this has probably been asked a few times, but if someone were to do about 100 pushups, 3 times every week.. would they build as much muscle as they would say bench pressing? the reason i am asking is we do quite a bit of push ups in my karate classes and ive been trying to gain some muscle lately.. just wondering if i could almost substiute alot of chest workouts which in-class push ups?
Fast answer = No of course not Even with your bench press it would depend on what your goal was. That would determine your set to rep ratio. By and large most press ups in martial arts classes are used as some sort of warm up and psuedo conditioning. It's rare to find people who can actually perform proper form press ups.Let alone press ups in any sort of structured program that will lead to a balanced conditioning circuit and true strength endurance with carry over to a fight. Your bend will usually involve more weight than your press up... or at least that's your goal. Press ups in most martial arts classes involve lots of numbers or at least it seems that way to novices... and so it's primarily working strength endurance. Your bench program can be anything from absolute strength to strength endurance depending on what you are trying to achieve and who you are listening to. The vast majority of martial arts classes I've ever seen can't do 20 proper full length press ups with good form. What most martial artists consider a press up is a joke. So don't put too much faith in what get accepted in martial arts classes as the be all end all of press ups.
