Pushups Is It Ok To Do Them Throughout The Day?

[Mun]

Ive read several articles saying its ok to work out the same muscle throughout the day and not just all at once (meaning all in one session). For example, anytime you walk by a squat rack grind out a few reps or get down and do 20 reps of pushups several times throughout the day, is this type of training ok or will it hurt ur gains? (assuming your never doing them in consecutive days, always rest days included) I use to think immediately following a workout your muscles begin to rebuild, but i dont think thats true, So my question is, is it ok to do 300 pushups broken up throughout the day or should it all be done at once? Thanks guys.

[Jedd Johnson]

Growth mostly takes place when you repair. That's mostly while you are sleeping.

Are you just going to do push-ups or are you going to do a bunch of other stuff too?

Sounds like you'd be walking around with a big pump all day long. Not sure if you'd get much bigger while not pumped though. Also don't think you'd trigger strength increases.

One thing to keep in mind is antagonistic balance. For all those push-ups, you need to make sure you balance things out with pulling, other wise you will get too big/tight/unbalanced in the front of your body, it seems...

Just some thoughts.

Jedd

[The Natural]

Herschel Walker did that for years. Every time a commercial came on TV, he'd do some pushups and situps. That's the way the military does them too. Whether for punitive reasons or exercise reasons, you'll be asked to drop down and do push ups. The volume adds up to hundreds over the course of a day.

For endurance, that's not a bad way to go.

I don't think you're going to get much strength benefit from pushups to begin with, so increased endurance would be the only reason to do them. If you're trying to increase upper body strength and size, ditch the pushups and stick with free weights/sandbags/kettlebells/strongman stuff, etc.

[Malice]

If the goal is to increase pushups then it's fine to do them throughout the day ala grease the groove so long as you don't go to failure. For instance, if you can max out at 20 pushups then do about 10 at a time throughout the day 5 days a week. I've used it myself for getting to 125 consecutive pushups (can't do it anymore currently)as well as for my martial arts students for increasing their pullups and pushups. You won't put on muscle but you will get better at the particular exercise.

[Mun]

Hmm how about weighted pushups if i want to gain strength? cuz that is one of my goals.

[The Natural]

Hmm how about weighted pushups if i want to gain strength? cuz that is one of my goals.

Weighed pushups aren't going to be as good as simple free weight training. Dumbbells, barbells, flat bench, incline, etc. Are you focused on pushups because you don't have access to this equipment?

[Mun]

Hmm how about weighted pushups if i want to gain strength? cuz that is one of my goals.

Weighed pushups aren't going to be as good as simple free weight training. Dumbbells, barbells, flat bench, incline, etc. Are you focused on pushups because you don't have access to this equipment?

naww jus cuz my joints are starting to hurt from all the benching and heard calisthenics is easier on the joint.

[The Natural]

Hmm how about weighted pushups if i want to gain strength? cuz that is one of my goals.

Weighed pushups aren't going to be as good as simple free weight training. Dumbbells, barbells, flat bench, incline, etc. Are you focused on pushups because you don't have access to this equipment?

naww jus cuz my joints are starting to hurt from all the benching and heard calisthenics is easier on the joint.

I'd lower the weight before I bothered with push ups. Benching a 115 pound barbell and 60 pound DB's is going to get you more strength than pushups.

[climber511]

I have to differ just a bit. I coach the throws at our local high school. Every year I find kids with a pretty fair bench press that don't have the core stability to do 30 or so push ups without collapsing in the middle. Teaching them to throw is like shooting a cannon out of a canoe - they simply buckle in the middle and lose all their force. So popping off a few push ups several times a day can have some real value if you are an athlete and weight train for a particular sport and not just to weight train. Replacing the bench press entirely would not be a good idea. My guess is that your joints hurt because you aren't doing as much pulling as you are pushing and are out of balance as Jedd says. If you decide to do push ups off and on all day - I would do maybe 30 or 40 percent of the number you can do each time. Balance is everything.

