# Pushup Problem Errrrrr



## Jmacca (4 Apr 2004)

Ok I posted here a few months ago about me pushups problem and I will recap. 

At the point of last summer I could easily do about 40 standard pushups with very little strain, well when I decided the army is what I want I went to do them and for some reason it strained so much I couldnt do one, it was simply I pushed up but my arms couldnt support me it seemed. I was very shocked as it didnt seem right. That day I had been working out at out school gym with that chest press thing where you bring your arms in together using the machine    ( You know what I mean ). So I figured I had done something to my arms and bruised them using that causing the strain. 

After about 5 days I tried again and could do about 15 but could probably hit 20 if really trying. Still not as high as I would like. 

So March 12th ish this year I headed down to the gym to get a pass and pump some iron as some of you said something about working out. 

I did that and have gone about 4 times a week ( 2 days straight then one break then two days etc. ) since then til now and whenever I try to do pushups I simply cant, maybe like 1 or 2 then Im totally dead. 

I have no clue what is going on, I used the basic machines, I did no freeweights at all...

I wanna know what the frig is going on? I dont want to not get in because I cant do a pushups. 

I weigh about 150pounds even, im not what you would call built but I would think i could lift my weight easily. 

Ahh what should I do? I can workout fine, but I cant do pushups????


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## Da_man (4 Apr 2004)

the only way to be good at push ups is to do them.... a lot of them.

go at a speed of 25 per minute for a max of 40, 2 times a day.  that will help.


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## Jason Bourne (4 Apr 2004)

I had the same problem, doing pushups cold was easy I could bang off 30 or so but after doing some mild exersize or working out even just machines no free weights like you...yeah I could do maybe five. My arms felt like noodles which is scary because I‘d hate to have that happen on course.


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## The_Falcon (4 Apr 2004)

A few things, that machine you were using is more for adding mass to your chest not strength. If you are doing weight resistance training, get some knowledge first. Read some of the many books on the subject. Also if you are experiencing a sharp pain, when doing chest flys (the machine you were using), you may have torn a pec muscle, thus machines are notorius for those kinds of injuries.  If that is the case go see your Doc.  You should see him before you start anything anyways.


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## Jmacca (4 Apr 2004)

No pain at all when I work out, its a good workout and I dont do super weights. I do 45-60 on them with reps of 12-15......

Its just like Jason said, I can do a workout then when I do some pushups to see if my workout helped any its useless, its as if I weighed about 700 pounds and had the same size arms as my sister.......

When I dont work out say for like a week I can do them fine to like 20 or so. But when I work out so that I can do more I cant do them.

So what machines would you guys reccomend for me? I said when I went to the gym I wanted to increase pushups and strenght, and he said to do chest, tricep and shoulder workouts. 

Also I was reading on a site and it said if you have a hard time pushing off from your pushup then your chest is weak, if you have a hard time doing the transistion between up and down its your triceps and if your shaky and find it awkward its your shoulders. But I dont find a pain its just dead when I do them.


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## Jmacca (4 Apr 2004)

For all of you that want to know in helping my diagnostic here is the machines I use ( I will describe them as I dont know the name )

Ok the first one I do is the shoulder press, I know that name, then I do the chest press I think where you have the bar and you pull it down to your chest then back up, then bicep curls on very low weights as I am super weak there, then tricep pulldowns, then chest flys, then I do another chest machine that is sort of like a rowing motion, you push these two handles forward then back to a 90* angle then back out. 

Oh then I do one where I get a grip thingy where you put both your hands and pull, its called the something row.....I do at the moment have a tiny bruise I must have achieved on the lower end of my shoulder near the bicep and tricep.........That could do it but even if, I could do at least 3 pushups with one hand before so that cant be entirely to blame....

HELP HELP HELP


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## The_Falcon (4 Apr 2004)

Your muscles feel dead and useless, because they are.  When you lift weights, you get stronger and build muscular endurance, but if you try to do any push-ups right after a workout, and sometimes as long as 2 days later, you will not be able to do very much, because your muscle have not healed yet. For workouts and other info go to www.bodybuilding.com , but also read some books (my bible, "Arnold Schwarzenegger: The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding"), talk to knowledgeable sources like Personal Trainers and your gym teachers.


