I do a lot of walking and running, but I realized I haven’t been doing any strength exercises. I decided that I would try doing push-ups and sit-ups soon after I wake up in the morning. They’re pretty simple to do, I can do them in my bedroom (no need for a gym - all I need is this device that holds down my feet).
It’s been a long time since I’ve done these kinds of exercises, and it’s hard. Now that’s not surprising me - I know it takes a while to get muscles back into shape.
My question is this: I’ve been doing 15 of each in the mornings, and it’s difficult. When should I try increasing the number? When it becomes easier? But with such a small number, will I be making enough of an impact on my muscles to get to the point that 15 becomes easy?
Work up to 100 a day for each if you’re gearing for competition. If you’re young and in shape, you should be able to increase by at lease 10 a day. Give yourself 1 to 2 weeks to reach 100. Oh, and you might want to sprint the last 50 meters of your run. Gives you explosiveness and general body conditioning.
This guy follows the 7 weeks to 100 push ups program at exactly the level you should start at. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_NBr95jPzs. The program is built on repeated sets performed 3 days a week. All the detail from the book seems to be in the clip.
There is an alternative view on this, that for most muscles of the body, if you’re looking to gain size or strength then a relatively low number of reps to failure is more effective.
IOW, if 15 reps becomes easy, then you need to do something to make the exercise harder such as adding weights, modify the exercise (e.g. raise your legs more for situps, or move to a harder exercise.
I’ve personally gone this way myself, and I do have a six pack, but I’m not going to say this is definitely the better way to go; I know it’s contentious. Just making you aware of the alternative view.
Well I’d say bodyfat is an important factor, possibly the most important single factor, but very obviously size is also a factor.
Agreed, and after the “to a point” you’re pretty much just gaining endurance.
And the way I’ve heard it, after, say, 30 reps you’re well within endurance country.
Now I know some people may beg to differ on that, but I’m just making the OP aware that there are some schools of thought that trying to ramp up number of reps significantly beyond 15 is wrong-headed, if his goal is strength or size.
Some realistic advice, add more sets first. Do your fifteen then wait 60 seconds and try to do another 15. If you can only do 5 that’s ok. The next day do the same two sets again increasing the second set as you can can. When you can do two sets of 15 add another set in for a total of three sets.
When you can do 3 sets of 15 then try for 3 sets of, say, 20. And so on. This will give you much more benefits than trying to do as many as possible in 1 event.
The program I linked to above from the* 7 Weeks to 100 Push-ups* book, even though it’s designed for someone that can already do 15, starts with sets of 6 and doesn’t get to 15 push ups a set for 4 weeks.
To answer your second question first, yes, you are making an impact on your muscles. Thus 15 will get easier.
If you want to speed up the process, and 15 is as many as you can do, then you cut that number in half and do multiple sets with short rest periods between them. So you do a set of 7, wait thirty seconds, do another set of 7, wait another thirty seconds, and repeat the cycle three or four times. Then when that is easy, you start reducing the rest periods, from thirty seconds to twenty-five and then twenty. When you get to ten seconds, re-test yourself to see how many you can do in a row, cut that number in half, and start over.
The only important advice is stick with it. Everything else is debatable.
If you’re currently losing some weight and have excess body fat…
>Your body is higher in estrogen and lower in testosterone than it would be if you were lean and mean, so you’re not ready to build muscle yet, but you might be destroying it
>You are going to lose some strength at first if your calorie count and nutrition is low
>Only you know when the 16th push-up is coming.
>Have someone view your form, because bad form can kill your shoulders (among other parts) and keep you from getting muscle development in the areas that will actually generate more reps (more pushing power). ** If your form sucks, your muscles that are fighting to maintain stability are getting all the attention, not your Triceps and Biceps… and the latter are the ones that will benefit from perfect form
**
I did what you’re embarking on three years ago. Able to do about 15, but have worked myself up to 200 every other day (not all at once - two sets of 100). I found the progression not at all linear. I struggled along in the 15 to 20 range, then something snapped and I could do 50. Struggle at that for a while, then all of a sudden could do 100 or whatever. Even now, there’s days where I find it hard to do 100 at once; days where I feel I could do 150.
For sit ups, FWIW, I read this here in the NY Times, and have done the exercises described in the last paragraph to satisfactory effect.
Anyway, bottom line - definitely worth doing!
Now my question: does anybody really like doing push-ups? Even now, I hate each and every one of them. I’m not anti-exercise - I run daily and love it. But push-ups? It’s a slog.
What if your goal is to increase BMR? From what I understand weight loss-wise, more muscle mass means you burn more calories at rest, complementing cardio-based calorie burning. Intuition says more size is better for that, but intuition and exercise don’t quite meet.
The traditional wisdom to build mass and thus raise BMR is 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps with around 70% or your 1RM in the big, compound lifts - squats, bent rows or deadlifts, bench and standing presses, pull-ups, etc.
High Intensity Interval Training (pdf) is thought also to increase BMR, so it seems more effective for fat loss than steady-state cardio.
Perhaps DSeid will stop by the thread - he seems to know a good deal about exercise physiology.
Situps are not a good exercise. Do crunches (preferably weighted) if you must do targeted ab work. You realize it will have no effect on the appearance of your abdominal muscles, right? You have to diet for a six pack, in addition to having the right genes.
Also, abdominal muscles are mostly used for stabilizing your torso under load. You don’t need to bend your body in the middle to work your abs. Deadlifts, squats, presses and chinups will work your abs as much as necessary, with zero targeted ab exercises needed.
You also understand that pushups are not strength work, right? If you’ve never done them, you will get stronger at first (that is the case with literally any exercise you do), but then you will plateau after a week or two, and pushups will just become pointless endurance work.
Strength is built in the gym. You need weights, and to incrementally increase them every workout for as long as you can. Doing the same weight over and over (a la pushups) is a waste of time after 20 or so becomes easy. It would be better to bench press so that you can keep increasing the weight on the bar, and keep getting stronger. Who do you think can do more pushups? The guy who does 100 pushups a day and whose bench press max is 180lbs? Or the guy who never actually does pushups but can bench press 400lbs? The second guy will beat the first guy any day of the week.