# Push ups everyday?



## Andy81653 (Oct 19, 2010)

I was thinking of doing 300-400 pushups a day and working my self up to 1,000 but I am afraid of over training and I heard that to get the best results from them is to do it everyday with only 1 day off. I saw that it was good for a full upper body workout and like I said, my biggest concern is over training.



-Andy


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## juggernaut (Oct 19, 2010)

So doing this will accomplish what??

What's your goal? To do 300-400 pushups a day?


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## Gazhole (Oct 19, 2010)

What are your goals? What is your reason for doing so many pushups? What do you hope to accomplish by being able to do 1000 pushups?


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## Andy81653 (Oct 19, 2010)

I am joining the army after christmas but I just don't have alot of weight I can put on my dumbbell/barbell to really gain muscle mass. I am looking to build all around muscle for my upper body. I can do 300-400 Push ups in a day and I wanted to increase my push ups every other day till I get to 1,000 so I don't really hit that plateau but I wanted to know if doing them each day and having maybe sunday off will hurt my gains considering it is only 1 day off.


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## OTG85 (Oct 19, 2010)

Andy81653 said:


> I am joining the army after christmas but I just don't have alot of weight I can put on my dumbbell/barbell to really gain muscle mass. I am looking to build all around muscle for my upper body. I can do 300-400 Push ups in a day and I wanted to increase my push ups every other day till I get to 1,000 so I don't really hit that plateau but I wanted to know if doing them each day and having maybe sunday off will hurt my gains considering it is only 1 day off.


 
joining the army start pushing up till you throw up, and flutter kick till you shit yourself!


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## Bilal123 (Oct 19, 2010)

Andy81653 said:


> I am joining the army after christmas but I just don't have alot of weight I can put on my dumbbell/barbell to really gain muscle mass. I am looking to build all around muscle for my upper body. I can do 300-400 Push ups in a day and I wanted to increase my push ups every other day till I get to 1,000 so I don't really hit that plateau but I wanted to know if doing them each day and having maybe sunday off will hurt my gains considering it is only 1 day off.


 
You can't go wrong with push ups just about everyday. When I was only doing calisthenics for a couple years, I would knock out about 500 ed. I can't explain all the science behind it (if anyone on here can feel free to chime in), but calisthenics don't break down your body like weights do. Don't forget a couple hundred pull ups eod for a nice cobra back too!

Another thing to do in order to get to that 1000 is to mix it up as well. Different push up variations will do the trick. Throw in dips as well and you'll be good to go.






YouTube Video


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## unclem (Oct 19, 2010)

hes got no legs, but he also needs a tooth but other than that he looks good with a athletic body but if he hit his body parts right with weights he would be a real bigger guy. but he looks good and strong as hell, i no i cant do that shit.


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## Bilal123 (Oct 19, 2010)

unclem said:


> hes got no legs, but he also needs a tooth but other than that he looks good with a athletic body but if he hit his body parts right with weights he would be a real bigger guy. but he looks good and strong as hell, i no i cant do that shit.


 
It's hard to build up the legs with calisthenics. There are certain workouts like pistol quats (I saw a guy doing those on some parallel dip bars) that can really work your legs, but other than that you are pretty limited. I guess sissy squats can work well for you too. You have to increase the weight if you want to get larger though... that's why I started to incorporate weights into my routines.


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## njc (Oct 19, 2010)

One legged squats are a great exercise.


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## Marat (Oct 19, 2010)

Andy81653 said:


> I am joining the army



From what I understand of what the military expects from you, you need to achieve a high level of overall conditioning -- maximal strength and a high body mass isn't the priority.

I recommend a lot of general physical preparedness (GPP) activities. Lots of running hills, sled pulling, tire flipping ... things like that. Here are some other examples.

I believe you'll also need to be capable of running several miles while carrying additional weight. You may want to consider working on your running mileage with a heavy backpack on your back.

All this should probably be done at maintanence calories, adjusted for activity.


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## Gazhole (Oct 20, 2010)

+1 to Marat's suggestions. Pushups may be part of the entrance testing, but you'll be doing a lot more than that.

I would invest some money in a sandbag if nothing else. There are a lot of drills you can do with that for GPP and strength at the same time.


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## stepaukas (Oct 20, 2010)

OP

go to stewsmith.com


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## bio-chem (Oct 20, 2010)

push-ups worked for hershal walker. I do push-ups, pull-ups, and one legged squats every day and I don't think it hurts my training at all. i've never been worried about over training. after a few weeks your body adjusts and considers that part of life. then again my goals are not to get big. I'm 6'1" walk around at about 180lbs. i cut to 165-170 for muay thai fights.


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## ALBOB (Oct 20, 2010)

Gazhole said:


> +1 to Marat's suggestions. Pushups may be part of the entrance testing, but you'll be doing a lot more than that.
> 
> I would invest some money in a sandbag if nothing else. There are a lot of drills you can do with that for GPP and strength at the same time.




+2 to Marat's suggestion.  The LAST thing you want is to be carrying around any more body weight than you absolutely have to.  Work on core strength, running endurance and overall cardio-vascular fitness and you'll be fine.  

Only other advice I could give would be to ditch the Army and go Air Force.


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## MrRockstar (Oct 20, 2010)

I'm in the Navy,  If you can do 100 push ups you're already going to be a god on the fitness test. you need to work on cardio, and sit ups too.  I get top score in every event on prts. I went to camp leuguene for school and they all laughed "haha you might beat Merrman, Navy." (merrman was the out of shape marine in the class).The next day I was grinning my ass off in a class full of pouting marines who where getting the evil eye from our 2 very disappointed sargents. I did the National guard contest at the richmond race, won their backpacks the 1st day for high score, won their backpacks the second day for the high score(my buddy wanted one too). I do 113 push ups in 2 mins and 139 sit ups in 2 minutes,And a mile and a half in 9:45. Enough bragging, but you get my point, I love Pt!

