To increase your ability to do push ups and to increase your strength, you will need to vary your workouts. With any exercise, whether you're using your own body weight, free weights or machines, if the resistance doesn't increase, your muscles won't be overloaded and the stimulus these fibers need to grow in size will be missing. Think about it: if you work up to three or four sets of 25 push-ups, how hard can each repetition be? You'd build local muscular endurance, but you wouldn't be any stronger. Say a person doing bicep curls can do three sets of 20 reps with 15 pounds: wouldn't you think they could probably do one set of 10 reps with 20 pounds? That's what they would need to do to make their biceps grow stronger and bigger. However, there are a few ways you can increase the resistance of your push-ups.
One way to increase the resistance is to elevate your feet while doing push-ups. Start with your feet on a step at the bottom of a stair or a low step stool. Raising your feet higher will make you work against gravity, thereby increasing the resistance. Work up to the point where you can do your push-ups with your feet on a chair. Note: The higher your feet, the more you'll work your shoulders, so mix in some flat push-ups to make sure your chest gets a workout, too.
Push-ups must be practiced three to five times per week to ensure progress. If they are practiced more often, the muscles may not have enough time to recuperate and become stronger. Below are some variations that will help you improve your strength and muscular endurance.
Push Up Tips
Tips: Kneel down on the floor and place your hands flat on the floor and slightly wider than shoulder width apart. With your shoulders directly over your hands, straighten your arms. Move your feet back, placing your toes on the floor, so that your knees are off the floor and your legs are straight. At this point, your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Your body should remain straight throughout this exercise. Keep your head and neck in line with your body so that your are looking down toward the floor. This is the starting position. In a controlled fashion, lower your body down toward the floor, bending your elbows, until your body is nearly touching the floor. Now, push your body up away from the floor, straightening your arms, until you have returned to the starting position. If you need to reduce the intensity of this exercise you can perform the pushup from your knees.
Hints For Push-Ups
Training only on push-ups and/or bench presses can lead to a strength imbalance. Pull-ups or some type of rowing work should be done with resistance or training partner.
When training, pay attention to proper form. Keep your body straight and rigid. Lower yourself or the weight in a controlled manner so that you can gain a training effect. During the test itself, however, to conserve energy and improve your performance, you should work at a much more rapid pace. When being tested, try to do as many repetitions as possible during the first 45 to 60 seconds.
Place your hands at shoulder width with your fingers pointing forward and slightly outward. Keep your heels and toes together. Do not forget to breathe during both training and testing. Change position of hands to a narrower or wider position after you are tired, then try to do some more push-ups.
For normal push-ups, the start position begins with the hands shoulder width apart, elbows fully extended, BODY straight and the feet together or up to 12 inches apart.
To complete a repetition, the trainee lowers his/her BODY , maintaining a straight back, until the upper arm is parallel with the ground, then returns to the start position. Once the two-minute push-up period has started, trainees may not lift their arms or legs off the ground. They may rest in the "start" position. They may also bend at the waist and the knees to relax the back, always maintaining 4-point contact with the ground. Before resuming push-ups, they must return to the start position.
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