Help needed

harinarayanan · Post by **harinarayanan** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:49 pm

I am a push up freak. I have been doing push ups for the past two years. I am enjoying the development in body. But now, I wish to intensify the push up routine and witness the growth of muscles faster. I normally do 6 sets with 50-70 reps in each set, hence the total is around 350 push ups per day.

Can you advise me as to how should I adopt a severe routine in toning physique with pushups? I can spend a max of one hour per day for exercises.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:56 pm

how many rows do you do?

harinarayanan · Post by **harinarayanan** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:16 am

Rows? What do you mean by rows? As I mentioned earlier, I do approx 350 pushups in 6 sets and almost daily.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:45 am

you're kidding aren't you?

harinarayanan · Post by **harinarayanan** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:39 am

No. I am not kidding. Please help me with request

SarahPT · Post by **SarahPT** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 3:12 pm

Push ups only work certain muscle groups, so you're not going to hit your whole body. Some people do push ups with weighted vests to make them harder. But in order to work your whole body you will need different exercises.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:51 pm

as she said

by the way how's your posture going?

DianaB · Post by **DianaB** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:49 pm

harinarayanan wrote:No. I am not kidding. Please help me with request

You are setting yourself up for some serious imbalances. All pushing and no pulling is not a good thing.
And no legs either, just crazy.

harinarayanan · Post by **harinarayanan** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:01 am

As I said I can spend only 1 hour per day for exercises. I don't find time to hit the gym. Hence, body-weight exercises are the only options for staying fit. That's why I have gone crazy with pushups. I just need to intensify push-up routine. Can you suggest some ways?

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:34 am

1 leg pistol squats
inverted rows
prone planks
side planks
lunge variations
handstand push ups

i wouldn;t even do anymore push ups wioth you if i was training you

Packard · Post by **Packard** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:53 am

harinarayanan wrote:As I said I can spend only 1 hour per day for exercises. I don't find time to hit the gym. Hence, body-weight exercises are the only options for staying fit. That's why I have gone crazy with push ups. I just need to intensify push-up routine. Can you suggest some ways?

Balance should be key in any workout. Upper body vs lower body, push vs. pull; strength vs endurance, etc.

The nice thing is that it usually does not take any more time to add the second exercise. While you are resting and recovering from the push up set you can execute leg work, or pull ups or abs. So you can add a lot of exercise in you one hour and still work your push ups.

The other problem with working one exercise is that you are more likely to get a repetitive motion injury and when it occurs your workouts are stopped.

With a balanced workout any injury can be worked around until it heals.

Think "balance" in your work out. Start with a fresh sheet of paper and write out a new workout.

That said, you can vary your push up routine with:

Wide grip push ups
Narrow grip push ups
Close grip push ups
Decline push ups

favorite is the "should tap push up". This performed as a normal push up but instead of just going to the lock out, you give a little extra thrust at the lockout, lift you hands off the floor and cross them and touch your opposite shoulders, and then return the hands to the push up bottom position.

The risk is that you don't get your arms back under you in time to avoid hitting your face on the floor. But once you get this, it makes a good endurance exercise for the upper body and it is fun watching other people trying to do the same (and hitting their faces on the floor).

I would mix exercises up a bit more, however.