Slow/quick Progress with Push-Ups

monikker

I'd like to hear from people how quickly or slowly they were able to progress with the amount of push-ups they can do & any info related to their routine. I get the feeling that it's a bit of a slow progress. Would help to hear more from people who could only do a few push-ups at most when they were starting out.

Also, as I am currently cutting to drop a few pounds right now - when I am on a bulk, will I be more likely to make timely progress on push-up ability due to excess calories and the possibility of building muscle? I also understand that weighing more makes the push-ups harder, but wondering if the excess calories will make a bigger difference in strength/muscle gains for push-ups.

rybo

Since you're new to them most of your progress is going to be neural adaption so calorie intake will have minimal impact unless you are severely restricted

TavistockToad

When I did insanity my press ups went from 5 to 23 in 60 days.

jemhh

I started out last year, at about this time, only being able to do knee push-ups. I could do two sets of 10 at the time. Once I could do three sets of 10 I switched over to incline push-ups. I would do as many as I could on an incline and then finish the 10 on my knees if necessary. Once I could do three sets on an incline, I switched to full. I can't remember for sure how long this all took me though. I know that I was stuck on 3 sets of 7 for what seemed like a long time--maybe a month? I do remember that I had been doing them 3x a week and when I switched to twice a week, I moved up to sets of 10 fairly quickly.

I stopped doing them as often for awhile but now I'm working on them again. I can do 20 per set and my goal is to get to 50 by my birthday.

You may be able to progress more when bulking but, really, you should be able to make good progress even while cutting. One method you might try is called "greasing the groove." You figure out your max reps. Then, several days a week, you do sub-maximal sets throughout the day. So if you can do 10 pushups, you might do 6-8 sets of 4-5 pushups throughout the day. You keep adding reps or sets as you go along. Then after several weeks test yourself to find your max and you should see an improvement.

SunflowerCat74

I had surgery 6 months ago that involved cutting my pectorals and latissimus dorsi...so I was truly starting from scratch in reference to push ups. (After 8 weeks of no exercise...I was really back to zero with everything!). I used to only do push ups in piyo class and wasn't overly concerned with them until I couldn't do them at all!
I started by focusing on planks. Then moved on to push ups on my knees, then full push ups. It took me 2 months to do a real push up (after I was cleared for exercise). I was so ecstatic! I can probably do about 30 good ones now. More and I get sloppy or have to come to my knees. I still have a really hard time with tricep push-ups - I can only eek out a few.
I have another surgery at the end of the month and will be starting all over again. This time I'm going to be much more diligent about my recovery and hope I will be back to push ups sooner, but won't beat myself up if it takes several months to build up again.

monikker

Great info; thanks everybody.

Has anyone noticed improvements related to weight training for pecs? Like, if you increase the weight and reps you can do for bench press, has that helped with doing more push-ups? I read someone on a different thread who said strength gains in the gym don't automatically translate to gains/more reps with push-ups. This question also applies to other arm work - I have an arms & shoulders day and a separate chest and back day. I alternate incline bench press one week and regular bench press the next for chest work. I work bis, tris, shoulders, pecs (and back and leg work, of course). I'm doing "walk the plank" chin-ups on a home gym pull-up bar a couple of times a week to build up strength for chin-ups and ultimately pull-ups.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has seen better results with push-ups because of their weight training.