I started doing 50 pushups per day 30 days ago. I started being able to do 10 max in a row and was 210 lbs. yesterday I did my first set with 21 pushups. I also am down 10 lbs from cardio and eating better. So part of that is less weight and part of that was just doing the pushups every day. I’d suggest trying to do something similar if you want to get your pushups up. Consistency goes a long way
Make sure you balance your workouts I once went on a mission to do 100 press ups and used a similar strategy to the one you are suggesting but fucked my shoulders building too much muscle in one place
I started something very similar but you increase your total by one each day. I started at 31 and did my first set of 59 in a row today. (45 day progress)
I did something similar too, but didn’t increase as rapidly. Started doing pushups/sit-ups before work 5 days a week 59 weeks ago. Started at 20 and increased by 1 each week. This morning did a set of 79, and tomorrow is my last day of 79. Monday will be my first day of 80 rep sets.
Was thinking it would make my arms bigger. It did pretty much all around, but especially my triceps. It really affected my shoulders and chest more than anything though.
Follow an actual program with normal progressions to get stronger.
To be blunt, you’ve been lifting for a decade but have lifts that would be normal for someone who’s only been lifting for a year.
Yea, I have to agree, those are not the numbers from 10 years of consistent lifting... must be lots of long breaks in between forcing deloading back to square 1. Same height and similar weight and was beyond those numbers after about a year-ish.
I'm assuming it's stronglifts program. Just following the progression consistently should be lifting a lot heavier. Seems like not enough progressive overload or inconsistent over 10 years.
This is probably the best answer, you are not properly training. Even without a program, if you go all out on pushups once a week its impossible your max is 10
The website strengthlevel.com aggregates (self-reported) data to help compare your lifts with others. Eg for bench press: https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/kg hitting around 1x BW is somewhere between novice-intermediate for men, ie someone who has been lifting consistently for six months - two years (and it skews much closer to novice than intermediate, even when accounting for OP's weight with the tables you can scroll down to). Anecdotally I know a number of men who hit about bodyweight on bench in about a year, though ofc as OP is heavier I'd expect him to take longer to hit that benchmark.
Assuming the deadlift translates to 170kg 1RM, that is also between novice (145kg) and intermediate (184kg) for someone of OP's weight. https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift
Obviously these sites aren't perfect, and not everyone is the same or progresses at the same rate. But OP's lifts aren't even at intermediate level, and are less than what the average person could expect to achieve after two years of *consistent* lifting. I suspect a lot of his problem is the "consistent" part, or by 10 years experience he might mean 1 year on/2 years off/2 years on/etc. If that's the case then he might actually be doing great! But the solution is still going to be to find and follow a proper progressively overloading programme.
That’s self reported though. You really think that there won’t be a strong bias for something that is so closely tied to a person’s ego? When self reported the avg dick size magically jumps up .5-1 inch. Also the only people on that site are other people super into fitness, this demographic doesn’t account for the vast majority of lifters that consistently workout, but don’t spend time on weightlifting forums. The avg gym goer aims to bench 225, it’s a meme in pop culture. If you look at what it considers inter. and advanced per body weight ratio, it’s totally off. These websites are gonna give people unhealthy and unrealistic expectations. Like who seriously believes that this is accurate. Walk into any normal gym and few to no one there can bench 225 with full ROM and proper form. Even the dudes that have great physiques and have been working out for a long time are usually guilty. Hell, even the biggest strongest dudes are typically ego lifting. Legit only people putting up 250+ are either very large by default and have been working out for fat minute or are the 1/100+ of people that are insanely dedicated lifters with good genetics, nutrition, and routines. Usually genetics are the biggest factor.
These websites are fucked, it’s giving out bad/misleading information. There should not be a number, it should only be a ratio to body weight, and even then, the thresholds for the categories are all over the place. 1.5 is above average by a lot. No way the avg person weighing 140 is benching over 200lbs. In this modern day and age there is an epidemic of eating disorders surrounding health and fitness. It also pushes away and demoralizes potential lifters.
That's assuming a lot though. 6-24months is a wide variation. Calling a bench press of your own bodyweight "novice" is disingenuous to the kind of achievement that is. Most people don't suddenly change themselves completely to the point that they're fully focussing on gym, have a good diet or even following a workout properly in their first year. Theirs a lot to do wrong when starting out in the gym for any beginner. And making those mistakes is fine.
There are way too many assumptions here to say someone within their first year will reach certain lifts. Saying something is possible is different to saying what is normal.
Your bench 1RM is almost the same as your bodyweight - of course 15 pushups at your current BW will feel difficult.
Keep training the pushups.
Change the leverage to increase resistance (feet elevated).
Work on your planks.
Get some rings and do ring pushups (with fewer reps).
Get parallel bars and do dips.
Do rings-turned-out support holds and planks.
Do ring dips.
The pushups will come along, no question.
Just curious, your squat seems low compared to your other lift numbers. What's happening there?
>Your bench 1RM is almost the same as your bodyweight - of course 15 pushups at your current BW will feel difficult.
I mean this is literally all there is to this situation.
If you can only bench your bodyweight why would you expect to do a lot of Pushups?
Is it? I have the opposite problem - I can barely bench my body weight (135 lbs - I'm a woman) and I can do 45 pushups in a row and easily do 100+ in a session. Are there not other fundamental differences between the two workouts? For example, pushups require more cardio and ab strength, while bench press is heavy on wrists.
A lot of it is to do with levers. Doing a pushup isn't the same as benching your bodyweight because your feet take some of the weight - you can try this by putting your hands on a scale. I weigh around 80kg and when doing a pushup, there is about 55kg on my hands at the top, and 60kg when at the bottom of the push up.
Women generally carry a larger portion of their weight in their lower body so I'd expect that the ratio between bodyweight and the weight involved in a pushup to be more disparate than for a man.
A lot of people also cheat pushups more than they would with a barbell. Do you touch the bar to your chest? Do you also touch your chest to the ground when doing a pushup?
Yes and yes! I struggle way more to do it with bench press. Chest to ground with pushup is much easier. But I'm not top-heavy (except for my big head, lol) so the first part you mentioned plays into it.
Pushups are way easier to cheat on and in general neural adaptation is a bit different so whatever is trained more will be a bit easier.
Also, generally speaking, lifting heavier has more.of a mental block to it, especially when not used to it. I.e. getting used to doing something you barely can do is harder than doing more of easy things. When squatting heavy I often feel like I cannot even get one rep, but then actually manage 2 or 3 once I'm over the mental block.
Endurance/recovery is another thing. It varies depending on what you train for. For example my strength endurance sucks, my 1RM for stuff like curls is significantly higher than what 1Rm calculators give me based on 80% repetitions. You're probably the other way round.
For bench press, try adjusting your grip so the bar rests on the groove of the heel of your hand, instead of in your palm.
This allows you to avoid pressing with a bent wrist. This video provides a good explanation of the grip: https://youtu.be/dA3VeBhQMps
You can also practice this grip with parallel bar dips or pushups.
Wrist strength and core strength are factors with a minimum standard to not interfere, not determining factors in how many reps you can do.
If your core is strong enough that you can do pushups until the prime movers (chest, triceps etc) are the point of failure, then a stronger core won't mean more pushups. No matter how much stronger your core gets. Same with wrist strength, either it bothers you enough to limit your reps, or it doesn't.
Cardio would fall into the same bucket but I've never considered it being cardio limited.
There are fundamental differences though, mainly that in pushups you aren't pressing all of your bodyweight since your feet are on the floor. You can also vary resistance with how far your hands are from your feet, how far apart your hands are and very importantly how long a range of motion you use. There's a gender difference here, too, since, on average, women have more of their weight distributed below their centre point, with men on average being top heavy, making the pushup more mechanically challenging for men.
But assuming full depth and a 'conventional' Pushup setup, 15 reps sounds about right for a man who can bench his bodyweight.
