Overuse Injury Question

Spanaval

I don't have one yet, but have concerns that my current regimen could lead down that road. I started the 100 push up challenge last week. So far, so good. I do it on my pilates/yoga days, 3 days a week. The other days, I do strength work (endurance, not heavy), some of which hits the same muscle groups. Pretty much every day (except one rest day), I'm doing planks, variants of planks, and push ups, outside of the challenge. Right now, the sets for the challenge don't involve a lot of reps (10 - 20, 5 sets), but those numbers get pretty steep going forward. So, should I be concerned with overuse injuries following this sort of schedule?

madmickie

Listen to your body when it talks to you and you wont go far wrong. If things get tight, sore, tired then ease back - simple as that.

Spanaval

The problem with that is that I'm not sure where the line between 'push through the pain' and 'you need to take a break' lies. While I'm not usually terribly sore after my workouts, some body parts do feel tired (as in, I know I'd be capable of doing more if I had taken a few days off), but that's an ongoing thing, so if I really took that amount of time off, I'd be working out maybe 3 times a week, as opposed to 5 or 6.

duncanryan

While pushups are a great exercise, over-doing it could mean problems in the future. If you don't maintain a muscle balance between your chest and back, you're setting yourself up for problems with your neck, middle back, shoulders, and even potentially low back. I'm not sure doing 100 pushups at one time is necessary, but to each his own. As a physical therapist, I'd recommend laying off the extreme number of pushups and keep it to 30-50 total with 10-15 per set. Just my opinion.

Spanaval

Definitely not necessary, but just something I was doing kind of to say 'Yay, I did it'. Plus, my arms/shoulders are a sore spot (aesthetically), so I figured this wouldn't hurt. I'm doing this, BTW: http://hundredpushups.com/

I definitely do other weight bearing exercises to work the opposing muscle groups, but probably not in this sort of volume. Being unbalanced is a concern, as is injuring something like my rotator cuff.