I have been given advice from a gym rat that I should not work a given muscle group more then once a week.

However, this site says to do push ups 3 days a week...

http://www.hundredpushups.com/

I presume the site would be correct but, they gym rat guy is very fit and seems knowledgeable.

What say you?

I am specifically training to increase my push ups, if that matters.

Conventional theory used to be work out one day, rest the next and so on.

I never subscribed to that. When I was working out, I'd hit it every day and work hard. Usually the same exercises but not always. I'd thrown in a light weight day, or a dumbell day or only cable day, just to get some variety. Not saying your gym rat friend is wrong, but once a week? I don't know how you make progress like that.

I assume you are doing other exercises? That's important. I always did my large muscle group exercise, like bench presses, first and then the smaller muscle groups like arms, at the end. IIRC, I did bench presses, upright rows, cable pull downs, some cable shoulder work, then bicep and triceps work. I always tried to alternate opposing muscle groups and I worked pretty quick. The easiest to understand is the arm work. I'd do a set of bicep curls and then get over to the triceps machine and do a set there, then back to biceps and so on. Five sets for everything.

If you are doing other work, I'd suggest concentrating on bench presses. That will help your push ups because you can get a lot more resistance, and hence strength, with a bench press.

And remember, what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. If you're a power lifter, odds are you're kind of squat and short. Very strong, but a tall thin guy is not likely to be a power lifter.

Good luck!

I was taught that you need to let the muscles rest a day or two to re-build. That is how you gain strength. I would alternated and do like upper body on Mondays, lower on Tuesday or Wednesday, then upper again on Thurs and then the next week switch it up to keep it balanced.

I always did the hard workout one day and light workout the next. Then rest on the weekends. Alternating hard-easy seemed to work for me.

All I do at the gym is run on the tread mill for 20 mins then do upper body exercises.

I am specifically training to meet the AF basic entry requirements. All they look at are push ups, sit-ups and the run.

I just started running this year and have participated in a few 5Ks in my area. I am confident in my ability to do the run and the sit ups but sadly, my push are about as weak as you can get.

Therefore, I focus exclusively on my upper body for weight training.

Thanks guys!

The reason why most people recommend to not train the same muscle group everyday ist to avoid Training Plateaus (google for it for more info). The reason for this is that if you do the same workout every single day, then your body will adapt to this training and as a result the effectivness of the workout will diminsh and you won't increase your strength.

When you will hit such a Plateaus is individual different. Some hit it very late and some very early.

I had an old SF guy tell me to work the whole body every day, but to change it up.

For example, if one does curls and crunches one day, do flutter kicks the next; both are abdominal exercises (along with working the hip flexor), but do so in different ways. If you run eight one day, ruck five the next.

Of course he assumed a level of fitness beyond beginning marshmellow stage; if you're starting out, the every-other-day routine is best.

Personally I got the shock treatment of whole body workout every friggin' day all friggin' day, as I had the lack of foresight to get into shape before leaving for Basic Training and the unfortunate timing of the early 1980's. Gained twenty five pounds and grew an inch in eight weeks. Not the recommended system, but it worked.

Sounds like you got stuck in FTU? When I went through Ft Benning in 92 I spent a few weeks there. Hence my motivation to be properly prepared this time around!!! Went in at 235, came out 185. Not sure how much of that was FTU and how much was basic but yeah, FTU sucked!

heh, I was going down my workout "memory lane". Back when I was lean and mean, I used to do about two hours of cardio (running, swimming, stationary climber or rower), and at least one hour of strength training (mostly weights) every day. Seven days a week. If I took a day off, it was because I had to, not because I wanted to. People told me I was going to burn out and be susceptible to injury and such, but it was hard to argue with the results.

And the best part, I could eat just about anything I wanted!

3 hours in the gym a day? Were you a professional athlete?

No, but I trained like one. Actually, the gym part was only (only?) about half the time. I ran outside and swam in my pool (in the summer). Push ups, I didn't do them every day, just whenever I felt like it, usually at the end of the weight routine. Back then I could do 60 or so and not raise my breathing.