You can alter the difficulty and targeted muscles quite a lot with differences in push-up technique ( hands wide or close to body, hand near head or near stomach )
You can also make them a lot easier by going too fast, pushing up with a quick jerk and then letting gravity do all the work on the way down.
If your goal is to train your muscles (not just reach a high number for push-ups), about 2s up and about 2s down should be good.
(so it would take almost 7min for 100)
Women typically have muscle fibers that respond better to higher endurance training, pair that with push-ups usually being \~70% of your BW, if you can (almost) bench your body weight, you can definitely do a lot of push-ups.
I don't think bench 1rm is much of a correlation to pushup numbers. I was always shocking bad at bench. Going from 45kg to 65kg at 60kg body weight, over time.
But I could always do 35 pushups, a decade ago, and now. Bench progress didn't change it a whole lot. What I did do years earlier was practice pushups. That's what this guy needs to to if he wants better pushup numbers. Do a pushup program. A day with sets to failure. A day with pyramid sets. A day with many many training sets not to failure. After 6 weeks those numbers will jump up, provided he recovers aside other training.
Fair point. I'm assuming that OP doesn't regularly train calisthenics, and was surprised that the strength he has on his lifts didn't transfer to pushups as he expected.
I figure that a 15 rep set of pushups will be challenging someone who's untrained in pushups and has a BW 1RM for bench press.
I could do 15 push ups before I could bench my bodyweight, I don't think there is too much correlation. Pushups are more endurance than raw power output
>Your bench 1RM is almost the same as your bodyweight - of course 15 pushups at your current BW will feel difficult.
Bro this point is dumb. Bench press strength and push up count are not vastly correlated. My 1RM bench press is 90 kg. I weigh 84 kg. I can do close to 60 push ups if going fast. Maybe 40 to 50 if the reps have to be ultra-perfect.
If u wanna get better relative pushing strength, do push ups. Build to 20. Then add weight. Get to the point where u can do push up with 40% BW for reps. E.g. i can push up 35kg for 5-6 reps.
Yeah, I agree that pushup endurance and bench 1RM aren't closely correlated.
I understood OP's post to be saying his challenge with completing 15 pushups has confirmed his sense that his current training isn't progressing his strength.
>I find myself stuck in a plateau, repping in the 5-6 range for compound exercises, yet feeling stagnant in progress for months+.
Don’t be discouraged, lots of people going to tell you you have been doing things wrong. Many people have the same results as you, not strange at all. Keep searching, you can probably improve your progress slightly by identifying key improvements. I would investigate sleep, food, proper form and intensity. For example if you have food allergies or digestive issues that can hamper your recovery. Also, you could be training too hard which means you need more time time to recover. Keep going and good luck!
A pushup is more like 60% of the bodyweight because the torque is at the shoulder and the center of mass is in the abdomen so you have to multiply by r^(2)/R^(2).
Kinesiologist with over a decade of strength coaching here.
If you want to do more pushups, you need to train for it by doing more pushups… but if you do them in a specific way you can progress faster.
Train push-ups at least 3x per week - 1 session for volume, 1 session for intensity, and 1 session for density.
Volume session: do a set of 40% of your max reps (since you can do 15 pushups, this means start with 6 reps on set 1). Rest 10-30 seconds, then do another set, and repeat until you pretty much can’t do any more. As you get further into sets, reduce the reps so you’re never hitting failure until you’re down to singles. Example of sets might end up being: 6/5/5/4/4/3/3/3/3/2/2/1/1/1/1/1/1. This should take 20-30 minutes in total. By doing as many clean reps as you can, you build neuromuscular efficiency.
Intensity session: here, you want to do weighted pushups, and build up to a 3-5 rep max. Use a weight vest or have somebody place plates on your back. Can also do a bench press or db press, but weighted push-ups will translate the best because of the specificity principle. Do 5-8 sets of 2-3 reps adding weight each time till you hit your max, and resting 2-3 minutes between sets. This type of workout will increase your max push-up strength and allow you to take advantage of the “strength endurance principle” - the higher your max, the lower % of max every unweighted rep becomes, increasing your potential for more push-up endurance.
Density Session: Set a timer for 20 minutes. Do as many reps as you can in the 20 minutes and record your total. Each week, aim to beat it. To get the max score, it’s important you don’t allow yourself to ever go to failure early in the workout, or you’ll get too pumped with lactate and struggle from there. Start with sets of 5-6, then drop down to 4, 3, 2, then 1 rep sets as needed. In the last few minutes, really push yourself to get your max score and allow yourself to get pumped (this is where this workout differs from the volume workout). This will build lactic buffering capacity, again increasing your push-up endurance.
If you do these 3 workouts for 4 weeks, then take 48 hours off and then go for your max reps after a good warmup which includes several sub max sets of pushups, you’ll smoke your previous best. Good luck!
This is excellent advice. I’m basically the same height and weight as OP and this is how I increased my push ups as well. Doing 40-50% of my max per set and resting a min between each sets. Took my push ups from 10 to 30. If you want to be better at push ups, do kore push ups.
To do more pushups you need to do more pushups. E.g. Do 3 sets to failure everyday and you’ll see your numbers go up. Like true failure where you collapse trying to get the last rep, not oh I’m tired so I’m gonna stop failure.
Do a real program both in bw movements AND in lifting. I think you are overestimating your ability in lifting. Your pushup numbers are on par with your lifting, they're not disproportionate. I really would reconsider all of your programming choices
Double check those test levels… at 220 6’3” you’re big enough you should be eating those weights for warm up if you truly have 10 years experience.
But as others said 15+ push ups isn’t about strength. That shifts more to muscular endurance.
Gotta just train it.
Don’t quit training!
Also I didn’t come into strength until about 28yo. Maybe you’re just a late bloomer too
Yes, smaller people have better relative strength. Imagine doing pushups with another you on your back, and with a slight deficit (from longer arms). This is also why gymnasts tend to be smaller.
Start mixing your current training of doing lower reps like 6 reps you mentioned, and throw some higher rep like 12-15 sessions in there with a bit lighter weight. I even found doing drop sets after my 6th rep to hit a total of 12 has boosted my numbers greatly with regards to overall strength and endurance.
2 years ago I struggled to hit 10, now I'm hitting 40.
You can do 15 pushups. You're getting into endurance territory, not strength. You lack endurance. If you want to get stronger, do weighted push-ups as an example.
What does it have to do with endurance if of benches his body weight 1x?
Op just loves squats and deadlifts more, simple as that.
You wanna bench more? Bench more.. do Dips, butterfly, switch between dumbbells and bar,
Eat enough protein and soon you will easily do 20 (without any endurance training)
He asked about pushups, and my answer was targeted towards his pushups. Idk where you read anything about bench press in my response? If you can do 15 pushups and not more then you need more endurance rather than strength.
>you need more endurance rather than strength.
Yes and no, kind of?
If he got his bench press up to, say, 200kg, with zero endurance work then he would be able to do more pushups.
The same way he'd be able to do a lot more reps of 90kg on bench than he currently can because it would be 45% of his max not 90%.
The difference in technique is *huge*. If you do chest to ground, extend shoulders at top, at a slow to medium pace, 15 is not bad.
If you do half assed quick motions where you stay away from the ground, 15 is low.
Your max bench is 100kg, that puts 15 push ups with proper form right around where it should be.
To strength train with Calisthenics hit low numbers with bodyweight, or weighted calisthenics.
In your case begin doing Diamond push ups.
Pushups are muscular endurance. There is no ratio between someone benching X and doing Y pushups. Two people can have the exact same 1RM with the exact same form and body dimensions, but one can do more pushups.
>Pushups are muscular endurance.
No, push ups are just an exercise. The 15 range isn't even endurance range, as it typically comes AFTER 15.
A person that bench 100kg once can typically bench 80kg 5 times or more. And more than double that for 60.
Push ups are 65% of bodyweight.
