Pump you Up (Pushups)

[Blarg]

Cool, Stuey. Your concentrating on form is absolutely the way to do it.

I wouldn't worry about hitting a plateau or going slightly negative. Like you note, it happens. It's the norm, not the exception.

You might try some one-armed push-ups to see if you can stimulate your muscles differently. It might spark progress in your regular push-ups. It's definitely difficult, and I can see it's putting some meat on me. Also, some push-ups on your fingertips or with your feet elevated add more difficulty, and at this point maybe that would be really good for your training.

[Stuey]

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So how many pushups can you do total now?


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I don't state my total as I don't think it is important. I want people who can only do 5 or 10 pushups to feel comfortable joining the challenge. If they know they only have to post how many more pushups they did compared to the previous week I thought it would be less intimidating.

The idea is to try hard and stick with it for a long time.
I am struggling myself and I exercise regularly.

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I would like to get in on this but am curious as to what exercises you want me to do in between these weekly counting sessions.

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I have been experimenting with different methods. I have found at lower reps you can make the best progress if you do 1 set to failure about 5 days a week. Once you reach 50 or 60 reps you need to switch to something like this program I think.

I don't know and I am not an expert and my advice should not be taken as such. Part of the reason I started this thread was to learn. And several of the posters here have made very good suggestions.

I'm going to keep trying different things until I find what works best for me and it would be great if you joined in on the torture. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Just try hard for a week and report your results here.

[Stuey]

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Cool, Stuey. Your concentrating on form is absolutely the way to do it.

I wouldn't worry about hitting a plateau or going slightly negative. Like you note, it happens. It's the norm, not the exception.

You might try some one-armed push-ups to see if you can stimulate your muscles differently. It might spark progress in your regular push-ups. It's definitely difficult, and I can see it's putting some meat on me. Also, some push-ups on your fingertips or with your feet elevated add more difficulty, and at this point maybe that would be really good for your training.

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Good points I will try more one handers but I really hate them. rofl They really hurt.

I have also been doing the grippers and will be posting in the other thread tomorrow, but now I need to get some sleep!

Thanks for the support it really does make it harder to quit knowing someone else is trying hard also.

[Stuey]

Week 9 is over.

This week I can do 2 more pushups than last week.
That's a total of 30 more than 9 weeks ago.

I have been slacking, don't really have a excuse for it either. Only did my pushup training 2 times this week and it was not very intense. Trying to refocus hope next week is better. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Hope everyone else had a good week.

[Bill Murphy]

Two times a week is actually the secret. Do as many as you can on Monday, then add 1 on Thursday. Repeat ad infinitum. All the "madman" stuff works great at first but then yer a husk after a month.

Give ya'll a freebie here. Do as many situps as you can(prefrerably on a semi-inflated ball, or something else under yer hips, a foot or so off the ground), then immediately do as many pushups as you can, then immediately do as many deep knee bends as you can(butt to heels), then immediately get into a back neck bridge and hold it as long as can(try to get as close to your forehead as poss.; don't stay on the crown of your head, and you'll want to do it on a pillow or something).

Do this first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, in barefeet and shorts. Beauty is ya got no excuses when you're traveling, at Gramma's, whatever. Also acts as insta-hangover cure. When not hung it'll ya get extra sharp and wokeup. Warning: When I first did the deep knee bends I couldn't walk right for about ten days. My neck & traps are way bigger now than back in the shrug and neck machine days.

Takes about 30 min or so, and you'll never need to do any extra cardio. Try to get to sleep at the same time every night, and get at least 7 hours(or whatever your 'natural' amount is). Cut the carbs and mix in the spinach & broccoli. Water instead of soda, sportsdrinks, or juice. No beer- OK, like THAT'S gonna happen. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Chill for two days then repeat, adding a rep to everything. Trust me, I don't know much about much, but this I do. As I crawl towards my arthritic 40's, among the many things I'd change w/a mulligan is starting a program like this at about age 12 and sticking w/it forever. Fvck the benching and the Nautilus, the protein powders and creatine, etc, etc.

"Wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then..." [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Blarg]

Sometimes a week off is a good idea, or a real slack week. Still, you progressed, and that's cool. Getting better or stronger is usually easiest at first.

I think you start to lose a lot of the value of an exercise like push-ups when you just do them endlessly. Endurance is okay, but push-ups are more in their glory phase when they're harder for you, and it's much more about strength.

Now that you can do a bunch of them, I think you'd be better off by changing your goal. You've built up some strength with which to do tougher push-ups. I'd choose push-ups with my feet elevated(chair, stair, coffee table, whatever) or one-armed push-ups. They're a lot harder to do than regular push-ups, and you could still be in for some substantial strength gains by doing those. You'd probably gain more mass, too, as endurance events tend to strip away a lot of muscle and only leave you with highly efficient thinner ones. At this point your regular push-ups have probably lost most of their ability to put mass on you or even gone backwards in their ability to do so, and lost a lot of their ability to give you strength gains, too.

Anyway, that's just my take on it.

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I can do 14. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Stuey]

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Give ya'll a freebie here.

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Thanks for the tips I am going to try and use the advice.

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All the "madman" stuff works great at first but then yer a husk after a month.


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This is me to a letter.

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starting a program like this at about age 12 and sticking w/it forever.

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Consistency is what I need to remember the most I think.
Thanks for taking the time to post all that it was very useful. And reminded me of the main goal here. Forever.

[Stuey]

Good advice as always but I'm more interested to hear how you have been doing this week. Still doing the pistols and one handers? You were making crazy good gains with the gripper I imagine the same is true regarding the resistance training.

[Stuey]

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I can do 14. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

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That's plenty.

Please do some more a few days this week and tell me next week how many more you can do. I will try to do the same. Deal? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]