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## webster (4 Apr 2004)

My situation is kind of the same. I would do 3 sets of pushups one night.  40, 30, than 20 (normally straining to get to 20 on my 3rd set).  The next day I would do pushups again but would struggle with them and hardly able to do 30 on my first set. If I were to wait longer then a day I would be able to do my max amount of pushups again.
I have come to the conclusion that my muscles are just tired and still healing from the night before...maybe that's the same reason for you as well?


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## Jmacca (4 Apr 2004)

That makes sense, so should I hold off on the gym a bit? Change my schedule, I mean the whole reason I went was for results in pushups, situps and chinups and grip test which I all need.

So maybe I will do it so that on some days I only do running and legs, and others I do upper body stuff.....That would work eh?

Oh and thanks Falcon, you have been much help


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## alexk (5 Apr 2004)

yea myself i go to the gym one day its cardio the next upper body then lower body then a day off and start again. and Jmacca the one with the grippy thighs or somthing row its called seated row its realy good. and if your out there infanteer im traing to be a super jtf2 ninja pathfinder lol


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## md200 (5 Apr 2004)

Here is a link for some serious *** kicking PT.
www.navysealteams.com/Warning.htm

Also look into these books by Stewart Smith (ex Seal)
1.Maximum Fitness.
2.12 weeks to bud/S workout.

I have both and seen amazing results.You can pick them up at almost every Chapters store.

Also take a close look at your diet.If the diet isn‘t upto par it might hinder your workouts and also recovery time between workouts.


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## chrisp1j (5 Apr 2004)

It may not be the style of training that you are doing. Problems that I discovered on course were: 

A) People forget to breathe (this will severely limit your ability to do pushups)

B) People do not stretch before doing them (causing rapid muscle fatigue).

C) People do not warm up before doing them (doing other exercise first elevates your heart rate, making the pushups come a little easier)

D) People pysche themselves out. Don‘t let it. Evaluate your problem and prepare yourself mentally before attacking it.


Hope it helps, 

Potter.


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## md200 (5 Apr 2004)

Speaking of the right mindset.Instead of counting 1,2,3.......11,12 and so on try to count 1,2,3,4,5..5,4,3,2,1 and then repeat the sequence until failure.I find that since im not counting to high numbers and knowing im close to failure its easier to bang out an extra 10-12 pushups before failure.Its just a little trick i read about and thought i would pass it on.


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## Lajeunesse (5 Apr 2004)

Yes that would help the mask the mind of the upcoming failure but those of you that just knock them off until you can no longer support you body wieght in that poistion (pushup) its kinda useless especiallyu for me becuase I like to know how many i‘m doing so I know if i‘m improving or not plus it can be used as a motivational tool as well to know how many you can do and then the next day or so try doin an extra 5 or 10 then so on...Just a question here for those of you that like pushups how mny ppl can only like knock off a set of 40 or less before having top stop for like 1-2 mins then only bein able to do like maybey another 30 after that set.
just like Civilain does his.

but dont get me wrong i‘m knocking your technique its actually a good idea and I know a couple ppl that do it that way as well.


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## Haloed (5 Apr 2004)

When you train with just machines you don‘t work any supporting muscles. Free weights are always better.
You could also be overtraining. You should have a minimum of 48 hours of rest between workouts.

When you workout you are destroying muscle and in return your body responds by rebuilding it and making it stronger.

Try varying your grip on them. Having your hands really close together with your thumbs and index fingers touching uses mainly your triceps. A really wide grip uses your outer chest.

Go to:  http://forums.menshealth.com/forum.jsp?forum=1 

They will be able to help you alot more.

I just re-read your post



> I did that and have gone about 4 times a week ( 2 days straight then one break then two days etc. ) since then til now and whenever I try to do pushups I simply cant, maybe like 1 or 2 then Im totally dead.


Thats overtraining. Take a week off and see how many you can do.


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## Garry (5 Apr 2004)

If you‘re training for strictly Military exercises like pushups, situps, and ch9n ups, then why aren‘t you doing push ups, sit ups, and chin ups?

I positively guarentee you that if you did push ups and sit ups first thing every morning and last thing every night, you‘ll be vbery good at them. You‘ll also get fit. 

Put a chin bar outside your door, and everytime you go past it, blet out a few chin ups.

After awhile you‘ll get good at those, too.

If you‘re hitting the weight room for a reason, great. If you‘re doing it to excell at the military pt entrance tests, then you‘re wasting your time.

Run every day, chin when you poass the bar, and do sit ups and push ups twice a day, morning and night.

