If you want to do just one thing to change your appearance, and increase your upper body muscle mass, pushups are a great choice. Working nearly all of the muscles of the arms, chest, shoulders, core, and even your back, pushups are almost a one-stop-shop for upper body development. So, how many pushups do you need to do each day to make a noticeable difference in your body?
If you want to make a big difference in as little time as possible, you can simply do 2 sets of pushups to absolute failure each day. Either both at the same time of day, with 3-4 mins rest in between, or split them up with one set in the a.m. and one in the p.m. It’s your choice. If you are a beginner, start with one set to failure per day, and you may need to rest a day in between at first if you’re experiencing soreness. As you begin to recover more quickly, you can add a second set daily. Be sure to squeeze out every single rep you can, and this way the level of output will be matched to your capabilities exactly. So, if you can only do 5 pushups at once, do 5. If you can do 55, do that. Training to failure is one of the best ways to get the most out of the least amount of sets.
Remember, there is no magic number of pushups that is sufficient for everyone, it will always be relative to your individual levels of strength, conditioning, health, age etc.
What if I don’t like training to failure? Are there other approaches? Let’s discuss.
How many pushups should I do if I don’t want to train to failure?
If you don’t want to train to failure, a lower intensity alternative is to do a higher number of low-rep sets.
The method I suggest for determining the exact number of pushups that is appropriate for you is as follows: the first day, perform a set of pushups to failure. That is, do as many as you can until you can not do any more. Take this number, divide by 5, and this is the number of reps per set you should do. I would then suggest 10 sets of this number of reps. For example, if you can do 10 pushups max in one set, you should do 10 sets of 2 (with minimal rest) for a total of 20 pushups.
This method works great for creating a great pump and minimizing muscle soreness, allowing you to train daily.
The number of pushups that you will need to do each day to make a difference will vary depending on your current level of fitness. If you are a complete beginner, even just 5-10 will have a dramatic effect on your strength and propel you on the way to a better body. If you are already fit and active, but do not currently perform any resistance training, the best number of pushups to do will be the amount that will result in a slight feeling of tightness in the muscles the next day, but not much actual soreness. Of course, you will probably experience some soreness after the first few workouts, but this should subside quickly and shouldn’t be happening every day.
What will 20 pushups a day do?
For many adults, just doing 20 pushups a day will put you head and shoulders above someone who does no exercise. This small amount is a good start and will start to stimulate growth in the arms, shoulders, chest, back, and core. 20 pushups will never get you a world-class physique, but it’s a good start, and can be a good first goal for someone who is new to resistance exercises.
If you are a complete beginner, or if you haven’t exercised in a while, be sure to check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program to make sure that you are healthy enough to work out.
Will 50 pushups a day do anything?
50 pushups a day is a good baseline for most fairly active people. This is enough to allow for pretty decent upper body development and will certainly be a good benchmark to surpass on your way to a better body.
Keep pushing and try to get the number higher to see even better results.
What is the most push-ups I should do per day?
After a few months of training, the number of pushups that you can do will increase dramatically. Once you’ve worked your way up to being able to do a high number of pushups, say 50, 70, or even 100 reps in a single set, you are nearing the point of diminishing returns. In my experience, any more than 200 pushups per day is sort of redundant. Unless you want to get to a high total number simply for bragging rights, or in some sort of competition with a friend or training partner, there is really not much point in going beyond this.
If you wish to continue your development further, you’ll need to start looking for ways to increase the difficulty, or move on to weight training. Try using push-up bars, or resistance bands to increase the intensity and keep the results coming.
If you are competitive and want to go for the big numbers, check out this post on how to do 1000 pushups in an hour.
Will I get sore from pushups?
You will inevitably experience some delayed onset muscle soreness when you first start doing pushups, or any time you increase the number of reps you perform. Training to failure will also result in some soreness in most cases. Some soreness is not necessarily a bad thing, as it is a sign that you have stimulated the muscles resulting in microtears in the fibers – which will lead to muscle growth. However, if you wish to avoid or minimize soreness as much as possible, you will want to do the following:
Increase reps gradually. Although you should keep striving to add more pushups to your routine, don’t push it too hard. Instead of trying to make giant leaps, like going from 50 per day to 100 per day, gradually increase the number of reps. For instance, try adding 5 per day, each week. Over time, these gradual increases will add up and you’ll see the benefits.
Avoid training to failure. When you max-out by training to failure on an exercise, that is, squeezing out every possible pushup, you will tear the muscles down more severely. This will lead to soreness and increase your required recovery time.
Stretch after your workout, and on off days. When you stretch your muscles, you increase the blood flow in and out of the area. This allows for better oxygen and nutrient delivery and helps the muscles repair themselves more quickly.
Warmup properly. Be sure to do a few very low rep sets to get started before pushing yourself to failure to allow the blood to start to flow through the affected muscles beforehand and allow for better performance.
Keep sets small (low reps), and number of sets high. When you choose to do a higher number of sets with a lower rep count, you will decrease the risk of soreness by avoiding training to failure. Instead, you’ll achieve your goals via overall volume and by getting a good pump in the area.
What are the disadvantages of push ups?
While pushups are a fantastic exercise, you’ll need to do them correctly or they can cause a few problems. Most importantly, the elbows should be kept as close to your body as is comfortably possible. If your arms are flared out at 90 degrees, you can run the risk of shoulder impingement which can be quite painful and will not only hamper your progress, but will probably require medical attention.
Pushups are a very stable exercise and will not challenge the stabilizing muscles of the shoulders like using free weights will. Your hands are placed on the floor and your body is essentially locked-in to a specific range of motion. This is good for beginners but you’ll also want to do some exercise that will require you to stabilize the weight, like dumbbell bench presses.
Although pushups work the back to some extent, they are primarily a “pushing” exercise that focus on the chest, shoulders, and triceps. So without any direct back work, imbalances can develop over time. So be sure to do some pull-ups, rows, or other back and biceps exercises to counter the pushing nature of pushups and maintain balance in the shoulders and over your entire upper body.
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What Is The Best Way To Do 200 Pushups?
I call it PPM (Push-ups per minute). Place a clock or timer near you. You could watch a movie or TV show and have the timer running. Listen to music, whatever. Every minute, on the minute, do 10 push-ups as fast as you can, then rest and stretch for the rest of the minute. Continue this for 20 minutes. You will notice that at first this is really easy, but once you’ve got a few sets under your belt, it’ll start to take a little bit longer. As the sets take longer, your rest periods become shorter, providing less recuperation for the following set. Your heart rate will be elevated for the entire 20 minutes, and for a few minutes afterwards. Providing a workout with a steadily increasing difficulty from warm up to final set.
How Many Squats A Day Will Make A Difference?
While nearly any number of squats will make some difference, the higher the number you do, the greater the results. This carries true until you get to really high rep numbers, i.e. over 200 squats. If you are out of shape, even 10-20 squats per day will have a significant impact on the strength of your legs, back, and on your energy levels. It is difficult to overtrain with bodyweight squats, so do plenty of them. 100+ squats a day is a great level to be at. If you want more muscular legs, try to work your way up to at least 50 per day, every other day and you will not regret it!
