I've never really been a fan of pushups for the simple reason that I could never do any more than 3 or 4. I've tried various plans over the years, including building up from wall pushups to stairs. I've used the phone app where it counts them when your nose has touched it. In the last week though, something's shifted. Early on in my recovery, when I felt the urge to look something up on my phone or laptop I would take a moment, get on the floor and do a plank. That was back in the summer. I did the same instead of hitting myself if I got angry. It did an amazing job at moving that energy I felt in either temptation. I don't know why, but on Day 50 of this streak I decided to celebrate by getting on my knees and trying to do 50 pushups. Hadn't planned it. But over the course of 40 minutes or so I aimed for sets of 10's. Managed three 10's, and then had to do sets of about 4, then 2's and then the last 5 were singles. I felt great after it. It was messy, and sore, and my body didn't thank me the day after. The last 5 in particular I forced myself to go back and try again after any of that that weird twist of the body to get myself back up. But I've kept at it. Yesterday I managed to do 50, in sets of 10 throughout the day. No, I didn't go all the way down. So far today i've done 40. And I was able to go down a bit further for the first 10 than I've ever been able to. I love the idea of doing the same number of pushups in a day mon-fri as the 10s that i'm in. Till I hit 100. Then maybe I'll aim to do 100 in fewer sets. We'll see. I'm not going to do this religiously, because then I'll fail. But just fit them in during movemet breaks during studying etc.
Great simple idea to avoid temptations and get in shape too - a 'punishment' that makes you feel good and does you good (so that it isn't really punishment at all). 50 is a decent number no matter how hard you found it, and 100 is a reachable, and worthy, target. Go for it!
Almost any workout will yield results to a beginner, and you didn´t ask for my advice, but I advice you do a simple regime 4 to 5 times a week. Say 3 or 4 sets of your maximum reps in full rom of a pushing, a pulling and a leg exercise, the more accesible would be push ups, australian pull ups ( you can perform with two chairs) and squats. This will develop not only your strenght but also your mobility which is really important for longevity and health. You can do the eccentric part of the motion if it´s too hard (fighting the gravitational pull), but it´s important to get that full rom.
I always add "Woman Pushups" after I can't do any regular ones anymore. This is what helps you improve at regular ones over the long run. I'd also recommend getting some Push Up Bars. They let you make much cleaner and better push ups where you can go down better. Something like this:
I've not kept it up. I've done some here and there. On the other hand, a colleague challenged a pupil to do a clapping pushup, before saying that I would demonstrate! Never done them before. Never felt I could. But this morning, I felt ready. It felt doable. I did 2.
Push-ups are something that we can and should do as they don't require any special tool, and the muscles they help build are all through our body. I am guilty of not having done them in the last 2 or 3 weeks, but I might start making an effort myself and making a routing, maybe twice a week or so. I also noticed that I have more physical strength abstaining from MO.
Nice bro, keep at it! You can do easier variations of pushups like the wall pushup that's probably the easiest and inclined pushups that's a little harder but still easier than the normal one. If you do this, you'll see improvements in your upper body strength and thus an increase in your normal push up reps. Once normal pushups become too easy, you can do harder variations like the shoulder tap push up which is slightly harder and the superman pushup which is a good challenge and there's lots of other variations that go harder and harder. Doing as many of one thing as you can will make you stronger and improve muscle endurance and if you're training for hypertrophy train in the 5 - 15 rep range (something that you can do more than 5 but less than or just 15). I personally train for both so I do 100 pushups in sets of 20 and 40 pike pushups in sets of 10 alternatingly.
