are really good for your core muscles.

[piwakawaka42]

Thanks

[nightbird]

I'm having a different pushup problem: I can't keep my back straight while I'm doing them. It's not a problem with my arms lifting the weight, as some other exercises suggest I should be able to move that much, so my back must be weak. What sort of exercises should I be doing to strengthen it?

o

THIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSHjTRCQxIw and forget about 20 secs. Hold them as long as you possible can; you obviously need some endurance in your stabilisers. It's OK to feel like you'll faint; hard work is the only thing that really gets you results.

[Talk]

Okay, is the correct way to do push ups to basically line your hands up with your shoulders and have your elbows bend towards your waist, or is that just a way to do it that concentrates on your biceps there's not really a "correct" way?

[Nath]

There's more than one way to do push-ups, depending on what you're trying to work. But none of them are primarily bicep exercises. All variations mostly work the triceps, pectorals and anterior delts, in various proportions. And the abs, isometrically.

[nightbird]

Okay, is the correct way to do push ups to basically line your hands up with your shoulders and have your elbows bend towards your waist, or is that just a way to do it that concentrates on your biceps there's not really a "correct" way?

Here's what I consider "good form" for a standard pushup:

- the body is straight; no sagging hips or butt in the air
- feet together
- look onto the floor
- hands close to your body = next to your armpits when you go down
- go all the way up to elbow lockout and all the way down to lightly touching the ground with your chest


hand/feet placement may differ depending on the variation (wide grip, close grip, tiger bend, Lalanne pushup...), the straightbody is a given unless you're doing some kind of hindu pushup. Also, please work on this standard form for a bit and don't rush the reps - you'll find it a much harder exercise than you thought it would be. so many guys place their hands wide apart, keep their body in an a frame and just shrug their elbows a little.

And pushups do not train the biceps. The biceps' task is to flex the elbow joint against resistance; since gravity actually assists you in flexing it during a pushup, there is no strain on the biceps. Well, maybe a minor isometric challenge at lockout, but I think we can ignore that.