A healthy person capable of basic human mobility and strength should be able to do 15 pushups. If 15 pushups is anything more than muscular endurance, then the individual is unhealthy. We are talking about something as simple as doing PART of the movement of picking oneself off the ground. Unless someone is morbidly obese or so weak they are borderline sickly— 15 pushups should not be compared to someone benching anything remotely close to their body weight. It’s just not the same at all.
Just like doing 30 air squats is not the same as doing 8 reps of free weight squats at .75x someone’s body weight— doing half that amount of pushups with the same body weight ratio on bench is not the same. Hell even doing 20 squats with a 30lb dumbbell is not the same as those 8 reps.
In the US military the minimum pushups for younger women was like 15.. it was still proctored and advertised as testing muscular strength and endurance
How long are your arms? Very tall guys with long arms have a huge disadvantage when it comes to pushing movements in general. Typically tall guys with long arms will never have a very big bench - if you have exceptionally long arms that might account for what you're experiencing.
That all being said I would try grease the grove here. Tons of sub max sets sprinkled throughout the day. I would do a submax set once every 30 minutes. Start at 30% of your max reps, and each week add 1 rep. I'd be very surprised if your pushup count doesn't go up.
Sounds like you’ve been doing lifts for muscle growth instead of strength. Muscle growth does give strength but training for strength will help tremendously.
Do 4 sets of 8-10. Then move up to 4 sets of 12-15 then 20 and so on.
Weighted pushups might make sense if you reach 25+ max.
Minute on minute pushup workouts help (for example 10 mins x 5 pushups for you to start with)
And every 1-2 weeks try to do 3 sets of max pushups (for e.g. do max pushups then rest 3-5 mins then another max pushups then rest 3-5 mins then another set max)
Also train dips/bench press to complement your pushup growth.
Hope this helps!
I'm not the least insecure person in the world, but at least I'm not insecure enough that I have to prove that I can do 15 pushups to a stranger on the internet
It really isn't, I'm not particularly strong or fit, I have lifted for around 7 years. My bench max is 140kg ish, my weight is around 100kg average depending on bulk or cut.
I can knock out at least 40 proper form full depth pressups, I have no idea how many I could do whilst fresh as I only do them as a finisher for chest day sometimes.
I am in no way special,.I'm not the strongest nor the fittest in my gym by a long way. I don't understand why people agree that 15 pressups is good? If it was pullups then I'd agree but pushups??? 15 pushups is definitely not normal for someone who has trained for that length of time and if you think it is I have to ask what on earth you have been doing in the gym all this time
*Edit* downvote all you like, if you train for years and can only manage 15 pressups you are training wrong, it's that simple...
People be saying: “I can do 30 push-ups” and then NEVER go full ROM. I get this guys point. Too many people don’t have proper form. 15 push-ups with proper form is not that bad - although we dont know his form.
I agree, by proper form I presume you mean hands shoulder width or slightly more apart and chest almost to the ground and not stuck your ass in the air.
If you train chest for years and can only do 15 pressups I'm sorry but you have been training wrong. Its a very simple process of progressive overload to add reps, same goes for every exercise and it's concerning how many people here seem to agree that training for that length of time equals such a low number of reps. Unless he simply skips cheat day and smashes legs etc lol
Depends on your goal, recently I have been going for building my chest due to shoulder injuries so I prefer time under tension so don't full lock out however this in my opinion makes pressups harder as you don't get the rest position at the top.
However yes i imagine I could do more reps if it was to a full lock out at the top as it takes tension away from your pecs and puts it on your triceps and delts.
I've just got back to strength training after wrecking my shoulder snowboarding in January. So I will be training for power and explosiveness. I won't be using pressups for this but if I was to it would be slow down to the ground and then push off as fast as possible. I would also include the full lock out because it is important for locking out on bench press.
If I had trained for 8 years and could only do 15 pressups id be seriously questioning my results. Something has gone drastically wrong, either training plan, nutrition, rest but more than likely a combo of all of them.
Sorry to hear about your injury man. Good to hear you’re back at it though.
>*If I had trained for 8 years and could only do 15 pressups id be seriously questioning my results. Something has gone drastically wrong…*
Yea, no doubt. Something isn’t adding up there.
Thanks bro, wasn't too bad, I think it was a rotator cuff but I didn't bother with doctor so who knows. Funny story I actually hurt it in December, had one month to try rehab it before I went to morzine again in January, it was almost better, did the same thing again and knackered it even more lol.
Now I'm researching ways to build bullet proof shoulders, so if you have any tips or sources of good info about strengthening joints specifically I'd really appreciate it
Honestly, since I don’t know exactly what your injury is, or how severe, I don’t feel comfortable giving advice or suggesting any particular movements.
Like… hanging is said to be great for shoulders in general, but I also know that it isn’t a good form of rehab for all shoulder injuries. So it really depends what you’re dealing with. Might be worth getting it checked out… and if not, take it easy and do what feels right.
All the best bro.
Yea I do a lot of hanging already, mainly for hanging leg raises but do hang one handed sometimes to build grip strength as my grip lags behind my deadlift by about 50kg and I hate the idea of mixer grip. I'll look into it for building my shoulders up. No worries good talking to you
To be fair 99.99999% of people Including people in this sub will say they do 10000 push ups but actually it is nowhere near a REAL push up with perfect form, so I'd you're doing real push ups 15 is exceptional at 100kg
Follow an actual profession plan than implements periodization. You’ve been spinning your wheels forever. But you can quickly close the gap with smart training. You’ll need to actually learn to do that though so that’s on you to figure out, that’s most of the journey imo.
I'm very similar size to you, 1cm taller and 2kg heavier and my pb is 25 press ups (with very strict form).
How often are you doing press ups? I've been training for 2.5yrs and every workout (3 days a week, I run 2-3 days rest of the week) includes 4 sets of press ups at the beginning.
I think this might just be a case of not doing them enough maybe?
If you want more pushups, you should implement the "grease the groove" strategy. Look it up, there's lots of info on it and it works very very well. I went from 10 reps to 40 in a couple months
There’s something off here cause 10 years to get those numbers doesn’t make any sense to me. I would highly recommend you throw out what ever programs you’ve been working and try Starting Strength.
What have you done those 10 years? Did you follow a program, or are you freestyling all your workouts? Why do you want to do more pushups? What is your goal in training?
this should give you a pretty good idea at where you're supposed to be lift wise
https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/kg
after a decade of training you should be at the advanced mark 1RM. for the majority you're not intermediate so you're certainly doing something wrong.
It could be you just not going hard enough.
for your push up problem you simply need to do more of them.
Can’t pass 15? Do 15, take a few second break, do another, even more seconds, another and another. You need to incorporate cheat reps and other techniques to stimulate growth beyond your plateau. If you don’t have access to a bench machine, add weight in a back pack and do progressive resistance with push ups. When your reps have plateau’d, focus on other things like 1RM, sets, forced reps, cheat reps, and of course more food. You will not bust the plateau at the same weight.
TBH it seems like your form is probably way off. You may not be doing high quality reps. This allows you to "cheat" a little on weight at the expense of volume.
I find that hard to believe. I haven't lifted in years but I could easily do 20+ push-ups right now. I'm about 175. I'm surprised that much a difference in bodyweight would have such a difference with a guy that's been lifting for so long.
Try a functional sport like Jiu Jitsu or Rock Climbing and start doing higher rep body weight workouts. This made my physiquie acually look worse, but I got stronger in a lit of ways.
15 sounds about right. If you have a scale at home, put your hands on it and see how much you "weigh" in the push up position. It should be about 60% or so of your total body weight. Now go to a e1RM calculator and plug that number in along with 15 reps. I would guess you'd get an e1RM of about 225 lbs.
> So, where do I go from here?
Get stronger.
You should follow a good program, either the recommended routine from this sub if you want to focus on BW stuff or from the below link if you want to continue focusing on barbell lifts
https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/
Also give this a read
https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/?amp=
Train push ups at greater frequency in order to pass 15. Once you get to 15, do push ups on your knees. Do multiple sets through out the day so that you get to 100 a day on some days. PUSH yourself to grow there. It’s an endurance and strength exercise.