You‘ll be fine.


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## GrahamD (5 Apr 2004)

Just a thought, but if you are unable to do even 3 or 4 pushups a day after a chest workout, then you are going to be in serious trouble when you get to basic training.

I understand that it can be nearly impossible to do any pushups immediately following a chest workout, I sometimes try to do a few while I‘m wrapping up a workout and if I can do any, I‘ll go back to the bench press and finish fatiguing my muscles until I can‘t lift any more.
However, an hour later, when the pump is faded I can still do about 90% of my pushup max.
It feels way more uncomfortable than usual, but it can still be done.

My suggestion would be to get off the machines and get onto the free weights.
Benchpressing 200lbs on a machine is nowhere near benching 200 with a barbell, and in turn benching 200 with a barbell is DEFINATELY not benching 200 with dumbbells.
Then, when you get aquainted with the exercises available to you in the world of free weights, you‘ll need to split up your workouts. I don‘t know for sure, but it sounds like you may be going to the gym and working out your chest/arms/shoulders all in one session.
While some people do split a workout between 2 muscle groups, it typically takes them a minimum of 1.5 hours to get all their workout done.  Add cardio to that, and you‘re at a minimum of 2 hours of working out.

So (IMO) better to work 1 muscle group per day, or 2 per day if you do one in the morning and 1 at night and eat a lot of protein after both.
Going into the gym and doing 2 exercises per muscle group is not going to help you develop strength very well, or very fast.  You should be doing an absolute minimum of 4 different exercises per muscle group with a minimum of 3 sets of each preferably 4.
(Example: For your chest, to cover the basics of a complete chest workout you should do the benchpress, the incline press, decline press, and some fly‘s [at different levels of incline from sitting up to lying down and a stop or two in between] and there should be a minimum of 2 FULL days off in between workouts for each muscle group.)

I‘m currently on a five day split, which means 4 days between each muscle group workout, and I‘m making good progress even though there is much more stiffness the day after than when I was on a 3 day split.
When I was doing 3 day splits, I never felt like I had the time to do any cardio, but by keeping my workout under an hour,  I have way more time now.

I know everyone has their 2cents about improving your pushups, but I would argue that someone who struggles to do even a couple for a day after doing some machine presses really needs to build some muscle, before they worry about conditioning it.
I guarantee that if you buy some protein (supplement, or lots of tuna and egss) set up a workout schedual (preferably made by a trainer) that you stick to and start doing free weights with good form, you will see remarkable difference in as little as 4 weeks.
  Lots of people who start working out say they feel a difference after as little as 2 weeks, but thats just the chemical changes taking place in your body. Working out begins to make you feel really good about yourself, and it even becomes a little addictive once you get into it.

I‘ve heard it said many times that a basic fitness standard is to be able to benchpress your own weight.  Make that your goal to bench press 150, and pushups will not be a concern anymore.

1 more thing, I‘d advise against targeting only those muscles needed for doing pushups.
I‘d look into doing more of a whole body routine.  When you get to a more serious level of weight training then "maintaining" certain muscle groups while you target others and go really heavy on them is a fairly common thing, but for someone just starting out its totally unneccessary IMO.
You see guys who get carried away with the "impressive" muscle groups and don‘t focus on anything else.  They typically have huge biceps, pec‘s and sometimes shoulders, but have extremely scrawny legs, and a totally undefined back.
Don‘t be one of those guys.

Anway, good luck with your progress whichever way you go about it.


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## FutureTroopie (5 Apr 2004)

> Originally posted by md200:
> [qb] Speaking of the right mindset.Instead of counting 1,2,3.......11,12 and so on try to count 1,2,3,4,5..5,4,3,2,1 and then repeat the sequence until failure.I find that since im not counting to high numbers and knowing im close to failure its easier to bang out an extra 10-12 pushups before failure.Its just a little trick i read about and thought i would pass it on. [/qb]


Cool, I‘m going to have to try that tonight.

I‘m pretty much in the same boat training wise. My schedule goes as such
Sunday-Intensive stetching, running, pushups and situps
Monday-Morning run, pushups, *** relaxation(school), then to the gym where I work chest and triceps, night run
Tuesday-Morning run, pushups, *** relaxation, gym where I do biceps, shoulders, abs and back, night run
Wensday-Morning run, pushups,*** relaxation, rest day
Thursday-*** relaxation, gym where I do legs, abs
Friday-Morning run, pushups, *** relaxation
Saturday-rest day

All of this mixed with steady high protein diet. It‘s working well for me and I still have 5 months before I see basic(my educated guess, I just dont see myself getting to see basic in the summer)...


