Push ups not working?

J

Junior214

0
I've exercised before but on and off. And now I'm very determined to Excersice once again. So now I'm doing 10 reps of hands directly under shoulders. And 10 reps of Wide spread arms. I did 10 of both this morning, and now before i go to sleep. My Wrist are bugging, My biceps feel like I'm doing the right thing. But my chest, Is as if i weren't doing a thing. Any help or suggestions i really want to get rid of chest fat, And yes I'm doing cardio. :) Any help will help a lot. Thank you.
 
personally, i dont think 20 push ups a day is going to do much in the long run. slowly build up. one week to 20 day, next 25-30, next 35-40. slowly increase. as for fat on your chest, keep running buddy=]
 
How hard do you find the press ups? 1 set of 10 reps isn't going to make much impact, at least try 3 sets of 10. However just doing one exercise all the time will only ever bring pretty limited results, for a start you need to work your legs.

Do you have access to weights? If not look around for body weight exercises and try to introduce things like chins, dips, squats and lunges.

If you're aiming to drop fat then you need to look at your diet. Do you have any idea how many calories you're taking in every day?
 
About the chest...I never feel any soreness in my chest, no matter how many or what type pushups I do, and same for bench presses, so maybe that's normal.

Most of the soreness/burn feeling is usually in the shoulders and arms, in my case at least.
 
as soon as I saw the subject line, two words came to mind that apply to the effectiveness of almost all calestenics "SLOW DOWN"

let it burn man, let it burn,,,, the growth, gain, and loss of fat seems to be in the burn... IMHO
 
a few things:
first, you should not feel it in your biceps, but in your triceps.

If your wrists are bothering you, consider doing the push ups on closed fists or with your hands gripped around dumbbells.

Second, don't count your push ups! Most people do exercises until they get to a nice "round" number (like 10). Just do as many as you can until you just cant do another one. And when you can't do any more...TRY ONE MORE!

If you're fairly out of shape and/or dont have access to a gym or weights, push ups can be a nice exercise alternative.

Try adding other varieties of push ups like narrow grip, push ups with your feet on a bench (or couch), push ups with your hands on a stability ball, etccc

Also try doing sets with very little rest between sets; maybe 15 seconds.

Someone else offered a great suggestion: DIPS! Get to a playground and find a set of monkey bars. A slight forward lean during the dips will target the chest as well as the triceps.

Go get 'em!

Wes
 
gymcoch said:
Just do as many as you can until you just cant do another one. And when you can't do any more...TRY ONE MORE!
Click to expand...

Do you always recommend training to failure?
I have no preference but have started to ensure that I don't after some of the guys on here said it has a negative effect on your CNS. Is it just that it's OK with press ups because the load is so low?
 
it really depends on the goal and medical history of the client, but yes, I suggested it because it is a push-up which means lower-than-usual load, and because there will not be a bar crashing down on you if you aren't able to get that last rep in.

I have never heard anything of training to failure having a negative effect on the CNS. If anyone can refer me to any research-based articles on the subject, I'd certainly love to read them!

To me, doing 75 push-ups to fatigue isn't the workout, it's trying #76!
 
gymcoch said:
it really depends on the goal and medical history of the client, but yes, I suggested it because it is a push-up which means lower-than-usual load, and because there will not be a bar crashing down on you if you aren't able to get that last rep in.

I have never heard anything of training to failure having a negative effect on the CNS. If anyone can refer me to any research-based articles on the subject, I'd certainly love to read them!

To me, doing 75 push-ups to fatigue isn't the workout, it's trying #76!
Click to expand...

Also, any thoughts about tempo for push-ups ?

When it came to adding muscle, one trainer I had suggested a count of 2 seconds up, 2 seconds hold and 4 seconds back down yet another trainer I knew swore by 1 seconds up, 0 seconds hold and 3 seconds back down.
 
again, the idea of "adding muscle" with push-ups is not very likely.
Sure, it will certainly help build some strength in someone who is very deconditioned, and is a great tool for maintenance and increases in upper-body muscular endurance. But as far as adding muscle, I dont see the push up as a very effective tool for hypertrophy.

Effective muscle building comes from a very strict and well thought-out combination of exercise and nutrition. The general guidelines for a hypertrophy program are 3-5+ sets of 8-12 repetitions where the muscles are completely fatiguing within that rep range for each set, as well as after the entire exercise (completion of all sets). Again, unless someone is fairly deconditioned, it's going to be hard to reach failure by 8-12 reps.. Beyond those 12 reps, you're going to start recruiting more slow twitch muscle fibers and work those fibers (which are not conducive to hypertrophy).

You're also talking about a very specific rest interval with a hypertrophy program.

