Thanks for all the input. I now feel motivated to see how many push-ups I can get up to by Halloween and Thanksgiving. I am seriously impressed by the number of push-ups some folks around here can do. I’ll be pretty happy with myself if I can get to 100 good push-ups in the near future. Thanks again.
No one seems to have mentioned these. I’m not sure of the official name for these but I remember when I was doing Karate and Aikido we used to do these.
I’ll try to explain:
The way you do these is by starting with your feet slightly wider than your shoulders. You keep your back straight and bend at the waist to place your hands on the floor, slightly wider than your shoulders. Then what you do is that you arch your back and sort of slide with your face as close to the floor as you can without actually touching the floor. When your as far as you can go you drop your hips as you push your upper body up. You end up in a posture in which your hips are touching the floor (or very close) and your arms are straight. Then you do the same thing in reverse. All of this slowly with constant pressure on your muscles.
I looked for images of this but found nothing. I did find images that explain half of it, you just have to do the same sequence backwards to finish it. It’s images 4 to 6 in this yoga page. Only difference is that we had our legs wider but basically 4 to 6 and then 6 to 4. Anyone know the name for these?
These “karate” pushups (I think we called them japanese pushups sometimes) work your chest in a very different way than regular pushups.
Tsunamisurfer have you tried these? When you’re doing them slow enough, if you can do more than 40-50 in a set you’re in superb shape. I used to work out and I’d do these for variety when I grew bored with the regular ones. But I never got as far as 600 or more! Why don’t you try doing dips then dropping to the floor for pushups when you fail on dips? Then your workout wont have to last for hours and hours doing pushups getting bored :rolleyes: Then you will definitely get winded! Which is good, right? I mean, it’s sort of the point of working out. Okay, I know this is a huge oversimplification, but I hope you see what I mean.
We call those “dips” or “Hindu pushups” – and the latter terminology I borrowed from a book by Marc Fleury on competition training.
I find those easier to do than regular pushups, and use those as a final shot at the muscles after I’ve done all I can of regular pushups.
Astroglide wrote:
Be careful to compare apples to apples. Given that tsunamisurfer said,
one must consider how long a “television program” is. If it’s a half-hour, then 71*15 (30 minutes divided by 2 minutes) is 1065, and 600 pushups suddenly becomes a score of just 56 points on that 100-point scale (600 divided by 15 is only 40). If the TV program tsunamisurfer is talking about is an hour, then it’s half that, again: 100 points on the “regulation scale” would equate to 2130 pushups in an hour, so tsunamisurfer’s 600 would be ‘worth’ only 28 points.
What’s the minimum score (out of 100) to successfully get out of boot camp?
[slight hijack]
This reminds me of a movie I saw only bits and pieces of, many years ago. One of the main characters was a exercise fanatic, and would exercise constantly. The ironically funny part was when he dropped dead from a heart attack while doing push-ups off a co-worker’s desk. Anyone know what movie this was? Or why I think that Burt Reynolds was in it? Besides this one joke I seem to remember, were there other good points that should make me see this movie again?
[/slight hijack]
Slightly silly question for tsunamisurfer: is your TV on the floor, or are you getting a good neck workout at the same time as you do all these push-ups?
- Dave W.
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my personal fav. push-up:
when you go down, lift up one of your feet above you as far as you can. Alternate back and forth which foot you lift. It does a nice job of placing more weight on your arms, and dosen’t require anything to place your feet up on.
(Sigh) Next time, I’m going to keep my humongous mouth shut. (Or just do pushups).
Okay, I “watch” television–an incredible time waster–on only two basic occasions: when eating or exercising. Even then, I am never really watching it; I’m just listening.
FYI, I don’t know if you would consider me a “workout fanatic.” I exercise 6-7 times a week, plus mix in cycling, running, monthly rock climbing, and of course, I’m still involved in martial arts.
My main point was not to be self-referential, but to good- naturedly point out to other folks that you can do waaaaay more than you think possible. In my opinion, being able to do hundreds of pushups is less impressive than being able to complete a marathon in a good time and form. If you can only do, say, 20 pushups right now, do 5 sets. Slowly work your way up to 6, 7, 8 sets. Later, increase the repetitions.
tsunamisurfer wrote:
I called my question ‘silly’ in the hopes that you wouldn’t feel obligated to answer it seriosuly (or at all). Well, what length of TV program you were referring to might help answer Astroglide’s concerns a little more concretely.
I think that came across quite well, actually. And you answered the OP to boot.
Thanks to Dave W for pointing out that I wasn’t comparing two equivalent things. The keyword regulation set my mind on the military track.
If you are breaking them into sets, then disregard the military comparison. To my mind “knocking out” X amount of pushups means doing them at one time without stopping.
My apologies to tsunamisurfer for unfairly considering his personal achievements. I think the mental and physical discipline to get 500+ pushups is admirable --timed, continuous or however.
To answer Dave W’s question:
When I went through, it was a 60. Either at AIT or when you became “permanent party” it went up and stayed at 70 (I don’t remember which one it was off-hand; I think it was permanent party because before that one falls under TRACOM vs. FORSCOM, IIRC)
We always used to call those “Chinese Push Ups” in my dojo. Good way to loosen up without losing your burn at the end of a workout.
I have a question. Suppose one weighs around 350 lbs, like myself. wouldn’t push-ups sort of hurt me and have the same effect as bench pressing 400-500lbs?
Table on your knees and hands instead of on your feet and hands.
Astroglide wrote:
Huh. A couple of friends of mine who were in the Army assured me that Advanced Intoxication Training was a “permanent party.” 
Okay, so if that 100-point scale is linear, the minimum starts out at about 21 push-ups-per-minute, and goes to 32 PUPM (both averaged over two minutes). Huh. I wonder if I could do ten right now…