What works and what doesn't about push-ups
By doing push-ups, you can develop your pectoral muscles, shoulders and triceps. The core muscles also get some exercise.
Let's look at effective and ineffective ways to pump up with push-ups.
Weights: necessary or not
A push-up routine for muscle growth should include weight training. Without it, growth will be minimal and only at the initial stage (muscles quickly adapt to working with their weight).
In general, it is optimal to perform weight push-ups on uneven bars, using a weight of 20-30% of your body weight. But parallel bars are not available to everyone and not always.
If we are talking about classic push-ups, then they can also be done with weights. You can use a special vest, a backpack (the main thing is to secure it firmly on your upper back) or train with a partner, child, or girlfriend. Just don’t put them on the lower back - this is an extra load on the spine.
If you are alone, and there is no way to even put a cat on your back, the mass will not grow. All that remains is to pump up the triceps and chest for endurance - this will also increase the relief.
If you are aimed specifically at this result, you should do push-ups without weights for the maximum number of times.
Movement speed
Performing push-ups quickly, even to failure or without it, will not give much effect. It's just pumping. Do the exercise slowly. It is the slow push-ups that will force your muscles to work at full strength. You'll get tired faster, and you'll end up doing fewer reps. But the final result will be better.
Training protocol
Each time, write down the results, how many push-ups you did and how. If you train, for example, every other day, after 2 weeks you will forget how many push-ups you did on the first day. And so you will have a convenient sign, which indicates the push-up program.
You may consider this a waste of time. But believe me, a training diary is always useful. Even if it’s just paper or a table in your gadget, even if you never look at it, it is needed. This is, first of all, discipline and order in your studies.
Different types of push-ups and their effects
The distribution of the load on the muscles depends on the position of the palms on the floor (or on the surface of the support).
Our muscular system rarely involves tension in any one muscle. All complex movements are performed due to the cooperation (expressed in the form of synergy and antagonism) of several muscles. For example, in order to turn a key in a lock, it is not the only forearm muscle that tenses.
- Place your palms with your fingers forward - you will pump your triceps, provided that your elbows are pressed to your torso.
- Spread your elbows to the sides, maintaining the orientation of your palms - now you are training the triceps and chest (the lats also tense in this situation, but only slightly, acting as antagonists for the pectoral muscles).
- If you can turn your fingers back and press your elbows towards your body, the load will be distributed between your shoulders and triceps.
- If you spread your arms wide, turn your palms inward and do push-ups, then you load your chest as much as possible (especially its inner part). The chest works in all cases, but you can use it less or more due to different positions of the hands. It will not be possible to completely turn off any muscles working during push-ups.
- If you want to stress your shoulders and make the exercise more difficult, place your feet on a support and push up upside down.
If you stand on your fists and do push-ups from this position, you create additional stress. The magic is simple - the path from the chest to the floor increases. That is, you can go deeper: the muscles are stretched more, the amplitude of movement becomes greater. And to come up from the bottom point, you need to use more force than with push-ups on your palms.
Push-up supports are used for the same purpose. In addition, they also spin. This way you will also strain the forearm stabilizers.
Different training options
Push-ups can be slow or fast. The first option is considered optimal for solving the problem. With these classes, it is necessary to alternate programs with quick exercises. You can develop speed by jogging, swimming, etc.
For push-ups, complex programs have been created that need to be performed for several weeks. In the first 7 days, you should perform exercises only if the body is prepared for sufficiently high loads.
Working conditions:
- you need to perform 5 approaches;
- a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40 push-ups is allowed;
- all approaches are separated by breaks, the duration of which reaches an average of 2.5 minutes;
- push-ups should be done slowly, at a calm pace;
- During exercise, you need to control your breathing.
For beginners, doing 30 push-ups is quite difficult. In this case, you need to complete the norm - 20 times. Mass exercises during the second week involve reducing the number of approaches. As a rule, you need to stop at 3 approaches, but at the same time you need to perform more push-ups per mass so that the load gradually increases. However, do not forget that all exercises should proceed smoothly and there is no need to rush when implementing them. Every day you need to increase the estimated value by 3 times.
What else will help you pump up?
If you think that with push-ups alone you will build yourself a beautiful body, you, unfortunately, are mistaken.
With push-ups you can develop, first of all, the chest and triceps. The shoulders are partially worked, the forearms, wrists, and core muscles are involved.
But you can feel growth only in those muscles that bear the main load. Pump up your triceps - yes. Breasts too, yes. Shoulders - and even them can be pumped up in this way, although only the front bundles.
What about the legs, biceps, back? They won't change. To get pumped up, you need to train your whole body. Especially the legs. Without training your legs, you will not actively gain weight.
The principle here is simple - the heaviest load is usually placed on the legs, due to which more anabolic hormones are produced. As a result, overall muscle mass grows faster.
Nutrition and sleep
You can pump up muscles if you get the right amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates into your body. Without adequate nutrition, there is no weight gain.
