Have you tried GLP1 medications and found it didn't work for you? We'd like to hear about your experiences, what you tried, why it didn't work and how you're doing now. Click here to tell us your story

Would you take a look at my pushup plan?

Colt1835
Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So my main goal is to burn fat, but I would also like to prevent muscle loss as much as possible. I usually don't do more than 20-30 pushups during my workout. I'm 6'1" and 230 pounds with a body fat % somewhere between 30-36 I think. I'm also cutting my calories to lose 2 pounds a week.

If I did something like this how would it effect my progress? I might use the same chart for bodyweight squats too, but I'm not sure yet.
3isjepky51ds.png
«1

Replies

  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    if your main goal is to burn fat and preserve muscle, why the focus on push ups??
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    edited June 2016
    Push ups have their place, but strength training without any progressive aspects to it begins to lose effectiveness. How do you plan to bring in resistance? Examples of this is lifting one foot of the ground, one handed, etc.

    You'd benefit far more from a progressive lifting program that targets more areas.
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    if your main goal is to burn fat and preserve muscle, why the focus on push ups??
    Well my goal for burning fat is all about my diet. I don't really know about the push ups; that's why I'm asking.

  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    vespiquenn wrote: »
    Push ups have their place, but strength training without any progressive aspects to it begins to lose effectiveness. How do you plan to bring in resistance? Examples of this is lifting one foot of the ground, one handed, etc.

    You'd benefit far more from a progressive lifting program that targets more areas.

    Should I really start progressive lifting if I'm in a calorie deficit? I mean, I can't gain muscle in a deficit can I? I'm just a little confused cause it seems like I wouldn't make much progress if any without gaining muscle.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    OODone wrote: »
    vespiquenn wrote: »
    Push ups have their place, but strength training without any progressive aspects to it begins to lose effectiveness. How do you plan to bring in resistance? Examples of this is lifting one foot of the ground, one handed, etc.

    You'd benefit far more from a progressive lifting program that targets more areas.

    Should I really start progressive lifting if I'm in a calorie deficit? I mean, I can't gain muscle in a deficit can I? I'm just a little confused cause it seems like I wouldn't make much progress if any without gaining muscle.

    But you can maintain what you have now.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    OODone wrote: »
    vespiquenn wrote: »
    Push ups have their place, but strength training without any progressive aspects to it begins to lose effectiveness. How do you plan to bring in resistance? Examples of this is lifting one foot of the ground, one handed, etc.

    You'd benefit far more from a progressive lifting program that targets more areas.

    Should I really start progressive lifting if I'm in a calorie deficit? I mean, I can't gain muscle in a deficit can I? I'm just a little confused cause it seems like I wouldn't make much progress if any without gaining muscle.

    Start now in order to preserve muscle. And yes, there is the potential to build some muscle while in a deficit under good nutritional conditions.

    There's gaining muscle.
    There's preserving muscle.
    There's losing muscle.

    A progressive resistance program gives you the chance to do the first or second. Refraining from doing a progressive resistance program all but ensures you do the last.
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    OODone wrote: »
    vespiquenn wrote: »
    Push ups have their place, but strength training without any progressive aspects to it begins to lose effectiveness. How do you plan to bring in resistance? Examples of this is lifting one foot of the ground, one handed, etc.

    You'd benefit far more from a progressive lifting program that targets more areas.

    Should I really start progressive lifting if I'm in a calorie deficit? I mean, I can't gain muscle in a deficit can I? I'm just a little confused cause it seems like I wouldn't make much progress if any without gaining muscle.

    Start now in order to preserve muscle. And yes, there is the potential to build some muscle while in a deficit under good nutritional conditions.

    There's gaining muscle.
    There's preserving muscle.
    There's losing muscle.

    A progressive resistance program gives you the chance to do the first or second. Refraining from doing a progressive resistance program all but ensures you do the last.

    So are you saying that pushups won't preserve the muscle I have? If not are there other ways to do progressive resistance using my bodyweight? Someone else posted that lifting one foot off the ground or one handed push ups would help. What do you think?
  • T0M_K
    T0M_K Posts: 7,526 Member
    not to hi-jack the thread or be a total tard...but the term progressive resistance is merely lifting weights and increasing the weight to continue to lift more as you become stronger?
  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
    So are you saying that pushups won't preserve the muscle I have? If not are there other ways to do progressive resistance using my bodyweight? Someone else posted that lifting one foot off the ground or one handed push ups would help. What do you think?

    There is a program called You Are Your Own Gym which is a progressive program using your own bodyweight and home equipment - such as chairs, etc.
  • astrampe
    astrampe Posts: 2,169 Member
    Go look at nerdfitness.com for a bodyweight workout that will be using all your muscles, not isolating whatever you would use for push ups.....
  • vespiquenn
    vespiquenn Posts: 1,455 Member
    Tomk652015 wrote: »
    not to hi-jack the thread or be a total tard...but the term progressive resistance is merely lifting weights and increasing the weight to continue to lift more as you become stronger?