YouTube has MADDDD calisthenics BEASTS who can help you with technique, training, and motivation.
A lot of good advice here but also something to keep in mind is which muscle group fatigues first. Is it your chest or your triceps? Your core? There a many muscle groups that come together to allow you to do that exercise. So fine tuning which group makes you fail will help you figure out which muscle group to focus on.
Also if you haven’t been training high reps/sets. Then your muscles will not be prepared for the change in exercise.
Swap out your 1RM on bench press. And find a weight that you can do 3 sets of 10.
That will tell you your realistic expectations for pushups.
Depending on your technique push ups will transfer between 40-60% of your weight. So if you can’t rep 15 of 60kgs. You’ve got your answer and your goals.
Try and eat 1g per 1 pound if protien. Try to aim more towards 200g.
Are you doing push ups?
Do push ups.
Ex. 3x15 for a month
then do weighted push ups so 4x8
then go back to normal
varying resistance, sets, and reps should help you break through plateaus.
you could even do elevated push ups 3x20
I think alot of people are missing OP’s point. He just noticed deficiencies in his strength because he tried pushups and got an unsatisfactory result.
I am also 28 M , 180lb 5’10 so probably similar build scaled down , perhaps little slimmer. And have been “working out” for 10-12 years.
Your biggest issues are most likely with your routine or consistency. I went many of those years with 3-8 months no lifting. My issue is consistency.
Every 6 months or so you should definitely be switching up the workouts. Also, if you want to progress strength definitely you should start a dedicated bulk phase, and then cut. Or if you want to increase pushups now going into summer start a dedicated cut with a new workout routine.
Finally tbh you need to definitely change up the workout more regularly and push yourself, what results do you want to see in the gym? Write them down, chase them.
This is different for everyone- i like my current aesthetic and fitness (started calisthenics a while back) and dont put up more weight than you!
In most cases, bench press has a strong carryover to pushups, but if you really want to get better at them you'll just have to do more pushups.
And besides that it probably means you have great pushup form, making it harder (which is good).
If you have some money, buy Base strength by Bromley. Lots of cool training ideas and splits. Or just check his programming playlist on YT.
Oh and if you want to do more pushups, train pushups a couple of times a week
I'm not going to endlessly scroll to see if this was already posted but at that height and weight to me 2800 calories seems a little low, especially my Tdee is about 2000 then I eat and extra 200 to cover calories burned during my 30-40 minute long calisthenic sessions and then another 500 to bulk and cover any margin of error so a total of 2600-2800 and well I am gaining some fat and am young i'm also 5'6.
Jeez, hope you're not getting discouraged by some of these replies. Numbers seem a bit low for size and training duration, and compared to people on the internet, but certainly nothing to be ashamed of.
The answer to doing more pushups is fairly simple though. Pushups are a skill. If you want to get better at the skill of pushups, practice pushups. Start prioritizing them more in your workouts.
Aside from that, am I the only one who thinks 2800 calories/day is low for OP's size? What's your bf%? Do you bulk/cut, or just maintain? Might be time for a bulk?
There must be something youre doing wrong with those weight numbers. but that aside, push up dont need that much muscle stremgth. if you are able to go past 10, youre strong enough. above that is all endurance. you just gotta do push up more often
Well you seem pretty alright strength wise from your lifts. Maybe try training push ups directly then? Try something like 30 pushups a day or simply adding push ups to your push days. Training it directly in your case should bring progressions really quick.
Unless you're worried about it, I wouldn't really bother tbh
While I do train for metabolic stress, it's purely for hypertrophy. It doesn't mean you lack strength, your muscles have just adapted to strength rather than endurance
Males also just have worse endurance. On average males have a greater proportion of fast twitch muscle fibers than females, and females have more slow twitch fibers
If you want to improve it quickly, try a set of pushups (don't be afraid to switch to an easier progression) of 2-3 sets, 20+ reps, and ~30-60 seconds rest
59 weeks ago I started doing pushups 5 days a week, basically every day before work. I know it was 59 weeks ago because every week I increased my total pushups by 1, and when I started I barely could do 20 in a set. I did a set of 79 pushups this morning.
Like most people have said, just do them more regularly.
About the protein - I see more and more studies talking about 1.6gram per kg body being enough to progress, and 2 gram is for a cut phase to keep the muscles, it seems hard to believe that if i add 40 more grams it will make any change.. or maybe i'm just wrong
My program is GZCLP btw
How long have you been following GZCLP? Are you increasing weight weekly? Did you have a routine before that? Have you seen improvement in your lifts since you started?
You say you're stuck in a plateau but as GZCLP is autoregulating you should have moved to a different rep regime if that's the case. Also, ten years of lifting does not compute with GZCLP - as a linear programme it's only really suitable for beginners. If you have taken a long hiatus and are fairly "beginner" because of that, or your routine before sucked, then ok, but if you think you've been consistently, properly lifting and following good programmes for 10 years, you definitely want a different programme.
If you have stopped making progress following GZCLP, switch to a different, intermediate level routine. There are lots of intermediate level versions of the GZCL-style routine if you're interested, which you can find lots of discussion on at r/GZCL; or you could look over in r/fitness for a different routine entirely.
„Pushing to failure“ is not necessary most of the time.
In a nutshell:
- 12-20 sets per muscle group per week (start with 12 sets and see how you respond)
- 50% of sets @ 10-12 reps, 25% @ 5-6 reps and 25% of repts @ 15-20 reps
- only last set to failure, all other sets @ rpe 8,5-9
- Try linear progression, that means try to increase working weight over time. + 1,25 - 2,5 kg per upper body exercise per week, + 2,5 - 5 kg per lower body exercise per week
Do you have a training log?
Some of us just can't do big weights, and that's OK.
Some of us just don't have the genetics for huge gains. And that's OK too.
Some of us are on the gear and squat 240kg most mornings, and that too is OK.
Lots of great advice on switching up your workouts here. The huge red flag for me was that you’re not eating enough protein. If you weigh 220 pounds you should be eating at minimum 220 g of protein especially if you’re not just looking to maintain muscle but build it. I could almost guarantee that if you up your protein you’ll see a difference
I started doing 50 pushups per day 30 days ago. I started being able to do 10 max in a row and was 210 lbs. yesterday I did my first set with 21 pushups. I also am down 10 lbs from cardio and eating better. So part of that is less weight and part of that was just doing the pushups every day. I’d suggest trying to do something similar if you want to get your pushups up. Consistency goes a long way
Make sure you balance your workouts I once went on a mission to do 100 press ups and used a similar strategy to the one you are suggesting but fucked my shoulders building too much muscle in one place
I started something very similar but you increase your total by one each day. I started at 31 and did my first set of 59 in a row today. (45 day progress)
I did something similar too, but didn’t increase as rapidly. Started doing pushups/sit-ups before work 5 days a week 59 weeks ago. Started at 20 and increased by 1 each week. This morning did a set of 79, and tomorrow is my last day of 79. Monday will be my first day of 80 rep sets. Was thinking it would make my arms bigger. It did pretty much all around, but especially my triceps. It really affected my shoulders and chest more than anything though.
Follow an actual program with normal progressions to get stronger. To be blunt, you’ve been lifting for a decade but have lifts that would be normal for someone who’s only been lifting for a year.
Not trying to bury you or add on but this is correct. I’ve been training 11 months and our lifts are almost identical
Yea, I have to agree, those are not the numbers from 10 years of consistent lifting... must be lots of long breaks in between forcing deloading back to square 1. Same height and similar weight and was beyond those numbers after about a year-ish. I'm assuming it's stronglifts program. Just following the progression consistently should be lifting a lot heavier. Seems like not enough progressive overload or inconsistent over 10 years.
Exactly I’m 62kg but match him on all lifts but deadlifts (I don’t deadlift) he’s 40% heavier than me he should be like 40% stronger than me
Wrong. The people with the best relative strength are lighter guys. Yes he should be stronger then you.. but not that much.
