How many push-ups a day?

If you pushed yourself to the limit every single day then yes, but you can certainly do them more than once a week.

 

I said twice a week too, but I think once a week is fine if you also do handstand pushups once a week as well.

It just depends on the individual.

 

I totally disagree with almost everything said in this thread.. lol

It is depending on how much you tear down your muscles on how often you should do them. Giving your muscles plenty of time to rebuild is a large part of it.

and for the record.. of course pushups increase strength level.. you may not see gains if you are not pushing yourself (ha pun); but that is no different then anything else..

BTW OP; 100 pushups a day is a good goal to set.. don't do them too much on your hands.. or you may find yourself with wrist pain.. try doing knuckle push-ups..

 

Well, you're right, in the end it does depend on the individual.

 

Also dips. With dips we use very similar muscles to push ups and it's a tougher exercise.

To answer the TS question... I don't know how many push ups a day I can do. I'm currently preparing my body for a specific test and the only push ups I do are cadence push ups (they're pretty slow, it takes two seconds to do a full push up).

Overall I think push ups are a good exercise, but I would do them at the end of a work out.

 

Very intersting. The numbers posted above are very small, but thats just me.
I've never thought about the pros and cons of push-ups. Very easy and convenient drill. Drop to the floor and push.
Enlighten me since Im probably going through counter productive strength drill cycles :blood

 

One handed push ups are not the same as regular pushups and yes one handed push ups could be considered a strength exercise for a lot of people because they might be able to only get out 4-8 reps.
You don't seem to understand what a strength exercise is, if you can do many reps of it it is not going to improve your strength. It can help with muscular endurance as you say.
Doing them everyday isn't going to decrease your push up numbers, it doesn't require strength for anybody who is reasonably strong. You might get some muscle fatigue and your numbers drop over the next few days but your body will adapt very quickly because it's not a stressful exercise that requires any real exertion or recruitment of larger muscle fibres.

 

Heavy bench all the way. Only **** push ups are worth bothering with.

 

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but at some point bench press will **** you up.

 

I just want to say I respect everyone's opinion on this matter and I am including the following because I found it works for ME and perhaps it will be of use to others reading this thread.


" Here's a excerpt from an interview with a guy, Pavel Tsatsouline who is mostly interested in practical strength training for combat applications (I recommend reading the whole article to understand the context in which he is talking):

"T: Describe your infamous "ladder" drills.

Pavel: It is the Soviet Special Forces favorite for upping strength endurance. They are required to perform 18 dead hang pull-ups wearing a 10-kilo (22 pound) bullet-proof vest. One of my SWAT cowboys worked up to forty consecutive pull-ups with this technique.

If done with a partner, it works like this: I do a pull-up, you do one. I do two, you match me, etc. until one of us cannot keep up. Then we start over. One rep, two reps, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10... (start over) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7... (start over) 1,2,3,4,5. We totaled hundreds of pull-ups almost daily without burning out, and the extreme PT tests of our service were a breeze. You should stop each ladder one or two reps short of your limit. In other words, if you can work up to ten reps at the top of the ladder, it’s best to stop at about eight, and then begin at one again.

You can perform these by yourself as well. Basically, you do a rep, rest a few seconds, do two, etc. until things get hard but not impossible. Then you start at one again and work up. You may do another round of ladders later in the workout. A couple of months later your armpits will chafe."

And here is another portion about your abs, which may or may not up your abs' usable strength beyond what the Marine Corps crunch can do:

"T: You’ve written a popular book on ab training. Where do people go wrong when it comes to abdominal training?

Pavel: Everywhere! Number one is this ridiculous notion that you have to use high reps to get cut up. Getting cut up is a function of resting tension in the muscle and low body fat. That’s all there is to it. Think of Bruce Lee who did a lot of isometrics, the ultimate high tension training. The guy was wiry, lean and hard. Some women will start doing high-rep programs thinking they’re going to cut up and some of them instead start gaining mass, especially glycogen and water.

You get so beat up from high reps you can barely sneeze. It’s like rigor mortis. So go heavy. Use a heavy weight but don’t get a pump. That means you keep your sets low and you rest a lot. Three sets of five is more than adequate for the abs, but the secret is to find a very challenging exercise. One option is to use a ton of plates or even a loaded barbell, as many of my powerlifting buddies do, and do sit-ups with it. But who really wants to do a sit-up with 225 pounds? It’s awkward, plus the technique has to be really precise. So you may want to choose a drill with poor leverage instead, e.g. the Janda sit-up or the dragon flag.

The other problem is exercise selection. There is this notion that abs can be isolated from the hip flexors by eliminating the movement in the hip joint, like they do in the crunch. It’s a big joke. It’s like saying that you are what you eat. You are a bagel. Doesn’t work like that.

You can only inhibit the hip flexors neurologically. Eastern European Professor Vladimir Janda developed a special sit-up where your training partner places his hands under your calves and pulls back. You attempt to sit-up while steadily pushing against his hands. This activates the hip extensor muscles. Reciprocal inhibition takes place and the hip flexors relax. Back stress is eliminated and the abs are isolated!

[Editor’s note: Read our Evolution of Ab Training article for more info (and pics) of the Janda sit-up.]

So if you want to train your abs well, first of all do the power breathing techniques we’ve discussed and second, do Janda sit-ups. That’s the cornerstone of all ab training. In addition, you may want to add some other drills, but certainly not crunches. They belong in the junk pile of history next to Communism."

Hope someone finds this of use, I'm going to start trying both of these two things out. "

 

This could be said about any exercise, weighted or bodyweight. Why pick out bench press in particular?

 

No it wont? It's NEVER the exercise fault. It's always the human factor that makes people injure themselves.

 

Around 200 every 3 days along with 50 burpees, 25 pull ups, 150 sit ups, and 100 body squats about three days per week

 

These numbers are more up realistic for me. I up the sit ups to at least 400, 3 times a week though. Same amount of push ups twice a week. In between days I'll do maybe 50-100.

 

I do 600 push ups every other day, just a habit I got into the last 5-6 years, I know its redundant, but its more of a mental thing for me.