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firemanb72 · Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Mebane, NC

"Quality is better than quantity" What is a good number of push ups before adding any kind of weight? Because of space in my home I cannot have any kind of home gym and because of scheduling I can only use gym membership twice a week. I try to do my cardio and "specialized" weight training while there. I was thinking I could do my chest stuff at home using a chin up or push up bar in a door way. In high school (17 years ago) we use to strap a 20 pound weight plate to our chests and do upside-down sit ups on a chin up bar. I was thinking of doing the same for push ups. Thanks for any and all advice.

Boss Man · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:05 pm Post subject:

Push-ups will work Chest, but as a mass builder don't expect much.

swanso5 · Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:50 am Post subject:

push ups are my fav chest builder as long as you can overload them...i do gymnastic ring push ups with up to 50kgs strapped to me at times depending on goal...if you can load them then do so if not maybe try towell sliding push ups, diamond push ups, tiger bend push ups, plyo metric push ups or handstand push ups

Hero of Games · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 2

I think push ups are best for warm ups. Since I've been working out, I've never really found push ups helping my fitness level. If you want to work the chest area, presses are better.

swanso5 · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject:

here's where push ups are often better than bench presses

push ups performed perfectly (which most can't do) have you lift about 60% of your bodweight

i am 73kg and bench about 80 - 90kgs for reps but i can do push ups with 30kgs strapped to me for reps...these are also done with my feet on a bench so it's probably 65 - 70% of my bodyweight plus the extra wt

bench wt lifted: 85kgs
push up wt lifted:81kgs

as you can see push ups are at least on par with bench presses

and for those weaklings who can't do push ups, doing push ups with your bodyweight woill more than likely equate to more wt being lifted than 30kg bench presses

and how do you get big or lose wt??? lift as heavy wt as you can

jd12 · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 133

I had great results from doing pushups, i can now do 15 pushups with my nsoe touching teh ground each time, i could have progressed and probably done 30-40 by now, but i had to stop doing them because my chest was getting too big, but maybe it's just me because i found that my chest grows way faster than my other muscles so you might have different results...

swanso5 · Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 5:57 am Post subject:

what a problem to have

jd12 · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 133

yep it's a nice problem to have, i just wish i had teh same problem with the rest of my muscles....

(Rage) · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 321 Location: UAE

Do girls push up have the same outcome? I never really done pushups, like really do them, but do they work for arms and sholders, as in, help you gain muscle?

Are they enough for building muscles for beginners? I think im still a beginner, and have basic muscles, strong to a point, but have a lil flab covering them, not much though.

As in for guys push ups, b4 i couldnt even get myself down without falling, I can do 4 now, but i can NEVER go wayyyy down...my wrist started hurting me yesterday when I was doing pushups, any idea why?! Maybe wrong postion?

Swanso, i looked up all the pushups u told me about, and more...I tried some of them, pretty good, but I'm not a push-up person, so I have to work on those.

jd12 · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 133

yah girl pushups help too they just make you lift less weight because when you do a normal pushup you have to lif 70% or so of your body weight (i think that's it sry if im wrong) and when you put your knees on the ground you probably only need to lift 30% or something like that... it's sad to say but before i started working out i couldn't do a normal push up either (but that may have to do with teh fact that i was 12 1/2 years old and 62kg). as for the wrist hurting that happened to me too, i don't know why, but i found that the more i ddid them the less and less it hurt and now i'm able to do 15 full pushups (nose touching the ground every time) and rpobably could ahve done way more by now but as i said before, my chest was getting too big...

(Rage) · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 321 Location: UAE

Aha, i see, the normal wrist pain is no big deal? For the guy's push, i can do about 4, but my nose cannot touch the floor. I'll work n the girls push up first, then try to work on the guy's puchups.

What do pushups do for girls tho? How does it work our chest muscle?
I mean, we ain't gonna have big cheats like guys, are we?!!! Razz

jd12 · Joined: 27 Dec 2006 Posts: 133

i don't know if the wrist pain is a big deal or not afetr all im not an expert, what i do know, is that as i progressed in working out adn doign pushups it went away...

(Rage) · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 321 Location: UAE

I hope it will be the same with me too. I never really do pushups, just use weights and such for the parts i want to target.

Edit-

do push ups help you gain muscle in your arms? silly Q, I knoq, but i'm talking muscles mucles,. not just baby muscles. I'm sick of those.

How long should it take for muscles to become obvious?!

nitecrawler · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 126 Location: India

a nice Pushup video can be found here:
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_PushupStandards.mov

yes the arms get worked up doing pushups, basically it depends upon your arm position. the closer to the body they are more triceps will be worked.

(Rage) · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 321 Location: UAE

Thank you so much, that's very helpful. I've been searching for pushup vedios, and found some, but all done by men, I sorta needed to see one done by a woman. It helps better, I guess!