I weight lift M - W - F and run/cardio on T - Th. I heard from a friend that the following would be a good way to increase the number of pushups I can do.He said I should be performing pushups as part of my chest workout day (Mondays). He also says: After you finish all of the weight lifting exercises on chest day, perform as many pushups as you possibly can so that you have a maximum number. Then, on the next chest day workout, use the following technique as your final exercise: Let's say you were able to perform 6 pushups as your maximum number. On the next chest day workout, as your last exercise, you are to perform three sets, with the first being 50% of this number (3 pushups), the second set 75% of this number (4.5 pushups), and the final set 100% of this number (aim for 6 pushups, which you might not achieve). Once I can do the full 6 on the last set, then retest my max and so on.. My question is: Should I just be doing pushups 1 day a week on my chest workout day or should I be doing them frequently, such as every day to get used to them and increase my number? Thanks!
Remember, pushups are an exercise! Thus, if you do them too much you will be OVERTRAINING your chest. It is not during your routine that you get stronger, but during your rest periods. If you do your chest routine on Monday, then do pushups throughout the week, you won't have a rest period in order for your muscles to recover from your initial workout. Your friends plan is a bit different, but sounds decent. Incidently, Mondays are my Chest (and Triceps) day also. I'm gonna take a second to brag real quick: put up 95lbs DBs on flat press today! very happy about that...been stuck on the 90lbs DBs for a bit now!
Congrats on upping the DBs, man! I certainly don't want to overtrain, but I feel just doing pushups 1 day a week is probably not going to get me anywhere. How many days a week do you suggest to reach my maximum potential of the number of pushups I can do? Every other day perhaps?
Thanks! I'm really happy about it, trying to get to the 110lbs! Holding up that much weight with one arm directly over your head....it's a bit scary at first!!! lol You should always give your body between 48-72 hours of rest prior to working out again. So if you train chest on Monday, your earliest window for training again would be Wednesday. And that would depend on how heavy you lifted on Monday. Using that mindset (and only a moderate lifting routine for your chest day on Monday) you could FEASIBLY do push ups on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. HOWEVER this could easily lend itself to over training. If you ONLY do push ups on those extra days, you MIGHT be fine. This would be a case by case situation. My alt chest days is Thursday. 3 days rest from Monday, then I don't do any again till Monday. I very rarely do push ups in and of themselves, yet when I have to (USN req every 6 months) I can easily do over 50 of them. But I don't train for them. My goals, however, are different. I'm trying to get to an average flat bench of around 250lbs (about 30lbs to go on that one) with a dead lift of over 300lbs. Here is an idea of my routine: Monday-heavy lifting with 3-5 sets in the 6-10 rep range. 5-7 different exercises targeting different portions of the chest. (upper, lower, full, sides, middle) *adding the Perfect Pushups to this just can I got a good deal on them the other week* Thursday-lower weight, higher reps. 3 sets w/reps in the 15-20 range, super setted with another chest exercise with the same numbers. about 4-5 exercises targeting the major areas. (upper, lower, full)*adding the Perfect Pushups to this just can I got a good deal on them the other week* Obviously that's nothing specific, but you should get the idea. Again, that's what is working for me with my goals, but it has lent itself to being able to do a decent amount of pushups. Of course, the best way to train to be able to do ANYTHING, be it pullups, pushups, high kicks, etc, is to train with THAT specific motion!! Don't count on Bench Press to increase your pushups. Just curios, how many are you trying to do and why?
Just wondering why you are so keen to increase the number of pushups you can do. It is a derivative of muscular endurance, and can be trained in other ways. As a martial artist though, most people are looking for explosive muscles, that can deliver the most force in the least time (power). Training for endurance and pushups will not help this as much as other exercises. By training the way you are, you are tying to train two seperate goals, which doesn't really work out too well. If you are interested in increasing muscular endurance and enjoy bodyweight workouts, I would say go for it. But if your after strength and power I would say get on the weights and train accordingly. If you are training bodyweight your body won't need the same rest as weight training, and can be done every day. But as CV said, if you are doing weights you get most your benefits during rest and a training rotation is the way to go. I think your first step is to identify what type of strenght/muscles you are trying to develop - Size, Strength, Power, Endurance are the main ones.
why the pushups I'm considering joining Krav Maga. I'm told that they make you do a ton of pushups in KM. If you get hit during class, you have to get down and give them 5 - 10 pushups. So if you get hit a LOT, like a newb (myself) probably would, you'd have to do a lot of pushups. I'm just trying to get used to pushups before I join. I also have never really done them before and I'd like to be able to do these a lot easier then I can right now.
If you only have to do a small amount of pushups everytime, it is not much of an issue. That can still come under power training. Doing a hundred pushups straight is very different that doing 10 lots of 10 pushups. Your ATP energy system will have time to recover (it lasts for around 3 minutes and recovers pretty quickly), so you should be able to do your 5-10 pushups get up, keep going, the do the pushups again. This type of cycle is used quite a bit, but usually gets people to focus on different muscle groups then what they are training. Doing legwork you get pushups, doing upper body get squat kicks, and anything else you get situps. The idea though is the should be as hard and as fast as you can, to make sure you are developing the right kind of muscle. If you have got a bag at home you can try a cycle to build yourself up. Start with 30 second bagwork, the drop for 5 pushups, straight back up for another 30 second bagwork, straight into 5 sit ups, 30 seconds bag work, squat kicks, 30 second bag work, then rest for 1 minute and repeat. Keep going until you fail and make sure in your rest you switch everythng off, no bouncing around, just relax and breathe. When you feel comfortable with this you can increase your time on the bag and increase the reps of the exercises. You could also add pull-ups to balance your arms so that you have a pull and a push exercise. I would do this set after weight training so that you can put 100% into the weights and use this as a sort of power finish.
Would this be better suited to a day when I'm not weight training? I probably wouldn't havae much energy at all for any of this on a weight lifting day. I lift to failure on everything. I'm wanting to do pull-ups/chin-ups too but afraid the pull-up bar that attaches to a door frame would break the door.
Yeah I worry about those things too, I way 100kg and I can't see myself using one. I have a bar in my shed I use. Like I said the explosive comes from a different energy system, so if your worried about not have enough in the tank, you should. But your muscles will be fatigued which can lead to injury. I was more thinking of this as a drill to see where you are. If you can get through a few rounds of that after weights training, you will be more than ready to start training. Remember, most people start martial arts at a very low level of fitness, and with no idea of what to expect. You are already leaps and bounds over these people. You have some understanding of the type of training you are going to start in, and are already on your way fitness wise. Don't be too worried about the fitness side of the art you practise. No matter how fit or strong you are, you will always be pushed to your limit. It is the nature of what you are doing. You are not going to go there and feel strong and comfortable. No matter what level you reach, you are going to be pushed out of your comfort zone, and broken down so that you can build yourself up again. Why? because our mind and mind adapts to the stresses we put on it. If you are not body and mind is not struggling during training then you are not getting any better.
+1 to that! I lift weights 3 times a week for an average of 1.5 hours, I do cardio 3 times a week for about an hour, I do TKD 2-3 times a week. All that, and yet the first time I really rolled in BJJ, IT KICKED MY BUTT!!!!! It's all about what you are used to.