If I were you I would start running a mile every other day and work yourself up to something like 3 or 4 miles every other day.Work your way up to avoid injury. Do as many push ups as you can, rest and go again for like 3 or 4 sets.have a goal number in mind, same thing with sit ups. I'd do it every other day if I where you. but do what ya feel like. When I do push ups I count them in my head as sets of 10. so I dont think holy shit I should be tired, I think I'm only doing 10 push ups.... 
Hope this helped ya.


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## assassin (Oct 21, 2010)

Gazhole said:


> +1 to Marat's suggestions. Pushups may be part of the entrance testing, but you'll be doing a lot more than that.
> 
> I would invest some money in a sandbag if nothing else. There are a lot of drills you can do with that for GPP and strength at the same time.


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## awhites1 (Oct 22, 2010)

not sure about the herschel walker thing. i actually posted an article about him a couple a weeks ago. he's had a routine of 1000 push ups a day and 2000 sit ups a day for awhile supposedly.not sure thats how he got that big though. plus he's a genetic freak of nature. 

but also I read something in the newspaper a few months ago that army will begin to start adjusting its training techniques to more accuratly reflect what they'll be going through. they'll start doing away w/ 5mile marches and stuff b/c you dont do a lot of that anymore in the field. a lot of core work now. 

but i want to try that 1000 a day just to see what happens. i probably wont turn out like the black guy in the Youtube video though. he has another video where he grabs a pole and pulls his body completly horizontal. nuts


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## GearsMcGilf (Oct 22, 2010)

What a dipshit question! LOL  Sounds like NiagraBall's 20 rep squat workout, only everyday!!!  Sure, that won't result in OT'ing.   Don't do this everyday.  Maybe use it to pre-exhaust b4 starting chest w/o once or twice a week.  But, ur shoulders will come unfastened in a couple weeks if you do this everyday.


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## njc (Oct 23, 2010)

bio-chem said:


> push-ups worked for hershal walker. I do push-ups, pull-ups, and one legged squats every day and I don't think it hurts my training at all. i've never been worried about over training. after a few weeks your body adjusts and considers that part of life. then again my goals are not to get big. I'm 6'1" walk around at about 180lbs. i cut to 165-170 for muay thai fights.


 
Genetics worked for Herschel Walker


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## bio-chem (Oct 23, 2010)

yes they did. my point being that many people do many push ups every day and it doesn't over tax the body. hershel walker is probably the best known


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## LAM (Oct 23, 2010)

if the person is relatively symmetrical then the push-up only equates to about 60% of the total body weight.  needless to say the fast twitch muscles and CNS adapt to this light load very fast.  initially there will be some increase in size but this comes from increased levels of hydration, glycogen, etc. and is not from an increase in the cross-sectional area of muscle fibers, cross-bridge, etc.  

performing high reps of push-ups, doing them daily, etc. ultimately only really conditions the intermediate and slow twitch fibers effectively once the body adapts to the load.


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## caangelxox (Oct 23, 2010)

why dont you elavate your feet on a chair and do push ups that way? and then go on something higher and higher when you are ready, then you will be able to do handstand push ups. Doing 300-400 push ups a day is lame and boring, and its a waste of time. Increase your strength by making the exercise harder. There are also diamond push ups (where your hands are right next to each other), elevated push ups (feet elevated on bench or chair and then keep getting higher and higher and able to use the wall, then just standing on your hands), medicine ball push ups, handstand push ups (your goal should be that instead of 300-400 push ups per day).

have you ever thought about handstand push ups? add that as your goal instead of 300-400 push ups per day. you will get tired out very quickly and get burnt out quick if you try to even over 100 per day.


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## Merkaba (Oct 24, 2010)

Just because you CAN do something....


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## alexis12345 (Oct 24, 2010)

The basic principle here is to vary a little the push ups. Different styles if you know what I mean.


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## premo (Oct 26, 2010)

do you think doing push ups every day will hinder chest and shoulder growth for a lifter trying to gain strength and mass


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## tyciol (Dec 7, 2010)

LAM said:


> if the person is relatively symmetrical then the push-up only equates to about 60% of the total body weight.  needless to say the fast twitch muscles and CNS adapt to this light load very fast.  initially there will be some increase in size but this comes from increased levels of hydration, glycogen, etc. and is not from an increase in the cross-sectional area of muscle fibers, cross-bridge, etc.
> 
> performing high reps of push-ups, doing them daily, etc. ultimately only really conditions the intermediate and slow twitch fibers effectively once the body adapts to the load.



This depends on someone's fitness levels. For the unconditioned not able to do many pushups, there will certainly be an increase in the cross-sections. Myofibrilar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy always happen together, it just differs in the ratio.

The truth you're getting at is obviously as they get to doing higher reps it becomes more endurance and less strength based and the emphasis will be more on sarcoplasm and less on myofibrils.

The thing is though: as slow and even intermediate fibers get fatigued and work less efficiently, especially as oxygen runs low, the fast twitch fibers which excel in anaerobic conditions will probably fire now and then to give them a brief reprieve so their aerobic metabolism can catch up.

The question of course, is whether it's a good idea to be using fast-twitch fibers to fill in for the job of slow-twitch ones when what they excel at is working in tandem with them to generate huge burts of power when everyone's fresh. It's not likely going to increase max strength.


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