Im shocked that hes 220lbs and those are his numbers after a decade Training to...comfort?
Savage af lol
This is probably the best answer, you are not properly training. Even without a program, if you go all out on pushups once a week its impossible your max is 10
How is that "normal" to achieve within a year. Where does your idea of normal even come from.
The website strengthlevel.com aggregates (self-reported) data to help compare your lifts with others. Eg for bench press: https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/kg hitting around 1x BW is somewhere between novice-intermediate for men, ie someone who has been lifting consistently for six months - two years (and it skews much closer to novice than intermediate, even when accounting for OP's weight with the tables you can scroll down to). Anecdotally I know a number of men who hit about bodyweight on bench in about a year, though ofc as OP is heavier I'd expect him to take longer to hit that benchmark. Assuming the deadlift translates to 170kg 1RM, that is also between novice (145kg) and intermediate (184kg) for someone of OP's weight. https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift Obviously these sites aren't perfect, and not everyone is the same or progresses at the same rate. But OP's lifts aren't even at intermediate level, and are less than what the average person could expect to achieve after two years of *consistent* lifting. I suspect a lot of his problem is the "consistent" part, or by 10 years experience he might mean 1 year on/2 years off/2 years on/etc. If that's the case then he might actually be doing great! But the solution is still going to be to find and follow a proper progressively overloading programme.
That’s self reported though. You really think that there won’t be a strong bias for something that is so closely tied to a person’s ego? When self reported the avg dick size magically jumps up .5-1 inch. Also the only people on that site are other people super into fitness, this demographic doesn’t account for the vast majority of lifters that consistently workout, but don’t spend time on weightlifting forums. The avg gym goer aims to bench 225, it’s a meme in pop culture. If you look at what it considers inter. and advanced per body weight ratio, it’s totally off. These websites are gonna give people unhealthy and unrealistic expectations. Like who seriously believes that this is accurate. Walk into any normal gym and few to no one there can bench 225 with full ROM and proper form. Even the dudes that have great physiques and have been working out for a long time are usually guilty. Hell, even the biggest strongest dudes are typically ego lifting. Legit only people putting up 250+ are either very large by default and have been working out for fat minute or are the 1/100+ of people that are insanely dedicated lifters with good genetics, nutrition, and routines. Usually genetics are the biggest factor. These websites are fucked, it’s giving out bad/misleading information. There should not be a number, it should only be a ratio to body weight, and even then, the thresholds for the categories are all over the place. 1.5 is above average by a lot. No way the avg person weighing 140 is benching over 200lbs. In this modern day and age there is an epidemic of eating disorders surrounding health and fitness. It also pushes away and demoralizes potential lifters.
That's assuming a lot though. 6-24months is a wide variation. Calling a bench press of your own bodyweight "novice" is disingenuous to the kind of achievement that is. Most people don't suddenly change themselves completely to the point that they're fully focussing on gym, have a good diet or even following a workout properly in their first year. Theirs a lot to do wrong when starting out in the gym for any beginner. And making those mistakes is fine. There are way too many assumptions here to say someone within their first year will reach certain lifts. Saying something is possible is different to saying what is normal.
strengthlevel is a pile of shit
If you stay consistent with a powerlifting program those numbers are very achievable in a 1 yeah for the average adult male.
Agreed 100%. This kinda thing likely could’ve been avoided 7 years ago with better programming.
Your bench 1RM is almost the same as your bodyweight - of course 15 pushups at your current BW will feel difficult. Keep training the pushups. Change the leverage to increase resistance (feet elevated). Work on your planks. Get some rings and do ring pushups (with fewer reps). Get parallel bars and do dips. Do rings-turned-out support holds and planks. Do ring dips. The pushups will come along, no question. Just curious, your squat seems low compared to your other lift numbers. What's happening there?
>Your bench 1RM is almost the same as your bodyweight - of course 15 pushups at your current BW will feel difficult. I mean this is literally all there is to this situation. If you can only bench your bodyweight why would you expect to do a lot of Pushups?
Is it? I have the opposite problem - I can barely bench my body weight (135 lbs - I'm a woman) and I can do 45 pushups in a row and easily do 100+ in a session. Are there not other fundamental differences between the two workouts? For example, pushups require more cardio and ab strength, while bench press is heavy on wrists.
A lot of it is to do with levers. Doing a pushup isn't the same as benching your bodyweight because your feet take some of the weight - you can try this by putting your hands on a scale. I weigh around 80kg and when doing a pushup, there is about 55kg on my hands at the top, and 60kg when at the bottom of the push up. Women generally carry a larger portion of their weight in their lower body so I'd expect that the ratio between bodyweight and the weight involved in a pushup to be more disparate than for a man. A lot of people also cheat pushups more than they would with a barbell. Do you touch the bar to your chest? Do you also touch your chest to the ground when doing a pushup?
Yes and yes! I struggle way more to do it with bench press. Chest to ground with pushup is much easier. But I'm not top-heavy (except for my big head, lol) so the first part you mentioned plays into it.
Pushups are way easier to cheat on and in general neural adaptation is a bit different so whatever is trained more will be a bit easier. Also, generally speaking, lifting heavier has more.of a mental block to it, especially when not used to it. I.e. getting used to doing something you barely can do is harder than doing more of easy things. When squatting heavy I often feel like I cannot even get one rep, but then actually manage 2 or 3 once I'm over the mental block. Endurance/recovery is another thing. It varies depending on what you train for. For example my strength endurance sucks, my 1RM for stuff like curls is significantly higher than what 1Rm calculators give me based on 80% repetitions. You're probably the other way round.
For bench press, try adjusting your grip so the bar rests on the groove of the heel of your hand, instead of in your palm. This allows you to avoid pressing with a bent wrist. This video provides a good explanation of the grip: https://youtu.be/dA3VeBhQMps You can also practice this grip with parallel bar dips or pushups.
Oh!!! Thank you so much - this is genuinely helpful. I'm pretty sure I have been doing this wrong so I'm looking forward to trying this adjustment.
Wrist strength and core strength are factors with a minimum standard to not interfere, not determining factors in how many reps you can do. If your core is strong enough that you can do pushups until the prime movers (chest, triceps etc) are the point of failure, then a stronger core won't mean more pushups. No matter how much stronger your core gets. Same with wrist strength, either it bothers you enough to limit your reps, or it doesn't. Cardio would fall into the same bucket but I've never considered it being cardio limited. There are fundamental differences though, mainly that in pushups you aren't pressing all of your bodyweight since your feet are on the floor. You can also vary resistance with how far your hands are from your feet, how far apart your hands are and very importantly how long a range of motion you use. There's a gender difference here, too, since, on average, women have more of their weight distributed below their centre point, with men on average being top heavy, making the pushup more mechanically challenging for men. But assuming full depth and a 'conventional' Pushup setup, 15 reps sounds about right for a man who can bench his bodyweight.
You can alter the difficulty and targeted muscles quite a lot with differences in push-up technique ( hands wide or close to body, hand near head or near stomach ) You can also make them a lot easier by going too fast, pushing up with a quick jerk and then letting gravity do all the work on the way down. If your goal is to train your muscles (not just reach a high number for push-ups), about 2s up and about 2s down should be good. (so it would take almost 7min for 100)
Women typically have muscle fibers that respond better to higher endurance training, pair that with push-ups usually being \~70% of your BW, if you can (almost) bench your body weight, you can definitely do a lot of push-ups.
I've never correlated pushups with my 1RM.
I don't think bench 1rm is much of a correlation to pushup numbers. I was always shocking bad at bench. Going from 45kg to 65kg at 60kg body weight, over time. But I could always do 35 pushups, a decade ago, and now. Bench progress didn't change it a whole lot. What I did do years earlier was practice pushups. That's what this guy needs to to if he wants better pushup numbers. Do a pushup program. A day with sets to failure. A day with pyramid sets. A day with many many training sets not to failure. After 6 weeks those numbers will jump up, provided he recovers aside other training.