As far as the tempo, 224 or 103...the numbers are not magic! Whether the concentric is 2 or 3 or 4, and the hold is...whatever, they should be slow and controlled to put the muscles under a longer time under tension. But the specific count is not crucial.

You've also got to consider the purpose of the exercise; if you're doing push-ups as a general conditioning program, it is wise to vary, not only the grip (wide vs. narrow vs. feet on a bench...), but to vary the speed. How about adding some plyometric (explosive) push ups?! After all, the pec major, anterior delt and triceps (all of the pushing muscles for that matter) are often used in "real-life" situations as an explosive-type movement (shutting a car door, pushing something out of the way, etc...). So why not train this way?

Just some thoughts!

Wes
 
Wes, very interesting points... My wife has a personal trainer that I used too for a while last year. One of the exercises he had me do regularly are pushups. At first, 1 set of 20 would completely fatigue me. I eventually got to 5 sets of 20, every other day and saw substantial pec growth. My understanding from you is that there is some initial growth and then a plateau where the growth stops? I had been using chest presses with heavier weights, would you recommend going back to them?

Thanks,

Richard
 
Richard,
Is hypertrophy your goal? Is strength? If the answer to either is yes, then you should be using heavier weights, providing (*disclaimer) that you can do them safely.

However, if your goal is maintenance, or the ability to do lots of push-ups, or you dont have access to a gym or weights, then push-ups are a fine alternative. They are also a great core exercise, as you have to use your stomach in order to do the push-ups with good technique. Laying on a bench, you are stabilized and not using as much core. I like alternating dumbbell presses to incorporate more abdominal muscles.

If you're a fan pf the push-up, and have never seen it. google "t-stab push-up".

Great core exercise. Other push up alternatives: hands on a stability ball, fett on a stability ball, one hand on a medicine ball other hand on the floor, two-hands on a medine ball plyometric push-ups (push off ball-land on floor-push up back to ball, etc)

here's a good link:
 
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Wes,

Sounds like I'll go back to chest presses with heavier weights when I'm in town and do the pushups in my hotel room when I'm out of town. I am looking for strength AND some bulk - can I have my cake and eat it too?

Richard
 
NO CAKE!! :)

yes, if you are on a hypertrophy program, you will build strength and if you are on a strength progran, your muscles will grow.

Throw in some tricep dips on the edge of the bed or even push the beds close together or use 2 luggage racks and do some dips. Shoot, find a park near the hotel room, run to it, do some dips on the monkey bars, or push-ups with your hands on the swing, run some hills, do some chin-ups and you're golden!

Wes
 
Junior214 said:
I've exercised before but on and off. And now I'm very determined to Excersice once again. So now I'm doing 10 reps of hands directly under shoulders. And 10 reps of Wide spread arms. I did 10 of both this morning, and now before i go to sleep. My Wrist are bugging, My biceps feel like I'm doing the right thing. But my chest, Is as if i weren't doing a thing. Any help or suggestions i really want to get rid of chest fat, And yes I'm doing cardio. :) Any help will help a lot. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I tihnk you should do like 3 sets of 10 for each of them
I don't know why you'd feel anything in your biceps as pushups work the tricpes, chest and deltoids. Make sure you have proper form in terms of how you do them. I'm sure you can find a video of proper form.

To be honest, if you really want to build muscle, or get rid of fat, you should go to a gym and lift weights (legs are important) andn otj sut do pushups.
 
gymcoch said:
it really depends on the goal and medical history of the client, but yes, I suggested it because it is a push-up which means lower-than-usual load, and because there will not be a bar crashing down on you if you aren't able to get that last rep in.

I have never heard anything of training to failure having a negative effect on the CNS. If anyone can refer me to any research-based articles on the subject, I'd certainly love to read them!

To me, doing 75 push-ups to fatigue isn't the workout, it's trying #76!
Click to expand...

You need some research to essplain nueral fatigue? Uh, read Supertraining by Mel Siff.

Okay, let's backtrack a little. You have primary movers and support muscles. Using chest pressing exercises as an example, your pecs, anterior delts and triceps would be primary. Support muscles would be external rotators, stabalizers, etc, like the serratus anterior, infraspinatus (sorry, boring I know) and so one and so forth. Support muscles are not designed to handle heavy loads. They "support" the primary movers. Right? Let's move on. What happens when your primary movers fatigue? They quit, right? (Trick question... Of course they quit!). You aren't eeking any more out of them once the CNS decides they've put out all they can. So what is left doing that extra rep? How do you think most shoulder injuries happen in the first place?

Getting back to the 75 push-ups. Doing something like that every now and then to see what you can do is fine, but for a regular workout, if you can do ANYTHING 75 times it's well past time to increase the load. If you want that kind of repetition go for a jog. And the whole "training past failure" thing is very early-80's muscle and fiction mythology.
 
Love the t-stab thing, that's fun!
 
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