I’m in IT, so generally when it comes to physical activity I’m pretty stagnant. Recently, I took it upon myself to start doing some running alongside a number of push ups and to slowly work my way up. But here’s my problem: I’ve been reading that it’s best to space out push ups so that your body gets some time to heal, since apparently it’s valuable in order for the muscles to grow. So I’ve been doing them ever 2nd day, which has worked relatively okay so far. The first few weeks were grueling because I lacked a lot of the stamina to do them, and could only do about 5 at a time. Now I’m up to two sets of 25 push ups per day, but what worries me is this sensation that I’m plateauing. Once I reach 25, I have to stop, wait a few minutes, before I do the next 25, which is fine, but if I bother to push for a few more, let’s say, 28 or 30 push ups per set, my arms literally give out.
The good thing is they don’t feel sore, but it’s like my arms just physically cannot go any further. Does anyone else have this problem? How did you get around it?
You should aim for a greater variety of exercises so that your body doesn’t get adapted just for push-ups.
You are reaching the limits of what your muscles can accomplish. The only way to increase this limit, is to gain muscle mass. Also, if you’re doing push ups, try to do pull ups to balance your physique. Push ups train mostly chest and triceps, if you only focus on that you’ll create muscle imbalances in your body in the long term. A strong chest with a weak back will lead to poor posture, which in IT is quite a common problem.
Thank you, I’ll keep all this in mind and also will figure out a start on pull ups. Deff don’t want to cause a muscle imbalance, my posture is already horrible enough as it is.
If you’re trying to work out from home, you can do a lot with a kettle bell or two. It won’t fix the lack of pull ups but you can do rows and reverse flies to target your back. Plus kettle bell swings will target your whole posterior chain.
Yea. In addition to the other responses, you also have to change your diet. You have to count macros and try to hit your protein target.
I’m vegan, but I’d say I have a pretty high protein diet. Will try to keep it more in mind though and work on macro goals.
Maybe try to make your push-ups slower on the descent so every rep is more demanding for your muscles. After about 15 reps for any exercise it’s very hard to condition your muscles. I don’t know how recently you’ve been training, but if it’s less than a couples months since you’ve been doing only 5, I think you’re probably doing push-ups in a fast pace, almost like an aerobic exercise. Take your time for every rep, and try not to focus on the quantity of push-ups, but on their quality, you’ll be conditioning your muscles with much more intensity.
Second thing, I think you’re spacing well your exercises, but remember your muscles can take up to 72 hours to fully rest and recover, depending on the intensity of your exercises. Even if you feel just a bit sore it’s probably not good to train yet, and you can take the opportunity to focus on other muscles, such as your legs.
Another thing I can suggest so you can condition your muscles in a more intense manner through push-ups is by doing declined (not inclined) push-ups, where your legs are in a greater height than your upper body. This greatly increases the intensity of your push-ups.
Nowadays on my chest/triceps day, I usually start with declined push-ups for about 3 series, then normal push-ups, and finally inclined push-ups. Basically begin with a more intense exercise and work your way through the easier ones. I greatly improved the conditioning of my upper body through this routine.
Yeah, generally if I feel soreness, it’s a hard avoid for me, even a little bit, since in the past I’ve caused some strain by doing that which left me not doing them for weeks. Thanks for all of this, I will try and adapt accordingly, or at the very least try this out, especially in regards to taking my time rather than trying to achieve a quantity.
There are different push up variations, try harder variations so you dont have to do 30 reps to reach failure. Push ups are for triceps and chest specifically so right now you are only developing these muscles, try different variations so you can get a better rounded routine.
Reaching failure (arms giving out in this case) is precisely what you want for muscle growth, the trick is reaching it on a moderate amount of reps (i.e. 8-12) for more optimal growth + time efficiency, thats why you have to try a harder variation or increase weight.
Thank you!
I don’t know how efficient it is, but the “greasing the groove” approach was apparently designed by a trainer in the USSR to avoid muscle failure
Damn, I can’t honestly tell if that article is tongue in cheek, or if that is honestly just how Americans talk about the Soviets. Great advice in there though, in between all the random attacks on the USSR.
I think that’s pretty normal for USians, you can’t say anything positive about the USSR without surrounding it with baseless or massively exaggerated claims about how awful everything was
I find this as well, I think it’s a common problem. I’m no expert, but I think switching up the number of pushups you do day to day, sometimes less, sometimes pushing a bit more, will help prevent your muscle programming a certain number you can do.
I’ve had reasonable success in getting past that barrier with following a schedule like this: https://hundredpushups.com/
Thank you! Bookmarking this immediately, and will deff try to variate.
Your strength progression is limited by your stamina. You should try harder variations of the exercise. And for that, let me introduce you to Chris Heria.
Thank you very much, I’ll check this out!
Chris Heria apparently isn’t bad when it comes to bodyweight exercises, but please don’t follow anything he says when working with weights lol
I mean, his whole thing is being a calisthenics guy.
Which is strange that he would make barbell videos, but he’s done it and I’ve seen them 😭
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I’m most certain this is a mental thing, if I’m alone I usually don’t do much because I get lazy but when I’m in Systema classes and you have someone there telling you to do 100 push ups you just do them. You need to start shutting up the voice in your head telling you you cant do it. If you say you’re doing 25 push ups a day with no problem I can’t see how you can’t start adding at least 5 or 10 more, but who knows.
Thanks, yeah, I’m pretty sure I know what you’re referring to, I have had those instances where I’ve had to “shut up” my voice, at least for the first few miles of building, but in most of those cases, it was generally because I was either out of breath or felt like my muscles were shaky, but in this case it’s like my arms simply refuse to work at that limit, even if I were to hypothetically “push” myself, I basically just collapse. Sure, it isn’t “fixed” to 25, I have variable instances where I have “reached” 30, but that goal quickly collapses the next day to let’s say, 23 before my body “gives out” again without being able to push on. I know it may sound confusing, but meh, it could as you said, be mental, so I will keep trying anyways, maybe I’ll figure out what’s wrong.
The important thing is to find ways to progress from workout to workout. If you’re capping out at 2 sets of 28, then switch it up. Break up your target total reps and do more sets with less reps (If you’re aiming for 60 push-ups for the day, try doing 4 sets of 15 instead).
For muscle growth, general rule of thumb is that you wanna rest at least a day before your next workout targeting a major muscle group (in the case of pushups, it’s chest/triceps). Same for strength programming.
However, given that you are still in the “noob gain” phase of strength fitness, you got a lot more room for progression no matter what your routine is, as long as you are consistently working out. Unless you’re doing hundreds a day, push-ups with good form (important!) are also pretty easy on your body compared to other exercises and you should be able to get away with doing them as frequently as you want. You could do them 7 days a week and repeat.
My advice, find a beginner calisthenics programs and do your best to stick to that for a few months. That’s gonna give you a solid foundation of strength, endurance, and mobility for when you eventually get the desire to branch out to other programming.
Credentials: Not a fitness expert by any means, but I have consistently been doing powerlifting workouts for over a decade and have gone through several programs, bodyweight programming included.
Splitting up reps sounds like a really good idea, feels kinda duh that I didn’t think about it that way. Will try that asap. I’ve been trying to maintain good form, but it isn’t as easy as said, especially since I keep drooping my head down, but I am slowly improving. I will also check out calisthenics programs. Thank you so much for your advice, very greatly appreciated. All of these replies have been incredibly helpful.
Best of luck comrade! Fitness is a journey, not a race.