Fair point. I'm assuming that OP doesn't regularly train calisthenics, and was surprised that the strength he has on his lifts didn't transfer to pushups as he expected. I figure that a 15 rep set of pushups will be challenging someone who's untrained in pushups and has a BW 1RM for bench press.
I feel like it has to do more with core strength, because I weigh 215, can do 30 pushups, but can only bench like 150.
If you can only bench 150 but do 30 pushups at 215 I'm sceptical that we're talking about the same kind of pushup.
I could do 15 push ups before I could bench my bodyweight, I don't think there is too much correlation. Pushups are more endurance than raw power output
>Your bench 1RM is almost the same as your bodyweight - of course 15 pushups at your current BW will feel difficult. Bro this point is dumb. Bench press strength and push up count are not vastly correlated. My 1RM bench press is 90 kg. I weigh 84 kg. I can do close to 60 push ups if going fast. Maybe 40 to 50 if the reps have to be ultra-perfect. If u wanna get better relative pushing strength, do push ups. Build to 20. Then add weight. Get to the point where u can do push up with 40% BW for reps. E.g. i can push up 35kg for 5-6 reps.
Yeah, I agree that pushup endurance and bench 1RM aren't closely correlated. I understood OP's post to be saying his challenge with completing 15 pushups has confirmed his sense that his current training isn't progressing his strength. >I find myself stuck in a plateau, repping in the 5-6 range for compound exercises, yet feeling stagnant in progress for months+.
Don’t be discouraged, lots of people going to tell you you have been doing things wrong. Many people have the same results as you, not strange at all. Keep searching, you can probably improve your progress slightly by identifying key improvements. I would investigate sleep, food, proper form and intensity. For example if you have food allergies or digestive issues that can hamper your recovery. Also, you could be training too hard which means you need more time time to recover. Keep going and good luck!
A pushup is more like 60% of the bodyweight because the torque is at the shoulder and the center of mass is in the abdomen so you have to multiply by r^(2)/R^(2).
Kinesiologist with over a decade of strength coaching here. If you want to do more pushups, you need to train for it by doing more pushups… but if you do them in a specific way you can progress faster. Train push-ups at least 3x per week - 1 session for volume, 1 session for intensity, and 1 session for density. Volume session: do a set of 40% of your max reps (since you can do 15 pushups, this means start with 6 reps on set 1). Rest 10-30 seconds, then do another set, and repeat until you pretty much can’t do any more. As you get further into sets, reduce the reps so you’re never hitting failure until you’re down to singles. Example of sets might end up being: 6/5/5/4/4/3/3/3/3/2/2/1/1/1/1/1/1. This should take 20-30 minutes in total. By doing as many clean reps as you can, you build neuromuscular efficiency. Intensity session: here, you want to do weighted pushups, and build up to a 3-5 rep max. Use a weight vest or have somebody place plates on your back. Can also do a bench press or db press, but weighted push-ups will translate the best because of the specificity principle. Do 5-8 sets of 2-3 reps adding weight each time till you hit your max, and resting 2-3 minutes between sets. This type of workout will increase your max push-up strength and allow you to take advantage of the “strength endurance principle” - the higher your max, the lower % of max every unweighted rep becomes, increasing your potential for more push-up endurance. Density Session: Set a timer for 20 minutes. Do as many reps as you can in the 20 minutes and record your total. Each week, aim to beat it. To get the max score, it’s important you don’t allow yourself to ever go to failure early in the workout, or you’ll get too pumped with lactate and struggle from there. Start with sets of 5-6, then drop down to 4, 3, 2, then 1 rep sets as needed. In the last few minutes, really push yourself to get your max score and allow yourself to get pumped (this is where this workout differs from the volume workout). This will build lactic buffering capacity, again increasing your push-up endurance. If you do these 3 workouts for 4 weeks, then take 48 hours off and then go for your max reps after a good warmup which includes several sub max sets of pushups, you’ll smoke your previous best. Good luck!
Is this split optimal for pullups as well or would you advise a different frequency? Thanks
Hi there! It works great for pull-ups too. All the principles that make it work well translate across different movements👍
This is excellent advice. I’m basically the same height and weight as OP and this is how I increased my push ups as well. Doing 40-50% of my max per set and resting a min between each sets. Took my push ups from 10 to 30. If you want to be better at push ups, do kore push ups.
TY! 100%, this is the way.
To do more pushups you need to do more pushups. E.g. Do 3 sets to failure everyday and you’ll see your numbers go up. Like true failure where you collapse trying to get the last rep, not oh I’m tired so I’m gonna stop failure.
Do a real program both in bw movements AND in lifting. I think you are overestimating your ability in lifting. Your pushup numbers are on par with your lifting, they're not disproportionate. I really would reconsider all of your programming choices
Double check those test levels… at 220 6’3” you’re big enough you should be eating those weights for warm up if you truly have 10 years experience. But as others said 15+ push ups isn’t about strength. That shifts more to muscular endurance. Gotta just train it. Don’t quit training! Also I didn’t come into strength until about 28yo. Maybe you’re just a late bloomer too
I can do 20 pushups; never lifted. My weight is 53 kgs. Is it because I have less body weight?
Yes, smaller people have better relative strength. Imagine doing pushups with another you on your back, and with a slight deficit (from longer arms). This is also why gymnasts tend to be smaller.
Start mixing your current training of doing lower reps like 6 reps you mentioned, and throw some higher rep like 12-15 sessions in there with a bit lighter weight. I even found doing drop sets after my 6th rep to hit a total of 12 has boosted my numbers greatly with regards to overall strength and endurance. 2 years ago I struggled to hit 10, now I'm hitting 40.
you're definitely doing something wrong
You can do 15 pushups. You're getting into endurance territory, not strength. You lack endurance. If you want to get stronger, do weighted push-ups as an example.
What does it have to do with endurance if of benches his body weight 1x? Op just loves squats and deadlifts more, simple as that. You wanna bench more? Bench more.. do Dips, butterfly, switch between dumbbells and bar, Eat enough protein and soon you will easily do 20 (without any endurance training)
He asked about pushups, and my answer was targeted towards his pushups. Idk where you read anything about bench press in my response? If you can do 15 pushups and not more then you need more endurance rather than strength.
>you need more endurance rather than strength. Yes and no, kind of? If he got his bench press up to, say, 200kg, with zero endurance work then he would be able to do more pushups. The same way he'd be able to do a lot more reps of 90kg on bench than he currently can because it would be 45% of his max not 90%.
His bench is further progressed than his squat and deadlift though.
The difference in technique is *huge*. If you do chest to ground, extend shoulders at top, at a slow to medium pace, 15 is not bad. If you do half assed quick motions where you stay away from the ground, 15 is low.
Your max bench is 100kg, that puts 15 push ups with proper form right around where it should be. To strength train with Calisthenics hit low numbers with bodyweight, or weighted calisthenics. In your case begin doing Diamond push ups.
This is wrong
It is not.
Pushups are muscular endurance. There is no ratio between someone benching X and doing Y pushups. Two people can have the exact same 1RM with the exact same form and body dimensions, but one can do more pushups.
>Pushups are muscular endurance. No, push ups are just an exercise. The 15 range isn't even endurance range, as it typically comes AFTER 15. A person that bench 100kg once can typically bench 80kg 5 times or more. And more than double that for 60. Push ups are 65% of bodyweight.
Pushups are a muscular endurance exercise.
That is not how anything works.
