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As a male only doing 25 push ups/ day is not doing much.
_____________________
I tried to tell the boyfriend this as he is working on losing weight and he does not believe me that he should be shooting for at least 100 eventually and not settle for 25 unless he does different types (sets). He complains the progress is slow and then...well yeh...
He is doing his cardio but he needs to build up his chest muscles. I can feel more bone than muscle there. I told him to take advantage of the weight he has on to help with building. Plus he does them like a girl on his knees. Which I also told him is not ideal...
Words?
Thoughts?
Factoids of experience?
I personally am shooting for my old number of 1000..someday.
And I don't do them on my knees even though I am a girl. I think doing them the man way sorta works the lower back for me because you have to stay strait. It feels like that is the area anyway.
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Originally Posted by pitt_transplant
T or F
As a male only doing 25 push ups/ day is not doing much.
_____________________
I tried to tell the boyfriend this as he is working on losing weight and he does not believe me that he should be shooting for at least 100 eventually and not settle for 25 unless he does different types (sets). He complains the progress is slow and then...well yeh...
He is doing his cardio but he needs to build up his chest muscles. I can feel more bone than muscle there. I told him to take advantage of the weight he has on to help with building. Plus he does them like a girl on his knees. Which I also told him is not ideal...
Words?
Thoughts?
Factoids of experience?
I personally am shooting for my old number of 1000..someday.
And I don't do them on my knees even though I am a girl. I think doing them the man way sorta works the lower back for me because you have to stay strait. It feels like that is the area anyway.
TRUE. 25 push-ups per day is going to remain slow-going. You need to really find ways to stress yourself with body-weight exercises like push-ups or you don't make much progress.
Tell him to try this: Don't think about a number when you start doing push-ups. Don't even count. If you have a number in your head as a goal you can trick yourself into failing before you have actually pushed your muscles to failure.
Do push-ups for a period of time. Start timing him and have him do as many as he can in 30 seconds. Let him rest for 60 seconds. Again, as many as he can do in 30 seconds. Rest for 60 seconds more, then burnout (the burnout must be full exertion for at least 30 seconds - no doing three push-ups, acting stuck to the floor and calling it quits).
First of all, using weights is the quickest route to building muscle mass. If you and your boyfriend prefer to use body weight exercises, that's okay. I'm a firm believer that physical activity of any kind is good. Just be aware that you build a different kind of physique with body weight exercises than you do pumping some heavy iron. Again, okay. It all depends on your goals. The body weight exercises often lead to a nice smooth well-rounded athletic look. If you're just starting to exercise, body weight exercises can be a good way to get started, with the possibility of lifting weights later on if you want to go that route. Just be clear on what your goals are, and aware of how best to achieve them.
If doing push-ups, yes I agree that your boyfriend should switch to the standard push-ups. They are a more challenging exercise for the chest muscles than girl push-ups, and I think your experience is a good example of the fact that standard push-ups also do some secondary working of the mid-section as you use those core muscles to hold your body straight.
I really like the workout Jimbo suggested. Another variation on the same idea is to set a goal of a total number of push-ups to do in a workout. Do as many reps as you can in one set, rest a minute or two, then do as many reps as you can do for a second set, and keep doing this until you reach your total. You don't want to be overly ambitious with this, especially in the case of someone just starting to get in shape. If you can do 25 reps in one set, you might start out with 40 as your goal for the total number. The idea is that you eventually get so that you can do 40 in one set, and then you repeat the process to increase your reps to a new level.
By the way, strength balance is important. If you are doing push-ups, it's a good idea to also do some kind of pulling exercise, like pull-ups, or negative-resistance pull-ups (starting in the up position and resisting lowering yourself so you take, say, ten seconds or so to lower all the way) if you're unable to do standard pull-ups. Barbell or dumbbell rowing is another good possibility for a pulling exercise. There are other exercises you can do as well, for other body parts, but if you are (or your boyfriend is) just starting out, push-ups, pull-ups (or a similar exercise), sit-ups, and a basic leg exercise, like knee-bends, are a good way to build up a solid base of muscular fitness you can build on if you want to get involved in a more thorough strength workout at some point. Good luck, and keep moving!
The intensity of the push up can be increased by putting your feet on a bench or chair so that your feet are elevated. The greater the elevation the greater the intensity. The numebr of repetitions will drop as the elevation of your feet increases. Doing push ups like this is similar to doing incline bench presses, placing more emphasis on the upper chest and front deltoid area. The reverse is also true. The intensity can be decreased by keeping your feet on the floor and placing your hands on a bench. This is similar to doing decline bench press. The greater the elevation of your hand placement, the more reps you can do.
Better is a relative term, so that depends on what you are attempting to accomplish. If you want to build endurance then it is better to do as many as you can at one time. On the other hand if you are going for a total of 500 pushups let's say, then it's probably better to break up your sets into fewer repetitions per set. You'll recover quicker from sets of 25 for example than you will from a set doing as many as you can. The quicker recovery time will enable you to complete the 500 push ups in a shorter time frame than if you go all out each set, which requires a longer recovery time. If you want to do weighted pushups, then it is better to do fewer reps per set. The amount of weight used will be the determining factor in the number of reps per set. The best thing to do is to EXPERIMENT and find out EXPERIENTIALLY what works best for YOU.
Here's an example using the bench press. Let's say I want to do 3 sets of 6 reps with 225lbs. The first set is usually relatively easy. I could probably do 7 on some days or even 8 on a really good day, but I stop at 6 anyway since 6 is my goal. Now the trick is to rest just long enough to be able to get 6 reps on the 2nd set. If my rest is too short, I may only get 4 or 5 reps. Guaging the amount of rest comes only thru experience. Same thing applies in regard to resting between sets 2 and 3. I know from experience that I will need a longer rest between sets 2 and 3 than I neeed between sets 1 and 2, if I want to maintain 6 reps.
Now lets say that I decide to limit my rest to 30 seconds or 60 seconds between sets, and just do as many reps as I can on all three sets, using the same weight each set. With a pre-determined rest time, my reps drop off on each set. Maybe something like this: 7 - 4 - 2. And that's Ok becasue I'm not resting long enough to recover completely from the previous set. I'm working my muscles in a state of partial fatigue. To prevent the drop in reps per set, I know that I need to lengthen the rest between sets. It all depends on what I want to accomplish.
In addition to the chest and triceps, pushups work the front head of the deltoids, and to a lesser degree, push ups indirectly work the abs and lower back from holding your body rigid as you perform the pushups. But mainly they work the triceps, chest, and front head of the deltiod. If you do push ups with your feet elevated, the emphasis on the front delt will intensify.
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 10-08-2009 at 10:08 AM..
Just wondering, too, why the military requires X number of pushups in under a minute. Must be a test of both strength and endurance. When I try to go too fast, my form falls apart!
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