Operation 30 press ups

LadyLucinda

Any tips on how to improve press ups? I'm well over 6 ft and around 15.5 stone. I am practicing by doing it the way women do them. any other tips would be great. I'm finding it hard to even get to 20 to be honest

ezra_pound

LadyLucinda wrote: »

Any tips on how to improve press ups? I'm well over 6 ft and around 15.5 stone. I am practicing by doing it the way women do them. any other tips would be great. I'm finding it hard to even get to 20 to be honest

Start on 10. Build up 1 a day. Don't over do it. Take at least 1 rest day a week.

Then start with 5 "man" press ups when you think you can do 5. Build up 1 a day.

Hanley

Assuming you want to get 30 "lady" press ups, here's something I think would work quite well

Every minute, on the minute do "X" reps. In week 1 for example, you do 10 reps on the minute, every minute for 10 minutes (goal = 100 reps)

If you can't complete any of the sets of 10 before you fail, that's fine. You just get as many as possible, then rest until hte next minute starts, get as many as possible and repeat.

On day 2 and 3 you do the same, but for longer.

On weeks 2-4 you do the same, but with more reps.

So by Day 3 / Week 4 you're attempting to do 20 push ups every minute, on the minute, for 15 minutes. You probably won't get it done, but if you can do 20 push ups on the minute every minute for 10 minutes, and another 12-15 on the minute every minute for the next 5 minutes I bet you'll crush thru 30 no problem.

WEEK 1
Day 1 (Monday): 10 minutes x10 reps
Day 2 (Wednesday): 12 minutes x10 reps
Day 3 (Friday): 15 minutes x10 reps

WEEK 2
Day 1 (Monday): 10 minutes x12 reps
Day 2 (Wednesday): 12 minutes x12 reps
Day 3 (Friday): 15 minutes x12 reps

WEEK 3
Day 1 (Monday): 10 minutes x15 reps
Day 2 (Wednesday): 12 minutes x15 reps
Day 3 (Friday): 15 minutes x15 reps

WEEK 4
Day 1 (Monday): 10 minutes x20 reps
Day 2 (Wednesday): 12 minutes x20 reps
Day 3 (Friday): 15 minutes x20 reps

...but in order to stay healthy doing that you should be doing some back work as well to keep your shouldders healthy.

brevity

I found those push up apps quite helpful. Get in push up position and place the phone in front of your face and you touch it with your nose.

It will ask you to do as many as you can and set up a plan for you based on how many you did.

So you could end up with a set like:

6-5-4-4-3

and you do it over maybe 5-10 minutes.

Mars Bar

Make sure your arm position is right. I see loads of women (and some men) in the gym I'm in with their hands way out past their shoulders and they can't go down far at all. I start at the bottom of the press up and make sure my arms are close to my body and push up from there so my hands are almost under my shoulders. We had strength testing recently and I did 20 full push ups which was joint top of the women and better than most of the men. I'm a 4ft11 female and am 8 stone for reference. Also, the term for "women's pushups" is "box push ups" coz they are not just for women! Although I don't think "box" should be the term because your arse shouldn't be stuck out in the air.

I've also seen the instructor have some women who are between box and full push ups to go down slowly on the full push up and drop to box on the way up.

caviardreams

I would also recommend doing them against a bench rather than from your knees (if that's what you mean by "women's" push-ups :rolleyes:). It is closer to a full push-up in terms of involving the whole body (glutes and abs etc.) and easier to then transition to full push-ups (by full push-ups I obviously mean "men's" push-ups :rolleyes:)

Hanley's plan looks spot on - would also suggest that when you can do 20 from the knees comfortably, you could probably do 2-3 full ones. Start doing 3 or 4 sets of 2-3 (as many as you can do) and just build up slowly - try and add an extra rep every week.

When I started off I could just about do 2 or 3, and even then my chest was probably about still 2 inches off the ground, and now I can do 15 chest to floor on a good day. It just took me consistency and patience, and watching lots of videos of good form e.g. learning to use my shoulders properly.

LadyLucinda

Thanks a lot for the advice

tastyt

Do the experienced trainers and coaches in here rate the push up as an exercise? What I mean is when you can do 30/40 do ye guys think it better to progress to weights or can you become strong using variations of the push up ie. diamonds and raised legs??

Always seems to split people's opinions

Alf Veedersane

tastyt wrote: »

Do the experienced trainers and coaches in here rate the push up as an exercise? What I mean is when you can do 30/40 do ye guys think it better to progress to weights or can you become strong using variations of the push up ie. diamonds and raised legs??

Always seems to split people's opinions

I remember Transform/Dominic Munnellly saying people should be able to do 10-20 push ups correctly before they start bench pressing.

jive

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I rememeber Transform/Dominic Munnellly saying people should be able to do 10-20 push ups correctly before they start bench pressing.

I'd agree with this. It's a simpler movement than bench press, be able to do 10 at least before progressing to doing it with a barbell. Once you start hammering out 20+ then I'd recommend moving on to bench pressing if you have access to one.

You can always do variations of the push-up which is fine, if you have access to a bench though I'd just use the bench. If you just want to progress with bodyweight movements then get creative.

discus

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I remember Transform/Dominic Munnellly saying people should be able to do 10-20 push ups correctly before they start bench pressing.

I back this up 100%! I've been on a journey of going back to basics and re-learning form since 2014. Getting my push ups form immaculate has help absolutely everything about my horizontal push and pull.

rowanh

tastyt wrote: »

Do the experienced trainers and coaches in here rate the push up as an exercise? What I mean is when you can do 30/40 do ye guys think it better to progress to weights or can you become strong using variations of the push up ie. diamonds and raised legs??

Always seems to split people's opinions

It depends a bit on what your goals are, push ups are a great exercise, epecially once you get onto more advanced versions.

These guys do good videos on calisthenics.

If you want simply want to be able to push more weight then a barbell is the way to go, do a strength program 5x5 or 531. If you want to increase your chest size then doing a body building type program with bar bell or dumbells would be effective. If you want to be fit and strong, have good mobility, explosive power etc then push ups are a good exercise to do.

Thats my take anyway..

Mellor

tastyt wrote: »

What I mean is when you can do 30/40 do ye guys think it better to progress to weights ...

jive wrote: »

Once you start hammering out 20+ then I'd recommend moving on to bench pressing

I agree with using press ups as a base/test prior to bench pressing.
But just one thing that occurred to me with the above. I find there's a big difference between hammering them out at a fast tempo vrs slow reps. It's worth considering when comparing to a standard.

Neither is more correct imo, just a different in the efficiency of the movement due to recoil on the eccentric.