In addition, it is necessary that everything eaten is well absorbed. To do this, meals should be small and frequent. If you eat twice a day and take your main meal before bed, hoping to gain muscle mass is absurd.
As for sleep, it is no secret that the body needs to rest a certain number of hours a day. All recovery processes take place during sleep, including in mice. Without this, their growth is impossible. Without enough sleep, you will quickly become overtrained.
Bottom line - to gain muscle mass you need a complex consisting of nutrition, sleep and training. Then you can develop your body with push-ups. How to pump up if at least one of these components is insufficient? Alas, no way.
Further weeks of training
In the third week, the muscles become more prominent, which indicates that certain positive dynamics of exercise are beginning to be observed. However, this does not mean that you can slow down. In this case, push-ups from the floor should become even more intense.
The number of approaches remains the same (3 times). It is necessary to maintain a slow pace, which ensures the effectiveness of push-ups. Their number should be 60 times.
For beautiful muscles, you need to make every effort in the fourth week. Approaches are reduced to 2 times. A slow pace must necessarily accompany the exercise, since its action is aimed at obtaining the desired mass. After the fourth week of training ends, you need to start a new stage. This is another 1 month of classes, which will be carried out in a similar way, but the exercises are performed with additional weight.
In this case, push-ups are performed with fewer repetitions. After doing push-ups, it seems that the load is not so heavy, the body can easily cope with it. In this case, it is necessary to use additional weight. There is no need to overdo it, as extra pounds can be harmful for muscles. The number of approaches can be adjusted independently, but this value should not exceed 3 times.
Progression of the pectoral muscles: a real-life example
The person I gave as an example, working out simply out of boredom, was able to pump up his pectoral muscles to some extent. I must say that before training they were not visible at all. The asthenic chest was flat, like an ironing board.
Training in the hospital
A man was hospitalized due to inflammation of the digestive tract.
The first couple of days he came to his senses after prolonged abdominal pain. As soon as his condition improved, he became bored of just lying there and doing nothing. Oh yes, we are talking about a guy who is 17 years old.
The patient was lying alone in the ward. You know what the beds in hospitals are like. No, not in modern private wards, where everything was done according to different drawings a long time ago. A regular bed with a removable headrest.
Out of boredom and already feeling well at that time, the man decided to train - in a hospital setting he could pump up his abs and do push-ups. He began doing push-ups on the floor.
How many push-ups should you do?
This exercise is easy enough for beginner athletes and ideal for training at home. Push-ups are most likely one of the first exercises you did as a child. Thanks to them, you will gain muscle strength and volume, and also protect your joints from injury. Some types of push-ups work your legs and buttocks.
The number of reps per set you should do to gain muscle mass depends on your age, body type, and fitness level. This amount will change over time as you get stronger.
But there are recommendations that can be taken as a basis.
Possible injuries
It is important to learn how to perform the exercise correctly, with good technique. This will prevent unwanted injuries. Push-ups can sometimes injure your wrists. To avoid this, keep your hands shoulder-width apart. They should be directly under your shoulders, with your toes pointing forward or slightly inward.
Shoulders may also be injured. To avoid injury, try to keep your elbows close to your body. If you bend them to the sides, your shoulders can be injured.
Avoid bending your back. Keep your spine straight and rigid, while engaging your back muscles and buttocks.
Don't do more push-ups than you need to do in a set. Because this increases the chances of injury! Gradually increase the number of repetitions, this has a beneficial effect on gaining muscle mass.
Push-up programs
There are quite a few training programs for working out your body at home. Now we will bring to your attention several programs designed for athletes of different levels. You will also get acquainted with the push-up program to increase muscle mass.
For beginners
- Classic push-ups - 3 sets as many times as possible.
- Push-ups with hand support - 2 sets for the maximum number of times.
For advanced
- One-arm push-ups - 2 sets of maximum reps.
- Deep push-ups - 4 sets for maximum reps.
- Push-ups with close hands - 3 sets for a maximum of reps.
For gaining muscle mass
- One-arm push-ups - 4 sets of 8-10 reps.
- Classic push-ups - 4 sets of 8-10 reps.
- Push-ups with narrow hand position - 4 sets for the maximum number of times.
As you know, in order to increase muscle mass you need to exercise with additional weight. In this case, you need to take such a weight that you can do no more than 10 times per approach. One-arm push-ups are included in the mass program, since you are unlikely to do more than 10 times in one approach. Only professionals can do this. After this comes the classic version of push-ups . The program assumes that you will be working with additional weight. Anything will do for this. For example, you can put dumbbell discs or bottles of sand in your backpack. Some people get more sophisticated and put their little brother or sister on their back.
Lastly, you need to perform the variant with a narrow position of the hands. This is necessary for working the triceps. Here, additional weight will not be needed, because your muscles will be thoroughly tired after performing the previous exercises, and you will not be able to do more than 10 push-ups.
By the way, we can’t help but mention the table of push-ups. It looks like this:
This table shows a training plan, following which you can quickly increase the number of push-ups per set.
It is necessary to practice each of the complexes proposed above 2-3 times a week.