    Yes.

    OP, if you google progressive workouts with body weight, it should yield results. I know there's a popular one out there, I think called bodylifts, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong. What we are getting at is that you need to do more than just push ups. Weight lifting is optimal to preserve muscle if you can. It has a lot of other benefits as well. I feel that you would ultimately waste a lot of time that could be spent using a well rounded program, even if it's to preserve while in a deficit.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Bodyweight or heavy lifting will be beneficial. Full body. Push ups are not full body and I would imagine after a few days interminably dull.

    Also, you may not make much in the way of muscle gains whilst in a deficit but you can certainly make strength gains. That on top of the muscle preserving benefits make it worthwhile alone.
  • questionfear
    questionfear Posts: 527 Member
    samanthaluangphixay wrote: »
    So are you saying that pushups won't preserve the muscle I have? If not are there other ways to do progressive resistance using my bodyweight? Someone else posted that lifting one foot off the ground or one handed push ups would help. What do you think?

    There is a program called You Are Your Own Gym which is a progressive program using your own bodyweight and home equipment - such as chairs, etc.

    YES!

    I lost 25lbs through YAYOG and a calorie deficit, and I definitely improved my strength immensely (whether I am actually more muscular or just have more definition is hard to say). And if you're really hankering for a lot of pushups, the endurance phase of YAYOG calls for 7.5 min of laddered pushups 2x per week. So you could end up doing upwards of 40 or 50 pushups in that time, PLUS another three laddered upper body workouts.

    (Ladders in YAYOG are like this: 1 pushup, rest for however long it took to do the last set, 2 pushups, rest, 3, rest, 4, rest, etc until you can't do any more reps...then you go back "down the ladder", so if you hit 10 and can't do 11, you drop down and do 9, 8, 7, etc all the way down to 1, then back up again until the 7.5min are up)
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    Thanks for all the advice guys. I guess I'm just having a hard time believing that push ups will not preserve muscle. I'm aware that it's not full body and it would do nothing for the muscles they don't target, but it's news to me that push ups are basically a useless workout.
  • kevinhparker550
    kevinhparker550 Posts: 17 Member
    Well nothing is useless. There's just always something better. If you want to get good at pushups someone did the hard work of the math for you:

    http://hundredpushups.com/test.html

    Also I might advise putting your calorie intake at 1lb lost per week and then begin jogging a mile 2-3 times/week. My concern is that 2lb loss/week will cause you to lose more muscle and eventually you'll burn out and gain it back.
  • kevinhparker550
    kevinhparker550 Posts: 17 Member
    Check out the first few paragraphs of this article. If a bodybuilder is saying diet slow, I'd listen.

    http://www.simplyshredded.com/layne-norton-the-most-effective-cutting-diet.html
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    Most fitness professionals recommend not working the same muscle group 2 days in a row, to prevent overtraining injuries. They also recommend balancing pushing exercises (like pushups) with an equal number of sets of pulling exercises (pull-ups or bodyweight rows, for example), to avoid developing muscle imbalances that affect posture and lead to injuries. You can avoid both issues by following one of the programs mentioned earlier. :+1:
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    kevinhparker550 wrote: »
    Check out the first few paragraphs of this article. If a bodybuilder is saying diet slow, I'd listen.

    http://www.simplyshredded.com/layne-norton-the-most-effective-cutting-diet.html

    Except I'm obese, not a bodybuilder. My goals are clearly not going to be the same, so I take sites like these with a grain of salt. 2 pounds of weight loss is less than 1% of my current weight. I think I'll be fine.
  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    Cherimoose wrote: »
    Most fitness professionals recommend not working the same muscle group 2 days in a row, to prevent overtraining injuries. They also recommend balancing pushing exercises (like pushups) with an equal number of sets of pulling exercises (pull-ups or bodyweight rows, for example), to avoid developing muscle imbalances that affect posture and lead to injuries. You can avoid both issues by following one of the programs mentioned earlier. :+1:

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=OYUxXMGVuuU
    Is this what you mean by bodyweight rows?

    Oh and thanks for mentioning all the bodyweight programs, everyone.

  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    OODone wrote: »
    kevinhparker550 wrote: »
    Check out the first few paragraphs of this article. If a bodybuilder is saying diet slow, I'd listen.

    http://www.simplyshredded.com/layne-norton-the-most-effective-cutting-diet.html

    Except I'm obese, not a bodybuilder. My goals are clearly not going to be the same, so I take sites like these with a grain of salt. 2 pounds of weight loss is less than 1% of my current weight. I think I'll be fine.

    You say you want to lose fat while preserving muscle.
    That's what bodybuilders do better than anyone.
    Why would you disregard advice from a bodybuilder just because you're currently obese?

Categories