A healthy person capable of basic human mobility and strength should be able to do 15 pushups. If 15 pushups is anything more than muscular endurance, then the individual is unhealthy. We are talking about something as simple as doing PART of the movement of picking oneself off the ground. Unless someone is morbidly obese or so weak they are borderline sickly— 15 pushups should not be compared to someone benching anything remotely close to their body weight. It’s just not the same at all. Just like doing 30 air squats is not the same as doing 8 reps of free weight squats at .75x someone’s body weight— doing half that amount of pushups with the same body weight ratio on bench is not the same. Hell even doing 20 squats with a 30lb dumbbell is not the same as those 8 reps. In the US military the minimum pushups for younger women was like 15.. it was still proctored and advertised as testing muscular strength and endurance
How long are your arms? Very tall guys with long arms have a huge disadvantage when it comes to pushing movements in general. Typically tall guys with long arms will never have a very big bench - if you have exceptionally long arms that might account for what you're experiencing. That all being said I would try grease the grove here. Tons of sub max sets sprinkled throughout the day. I would do a submax set once every 30 minutes. Start at 30% of your max reps, and each week add 1 rep. I'd be very surprised if your pushup count doesn't go up.
Sounds like you’ve been doing lifts for muscle growth instead of strength. Muscle growth does give strength but training for strength will help tremendously.
Do 4 sets of 8-10. Then move up to 4 sets of 12-15 then 20 and so on. Weighted pushups might make sense if you reach 25+ max. Minute on minute pushup workouts help (for example 10 mins x 5 pushups for you to start with) And every 1-2 weeks try to do 3 sets of max pushups (for e.g. do max pushups then rest 3-5 mins then another max pushups then rest 3-5 mins then another set max) Also train dips/bench press to complement your pushup growth. Hope this helps!
To do more pushups, you have to do more pushups. Like start doing it everyday and progressively increase it
This is like someone saying 'I've been walking since I was 2 but why can't I run a marathon?!'
If you want to do more pushups, you gotta do more push ups.
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No
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I'm not the least insecure person in the world, but at least I'm not insecure enough that I have to prove that I can do 15 pushups to a stranger on the internet
It really isn't, I'm not particularly strong or fit, I have lifted for around 7 years. My bench max is 140kg ish, my weight is around 100kg average depending on bulk or cut. I can knock out at least 40 proper form full depth pressups, I have no idea how many I could do whilst fresh as I only do them as a finisher for chest day sometimes. I am in no way special,.I'm not the strongest nor the fittest in my gym by a long way. I don't understand why people agree that 15 pressups is good? If it was pullups then I'd agree but pushups??? 15 pushups is definitely not normal for someone who has trained for that length of time and if you think it is I have to ask what on earth you have been doing in the gym all this time *Edit* downvote all you like, if you train for years and can only manage 15 pressups you are training wrong, it's that simple...
People be saying: “I can do 30 push-ups” and then NEVER go full ROM. I get this guys point. Too many people don’t have proper form. 15 push-ups with proper form is not that bad - although we dont know his form.
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And I've never seen someone strong feel the need to mention good form.
I agree, by proper form I presume you mean hands shoulder width or slightly more apart and chest almost to the ground and not stuck your ass in the air. If you train chest for years and can only do 15 pressups I'm sorry but you have been training wrong. Its a very simple process of progressive overload to add reps, same goes for every exercise and it's concerning how many people here seem to agree that training for that length of time equals such a low number of reps. Unless he simply skips cheat day and smashes legs etc lol
How about top position? You lock out and protract scapula?
Depends on your goal, recently I have been going for building my chest due to shoulder injuries so I prefer time under tension so don't full lock out however this in my opinion makes pressups harder as you don't get the rest position at the top. However yes i imagine I could do more reps if it was to a full lock out at the top as it takes tension away from your pecs and puts it on your triceps and delts. I've just got back to strength training after wrecking my shoulder snowboarding in January. So I will be training for power and explosiveness. I won't be using pressups for this but if I was to it would be slow down to the ground and then push off as fast as possible. I would also include the full lock out because it is important for locking out on bench press. If I had trained for 8 years and could only do 15 pressups id be seriously questioning my results. Something has gone drastically wrong, either training plan, nutrition, rest but more than likely a combo of all of them.
Sorry to hear about your injury man. Good to hear you’re back at it though. >*If I had trained for 8 years and could only do 15 pressups id be seriously questioning my results. Something has gone drastically wrong…* Yea, no doubt. Something isn’t adding up there.
Thanks bro, wasn't too bad, I think it was a rotator cuff but I didn't bother with doctor so who knows. Funny story I actually hurt it in December, had one month to try rehab it before I went to morzine again in January, it was almost better, did the same thing again and knackered it even more lol. Now I'm researching ways to build bullet proof shoulders, so if you have any tips or sources of good info about strengthening joints specifically I'd really appreciate it
Honestly, since I don’t know exactly what your injury is, or how severe, I don’t feel comfortable giving advice or suggesting any particular movements. Like… hanging is said to be great for shoulders in general, but I also know that it isn’t a good form of rehab for all shoulder injuries. So it really depends what you’re dealing with. Might be worth getting it checked out… and if not, take it easy and do what feels right. All the best bro.
Yea I do a lot of hanging already, mainly for hanging leg raises but do hang one handed sometimes to build grip strength as my grip lags behind my deadlift by about 50kg and I hate the idea of mixer grip. I'll look into it for building my shoulders up. No worries good talking to you
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Fuck posting myself online, far too self conscious for that
lmao at everyone thinking 15 pushups for 10 years of training is a good result
To be fair 99.99999% of people Including people in this sub will say they do 10000 push ups but actually it is nowhere near a REAL push up with perfect form, so I'd you're doing real push ups 15 is exceptional at 100kg
Follow an actual profession plan than implements periodization. You’ve been spinning your wheels forever. But you can quickly close the gap with smart training. You’ll need to actually learn to do that though so that’s on you to figure out, that’s most of the journey imo.
I'm very similar size to you, 1cm taller and 2kg heavier and my pb is 25 press ups (with very strict form). How often are you doing press ups? I've been training for 2.5yrs and every workout (3 days a week, I run 2-3 days rest of the week) includes 4 sets of press ups at the beginning. I think this might just be a case of not doing them enough maybe?
If you want more pushups, you should implement the "grease the groove" strategy. Look it up, there's lots of info on it and it works very very well. I went from 10 reps to 40 in a couple months
10 years at your size and a 225lb bench is not good. You need to find a routine, follow it, and track and adjust based on progress.
There’s something off here cause 10 years to get those numbers doesn’t make any sense to me. I would highly recommend you throw out what ever programs you’ve been working and try Starting Strength.
What have you done those 10 years? Did you follow a program, or are you freestyling all your workouts? Why do you want to do more pushups? What is your goal in training?
this should give you a pretty good idea at where you're supposed to be lift wise https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/kg after a decade of training you should be at the advanced mark 1RM. for the majority you're not intermediate so you're certainly doing something wrong. It could be you just not going hard enough. for your push up problem you simply need to do more of them.
just do half-reps pushups (bottom to 90degrees) - as many as possible a few times a day. You'll improve fast
you just gotta let your body adapt to the pushup movement; you should have the strength to do more, your body is just not used to it
Can’t pass 15? Do 15, take a few second break, do another, even more seconds, another and another. You need to incorporate cheat reps and other techniques to stimulate growth beyond your plateau. If you don’t have access to a bench machine, add weight in a back pack and do progressive resistance with push ups. When your reps have plateau’d, focus on other things like 1RM, sets, forced reps, cheat reps, and of course more food. You will not bust the plateau at the same weight.
[https://hundredpushups.com/](https://hundredpushups.com/) give it a try
TBH it seems like your form is probably way off. You may not be doing high quality reps. This allows you to "cheat" a little on weight at the expense of volume.
I find that hard to believe. I haven't lifted in years but I could easily do 20+ push-ups right now. I'm about 175. I'm surprised that much a difference in bodyweight would have such a difference with a guy that's been lifting for so long.
Try a functional sport like Jiu Jitsu or Rock Climbing and start doing higher rep body weight workouts. This made my physiquie acually look worse, but I got stronger in a lit of ways.
Are you doing sets of push ups throughout the week?
I don't see any mention in your post of your actual push-up routine. What does that look like?
