Some people wonder “If I just do a ton of push-ups, like a thousand, will that be all the exercise I’ll ever need?” I mean it’s not the most comprehensive fitness regimen, but it’ll definitely be beneficial. You might say, “If I pick a pretty good-sized number like say, 200, what’s the best way to do it?” I know I can’t do 200 push-ups in a row, should I try and do 4 sets of 50? Should I do a hundred in the morning and a hundred in the evening? What’s the best way to do it? Well, I have gone through phases of doing lots of push-ups, and I think I found some great ways to do it.
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.
There are some other techniques for hitting this number, each with specific benefits. Read on and I’ll explain a few after we cover a few points.
Why 200?
Did you ever see the movie Taxi Driver? “I will do 50 pushups and 50 pull ups everyday.” Then the next scene he’s, well, kind of ripped? Did you ever wonder if 50 pushups would be enough? I don’t think it would be. But even with far greater numbers I believe that there is a limit to their effectiveness. Based on my experience, I feel that anything over 200 push-ups is, not pointless – but there will definitely be diminishing returns.
Most of benefits that you will get from push-ups, will be realized once you get to the 200 a day mark. You might think a hundred would be sufficent, and that’s a great place to start if you’re new to push-ups. But if you’re in pretty decent shape and you can do 50 without stopping surely just doing that twice a day isn’t really enough to maximize gains. Whereas, 20 sets of 10, or 10 sets of 20 will be a decent workout no matter how good of shape you’re in.
You should not be going to failure.
You also should never be going to failure. If you’re reaching the point of failure on these sets you should be starting at a lower number per minute. A good way to figure out where to start would be to take about 20% of the number you can do in one set to failure. If you can do 100 non-stop pushups, do 20 per minute. If your non-stop max is 20 push-ups, perform 4 pushups per minute, etc.
One of the great things about not training to failure is that you won’t really get sore unless you’re not used to training at all. Even then the soreness will only happened after the first few workouts. Another good thing about not training to failure is that you don’t need so long to recover for your next set. This allows for sustained medium intensity through the whole session.
But I want to boast about doing 1000+ a day!
Some guys just want to be able to say ”Hey man, I did a thousand push-ups today, what have you done?” So, they want to be able to do as many push-ups as they can within a given time frame. For bragging rights.
But here’s a secret – nobody cares except you.
If you’re just a maniac or you want to be able to boast about the insane number of pushups that you do, feel free to do 1000, 2000, heck 5000 pushups a day if you can handle it! Do them all day long! It just seems to reason that once you get into the thousands, you really are putting yourself in more of an aerobic realm. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but if that’s what you want to do, there’s probably better ways to get your cardio in. (Like speed bag training).
What if I can only do a few push-ups?
On the flip side, some people are not able to do 20 pushups, or even 10. If this applies to you you can still use this approach. Just start by performing a number that you are comfortable with, be it 2, or 5, or whatever. You can then just stretch it out over a much longer period of time. You will find that you are able to do more at a time as you train over the next weeks.
Keeping your heart rate elevated and extending the session will have a lot of positive benefits. Your metabolism will certainly get a healthy boost, and you will definitely gain a little muscle. There’s some pretty big guys out there who claim to only do push-ups. Each time you do push up with good form you are lifting about 75% of your body weight. So, if you weight 200 pounds, you basically bench pressing 150 lb per rep, with some core stabilization added. The heavier you are, therefore, the more effort will be required to perform push ups.
Will I look more buff?
Your chest, shoulders, and triceps will definitely increase in size if you’re not used to training. By the time you’ve been doing 200 a day for a few weeks there will be some serious improvement in your physique. The military are well known for making new recruits do push-ups, as well as pull ups and a lot of running at boot camp. Needless to say, a lot of those guys are seriously jacked by the time they have finished basic training.
There are some famous fitness buffs and athletes who claim to have never really needed to train with weights. In the USA, some of the most famous examples are Bo Jackson, and Herschel Walker. Both of these gentlemen did a very large number of pushups and other body weight exercises and were not only amazing football players, but also excelled in other sports too. They both definitely had some size too!
Failure times X.
Another slightly more strenuous way of doing it is to do as many as you can for one minute, (close, but not quite to failure), rest a minute, repeat. You can then keep going either for a set amount of time, or until you hit a designated number of your choice. Feel free to play around with the rest times, anywhere up to 3 minutes is probably fine but will obviously lead to a longer training duration.
You will find that this approach is much more difficult than the steady burn of doing 10 or 15 per minute. If you’re in pretty good shape, or at least pretty good at doing push ups, you’ll probably crank out at least 50 the first minute. After that, the number will probably drop dramatically in the subsequent minutes/sets.
20 to 5.
Another way to hit 200 quickly is to do 16 sets starting at 20 reps, then 19, 18, 17… all the way down to 5. This adds up to 200. It is a reverse “ladder.” Obviously you can start at 5 and work up to 20 reps for the last set, which will allow for a better warm-up, but this will be more difficult to complete. Either way, I would keep the rest periods to 1 minute maximum. If you need longer than that, you should probably either do a shorter ladder, i.e. 1-10 (which adds up to 55 by the way), or just do the PPM (push-ups per minute) method.
How can I modify my pushups?
If you do push-ups with the wider hand stance, the emphasis will be more on the pectoral muscles. With a shoulder-width stance, the triceps and shoulders will bear the brunt of the work. It is a good idea to switch them up, or use a slightly wider than shoulder-width hand stance. Occasionally, even try super-wide with your hands facing outward for a great bicep workout.
Placing your hands on top of some books or blocks of some kind will extend the range of motion of the exercise and make it more difficult. So will using clenched fists instead of flat palms. You can elevate your feet, or use resistance bands to add difficulty also.
If pushups get too easy or you just want to try something else that that is perhaps a more challenging bodyweight movement, you can try parallel bar dips. These are more difficult, and more strenuous on the upper body but involve the core very little.
Conclusion.
Push ups per minute is a great way to perform a very large number of pushups in a single session, with gradually increasing intensity. Most guys will be able to do 10 a minute, for 20 minutes. It’s the simplest and easiest way I know to get the 200 pushups and still get a workout in but not ever go to failure.
Push-ups are an awesome exercise. You don’t need any equipment, and they work most of your upper body as well as some slight involvement from the core and legs. Ever popular amongst many types of athletes, push-ups can be performed anywhere and will definitely help your conditioning.
Performing push ups regularly will give you a ton of benefits. Especially if you are hitting 200 a day. Your shoulders, chest, and arms will get bigger and stronger. You will tone up and probably lose some fat. Try training using the pushups per minute technique and you will find that you can do way more pushups than you had realized.