I have my 3rd kid coming a week from today and a Cisco certification test I need to pass by Dec 11. Hopefully after I get that stuff and the holidays out of the way, I training schedule ALMOST like that wont seem so foreign to me

20+ years of heavy weight training here. The first rule is that there are no secret exercises or short-cuts. Some folks respond to working one muscle group per week while others get results working the same muscle group twice a week or even three times on occasion. I've fallen into the general category of working each muscle group once per week, but it's a very intense workout using medium to very heavy weights.

But since you're only interested in doing more pushups (high reps), you need not worry too much about overworking your muscles. Higher reps increase the size of your capillary vessels, causing a mild increase in size to the surrounding tissue and muscle. The increase in capillary size also means those fibers heal quite rapidly once your body adjusts. Any injury to the muscle fibers caused by higher rep workouts are quite different than injuries caused by low rep heavy weight exercises. The key is that if you feel weak, don't push it.

Prisoners will tell you to do those exercises every day. I agree. Your body will respond by attempting to adjust. What you do is push it only when your feeling strong. So if you're doing 50 pushups non-stop, and you feel good, then push it to 52 or 55. Continually increase the reps once every week.

And don't forget to do dips.


ps. Oh and don't forgot water is a key ingredient in feeling strong and muscle recovery. If your not drinking at least 3 liters of water per day, then your not drinking enough. Feeling weak is almost always the result of dehydration. And no, you won't always know when your dehydrated either.

It is PAINFUL for me to admit this but, I can barely do a single regulation push up... I am asking about weight training because I am trying to get to the point where I can push my fat ass up more then once.

I need to grow the strength in my upper body to get to the point where I can get on the hundred push up challenge. From there on it's easy... right now, I am just at the gym and struggling to put up 130 when I weight 240.

Dips and pull-ups... not gonna happen right now.

I am not too discouraged as I just went from breaking a sweat if I ran a couple hundred feet to finishing several 5ks this fall.

The difference is that I could take more then a single step when I started training for 5ks. Here, it feels a lot more difficult because I can only do 1 proper form push up.

Um, Radar, "back in the day" there wasn't such a thing as a fitness training unit.

They just made one do push-ups, situps, flutter kicks, the mountain climber, etc. at every moment one wasn't moving from one location to another or sleeping.

I really did think "drop, Giger" was a preparatory command. The Drill Sergeant would approach the platoon and say "Platoon," in a loud voice, then in a softer one, "drop, Giger," and then "Attention" louder. This was followed by "Stand At..." with an intervening "keep pushing, Giger," and then "At Ease."

I was young and healthy and eating huge amounts of carbs and protein so it was all good, though.

To my advantage, I'm genetically aerobic, so running was never a problem. Those guys caught pure hell.

Thirty years later I still have that muscle memory which makes getting back into shape much easier than otherwise. I've gotten soft and my very minor workout routine is starting to pay dividends much faster than if I had never been in shape to begin with.

Oh dude. You know that's bad so no need to tell you. That's a sign of little muscle mass to weight ratio. Your training requirements are more complicated than just "hitting the gym" and doing some pushups. You'll have to start with the diet and it's a tough thing depending upon your body type. Your focus will have to be trying to get "stronger" by losing weight. The less weight you are hauling around, the stronger you will feel, and thus the more pushups you'll be ale to do. It's a near impossibility for most people because reducing your caloric intake also means you starve your body - muscles included. Depending upon how serious you are you may need a professional trainer or at least an amateur one if provided by the gym. The worse thing you can do is look at someone who appears to be in shape and think they know what they're talking about. Some people are genetically lucky - some not.

The good news is I know I used to be able to do enough to pass the afpft... the bad news is I am on the other side of the testosterone curve since then.


Anyone know a baseball player I can buy steroids off of?

I will keep running and keep eating smart and see what happens with my low rep/high weight routine.

I am down 60lbs from my max girth. Just gotta keep going...