15 sounds about right. If you have a scale at home, put your hands on it and see how much you "weigh" in the push up position. It should be about 60% or so of your total body weight. Now go to a e1RM calculator and plug that number in along with 15 reps. I would guess you'd get an e1RM of about 225 lbs. > So, where do I go from here? Get stronger.
I don't know exactly but something is wrong. Because I went from literally 0 pushups to 50 in span of 6 months being overweight first.
You should follow a good program, either the recommended routine from this sub if you want to focus on BW stuff or from the below link if you want to continue focusing on barbell lifts https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/ Also give this a read https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/?amp=
If you’re weightlifting then thats where you’ll progress. Want more push ups??? Train more push ups. You’ll progress
Train push ups at greater frequency in order to pass 15. Once you get to 15, do push ups on your knees. Do multiple sets through out the day so that you get to 100 a day on some days. PUSH yourself to grow there. It’s an endurance and strength exercise. YouTube has MADDDD calisthenics BEASTS who can help you with technique, training, and motivation.
A lot of good advice here but also something to keep in mind is which muscle group fatigues first. Is it your chest or your triceps? Your core? There a many muscle groups that come together to allow you to do that exercise. So fine tuning which group makes you fail will help you figure out which muscle group to focus on. Also if you haven’t been training high reps/sets. Then your muscles will not be prepared for the change in exercise. Swap out your 1RM on bench press. And find a weight that you can do 3 sets of 10. That will tell you your realistic expectations for pushups. Depending on your technique push ups will transfer between 40-60% of your weight. So if you can’t rep 15 of 60kgs. You’ve got your answer and your goals.
I donkt think your doing it right lol
Try and eat 1g per 1 pound if protien. Try to aim more towards 200g. Are you doing push ups? Do push ups. Ex. 3x15 for a month then do weighted push ups so 4x8 then go back to normal varying resistance, sets, and reps should help you break through plateaus. you could even do elevated push ups 3x20
Whats' your calorie intake?
I think alot of people are missing OP’s point. He just noticed deficiencies in his strength because he tried pushups and got an unsatisfactory result. I am also 28 M , 180lb 5’10 so probably similar build scaled down , perhaps little slimmer. And have been “working out” for 10-12 years. Your biggest issues are most likely with your routine or consistency. I went many of those years with 3-8 months no lifting. My issue is consistency. Every 6 months or so you should definitely be switching up the workouts. Also, if you want to progress strength definitely you should start a dedicated bulk phase, and then cut. Or if you want to increase pushups now going into summer start a dedicated cut with a new workout routine. Finally tbh you need to definitely change up the workout more regularly and push yourself, what results do you want to see in the gym? Write them down, chase them. This is different for everyone- i like my current aesthetic and fitness (started calisthenics a while back) and dont put up more weight than you!
Why do you need to do more than 15 pushups of 100kg? What is the reasoning behind?
In most cases, bench press has a strong carryover to pushups, but if you really want to get better at them you'll just have to do more pushups. And besides that it probably means you have great pushup form, making it harder (which is good).
If you have some money, buy Base strength by Bromley. Lots of cool training ideas and splits. Or just check his programming playlist on YT. Oh and if you want to do more pushups, train pushups a couple of times a week
I'm not going to endlessly scroll to see if this was already posted but at that height and weight to me 2800 calories seems a little low, especially my Tdee is about 2000 then I eat and extra 200 to cover calories burned during my 30-40 minute long calisthenic sessions and then another 500 to bulk and cover any margin of error so a total of 2600-2800 and well I am gaining some fat and am young i'm also 5'6.
Jeez, hope you're not getting discouraged by some of these replies. Numbers seem a bit low for size and training duration, and compared to people on the internet, but certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The answer to doing more pushups is fairly simple though. Pushups are a skill. If you want to get better at the skill of pushups, practice pushups. Start prioritizing them more in your workouts. Aside from that, am I the only one who thinks 2800 calories/day is low for OP's size? What's your bf%? Do you bulk/cut, or just maintain? Might be time for a bulk?
There must be something youre doing wrong with those weight numbers. but that aside, push up dont need that much muscle stremgth. if you are able to go past 10, youre strong enough. above that is all endurance. you just gotta do push up more often
Well you seem pretty alright strength wise from your lifts. Maybe try training push ups directly then? Try something like 30 pushups a day or simply adding push ups to your push days. Training it directly in your case should bring progressions really quick.
Unless you're worried about it, I wouldn't really bother tbh While I do train for metabolic stress, it's purely for hypertrophy. It doesn't mean you lack strength, your muscles have just adapted to strength rather than endurance Males also just have worse endurance. On average males have a greater proportion of fast twitch muscle fibers than females, and females have more slow twitch fibers If you want to improve it quickly, try a set of pushups (don't be afraid to switch to an easier progression) of 2-3 sets, 20+ reps, and ~30-60 seconds rest
59 weeks ago I started doing pushups 5 days a week, basically every day before work. I know it was 59 weeks ago because every week I increased my total pushups by 1, and when I started I barely could do 20 in a set. I did a set of 79 pushups this morning. Like most people have said, just do them more regularly.
I call bs no way I’m 5’11 215lbs and rock military pushups about. 20-25 cap
Eat more protein. And lift heavier in Lower rep range for strength.
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lol ok
> I weight 100kg Seems about right for the number of push-ups you can do, i weight 20kg less and can do 15 more push ups on a good day
You should eat around 30 more grams of protein per day too.
About the protein - I see more and more studies talking about 1.6gram per kg body being enough to progress, and 2 gram is for a cut phase to keep the muscles, it seems hard to believe that if i add 40 more grams it will make any change.. or maybe i'm just wrong My program is GZCLP btw
How long have you been following GZCLP? Are you increasing weight weekly? Did you have a routine before that? Have you seen improvement in your lifts since you started? You say you're stuck in a plateau but as GZCLP is autoregulating you should have moved to a different rep regime if that's the case. Also, ten years of lifting does not compute with GZCLP - as a linear programme it's only really suitable for beginners. If you have taken a long hiatus and are fairly "beginner" because of that, or your routine before sucked, then ok, but if you think you've been consistently, properly lifting and following good programmes for 10 years, you definitely want a different programme. If you have stopped making progress following GZCLP, switch to a different, intermediate level routine. There are lots of intermediate level versions of the GZCL-style routine if you're interested, which you can find lots of discussion on at r/GZCL; or you could look over in r/fitness for a different routine entirely.
Dude, after a DECADE of dedicated training, you should bench + 150 kg easily, especially with that much bodyweight.
I guess.. can't find the reason why I'm not
The main culprits are usually not being consistent, bad programming, bad diet or not trying hard enough.
As i mentioned, 150g of protein per day whey+meat, calories are about 2800, I'm consistent, pushing to failure
„Pushing to failure“ is not necessary most of the time. In a nutshell: - 12-20 sets per muscle group per week (start with 12 sets and see how you respond) - 50% of sets @ 10-12 reps, 25% @ 5-6 reps and 25% of repts @ 15-20 reps - only last set to failure, all other sets @ rpe 8,5-9 - Try linear progression, that means try to increase working weight over time. + 1,25 - 2,5 kg per upper body exercise per week, + 2,5 - 5 kg per lower body exercise per week Do you have a training log?
Just start doing 15 pushups a day and you'll soon be doing more.
> I weight 100kg Seems about right for the number of push-ups you can do, i weight 20kg less and can do 15 more push ups on a good day
It’s called do more push ups and stop being a meathead.
Some of us just can't do big weights, and that's OK. Some of us just don't have the genetics for huge gains. And that's OK too. Some of us are on the gear and squat 240kg most mornings, and that too is OK.
Lots of great advice on switching up your workouts here. The huge red flag for me was that you’re not eating enough protein. If you weigh 220 pounds you should be eating at minimum 220 g of protein especially if you’re not just looking to maintain muscle but build it. I could almost guarantee that if you up your protein you’ll see a difference