[raymo]

Two times I have really gotten into pushups. My senior year during basketball, after practice I would do pushups and situps each time a commercial would come on and they really helped my rebounding. Also when I was stuck at benching 300 I got to where I could nock off 100 at a time and I feel this helped get me over the 300 mark.

[Mun]

Growth mostly takes place when you repair. That's mostly while you are sleeping.

Are you just going to do push-ups or are you going to do a bunch of other stuff too?

Sounds like you'd be walking around with a big pump all day long. Not sure if you'd get much bigger while not pumped though. Also don't think you'd trigger strength increases.

One thing to keep in mind is antagonistic balance. For all those push-ups, you need to make sure you balance things out with pulling, other wise you will get too big/tight/unbalanced in the front of your body, it seems...

Just some thoughts.

Jedd

Ya Jedd, i was planning on doing pullups as well to balance it out on the same day, probably superset them.

[lifesnotfair]

I think this method is known as "Grease the Groove" and you can get a little stronger with it. You won't be walking around with a pump all day like Jedd says, because the author of the method clearly states you should only be doing about 50% of the reps you can do every time. So if your current max is 20 push-ups, for example, you'd be dropping to the floor and doing 10 push-ups several times per day. That shouldn't pump you. Can be done with pull-ups too. Pavel has written extensively about it and he mentioned some Russian (or was it Bulgarian?) weightlifter who placed the bench in his kitchen and would do it several times a day. I imagine he wasn't using his 1RM all the time though, but I don't know.

I agree with climber too. A while ago the first muscle group to give in during push-ups were my abs I thought I had fixed that until I eventually tried ring push-ups... again, I could have kept pushing, but my abs collapsed and my lowerback arched during these. There are so many push-up variations and ways to make it more challenging, I wouldn't just say "go bench and never do a push-up again". I wouldn't consider them a bench replacement either.

[blueviper42]

There are much better ways to strengthen your core than pushups. If you strengthen your core then pushups shouldn't pose any problem to your abs.

Edited September 27, 2010 by thewalrus

[climber511]

There are much better ways to strengthen your core than pushups. If you strengthen your core then pushups shouldn't pose any problem to your abs.

David - yes you are right, there are better ways to strengthen the core. But have you ever tried to get a high school freshman to do them on their own. At least if I tell them that push ups will help your bench - I get something out of them and some results. Then during season when I have them in the weight room and can work with them - I can do more and better workouts. Push ups are really good compared to nothing and to be honest can be used to teach skills for sports better than the normal HS workout of BP - BP and more BP.

[Forever]

I remember in highschool, I had a friend that was blind. His folks, teachers, just didn't wanna see him benching to be honest. A saftey hazard they felt. He did 150 push-ups every night. His older brother believed that he could do weights with some help here and there. He got on the bench and repped his bodyweight of 145 2 times with ease His triceps were a sight to see Push-ups may never replace the bench of course but they can do so much more than people take them for Just my two cents, good luck on the push-ups

[Mun]

I remember in highschool, I had a friend that was blind. His folks, teachers, just didn't wanna see him benching to be honest. A saftey hazard they felt. He did 150 push-ups every night. His older brother believed that he could do weights with some help here and there. He got on the bench and repped his bodyweight of 145 2 times with ease His triceps were a sight to see Push-ups may never replace the bench of course but they can do so much more than people take them for Just my two cents, good luck on the push-ups

Thats some real inspiring stuff! thanks man

[Forever]

I remember in highschool, I had a friend that was blind. His folks, teachers, just didn't wanna see him benching to be honest. A saftey hazard they felt. He did 150 push-ups every night. His older brother believed that he could do weights with some help here and there. He got on the bench and repped his bodyweight of 145 2 times with ease His triceps were a sight to see Push-ups may never replace the bench of course but they can do so much more than people take them for Just my two cents, good luck on the push-ups

Thats some real inspiring stuff! thanks man

Go tackle those push-ups