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## FutureTroopie (5 Apr 2004)

oopps


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## Jmacca (5 Apr 2004)

OK, so sorry to stray away from your comments, but what exactly should I do at this moment? The last I went to the gym was Sunday for 2 hours so I got done at about 4PM.....

I just tried doing some and got 10 and died. So it got better then 3

But I dont understand how I can LOSE performance by working out? THATS WHY I WENT!!

So should I hold off of the gym for like a week in upper body stuff? 

The whole strain comes from the side of the upper arm....Like I just cant support the motion if you know what I mean.....I get shaky and more a less cant pull up again.....Im going to try some of this protein stuff from that GMC health store....

What I wanna know is, straight up what do I need to do to get my pushups back and be able to do more.....Im not fat, Im 12.1% bodyfat.....im 5"9, 150 pounds and I gained 7 pounds after going to the gym for 2.5 weeks for some reason....

I dont care what it takes, Ill sit there all day doing whatever just give me the exercise that does it plllease


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## FutureTroopie (5 Apr 2004)

Sounds like you dont work your triceps enough if thats where the strain is coming from. Why are you going to the gym for 2 hours??? Unless 45 minutes of that is running, I dont understand why people think the longer the workout the better, its about intensity and keeping your heart rate up.

Only you know when your back to full strength, if taking a week off helps bring you to full strength then take a week off. If it only takes 3 days then only take 3 days.

You gained weight because muscle weighs more then fat....


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## CDNBlackhawk (5 Apr 2004)

Ok here is my two cents. 
I have been training for 7 years and consider my self an Avid Bodybuilder so this is what i think.

You are most likely over training you muscles. spending 2 hours in the gym is probably too much time for you. Regardless you should not be loosing that much performance, maybe you should consider seeing your docter to find out if you are "ill".

also another thing to consider is how often you are working out. you should only be working each muscle group once per week, anything more then that is probably over training and you are probaly loosing more then gaining.

Most people think they are working out correctly, when in fact they arnt. Most people Over train and do not lift properly.

Again if you are loosing that much performance as you say you are, i would go see your doctor. you could be sick and dont even know it.


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## Jmacca (5 Apr 2004)

Ah sick? In what way would you think?

Ill take a few days off and see what happens and start breaking everything up into body workouts...I just did what the gym trainer told me to do, I said I wanted to train my whole body more a less and he told me what to do, I just came down.


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## CDNBlackhawk (5 Apr 2004)

heck if i know if you are sick or not, I was just saying its a possibility because its not normal to lose that much strength.

another thing i forgot to mention is "nutrition" if your body isnt getting its Nutritional needs that can play in as a factor for decreased strength or performace.


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## Berry2004 (6 Apr 2004)

I would recommend reading up on it. It will help you out alot, and eat.....eating is a huge factor, make sure your getting enough protein! Free weights help you out to...the machines have a fixed mouvement plaine.....while the free weights don‘t so they use all the stabilty muscles to keep it in that plaine(hope it wasn‘t to confusing, it‘s easier to explain on in life with some weights).  Here‘s my weekly routine, I work a different muscle group each time, and just do a bit of cardio to warm up on lifting days.

Monday -  Back 
Tuesday - Cardio
Wednesday -  Chest 
Thursdday - Cardio
Friday - Legs and Shoulders
Saturday - Off
Sunday - Cardio...swim sometimes instead of running


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## Jmacca (6 Apr 2004)

Ah thanks guys, today I just tried to do some quick and it felt alot more comforatable on my arms....It appears as if it were just a very bad strain of fatigue....I had been going to the gym for pretty much 3 weeks non stop so that could do it....Probably doing excess of 100 reps on each muscle each day.

My shoulder still feels really wobbaly though.....But Ill battle through it, Im going to take a week off  the weights and just do some runs and bikes and situps for now.....Hopefully its just a case of muscular stretching


Also, do you guys know of any good nutrient plans or protein plans I could buy? Another big thing is I dont drink milk for taste purposes not health or anything but I should probably take some calcium pills or something? Although that Ol OJ says I get 100% of the daily intake with one glass? So if I drink abouy 5 glasses a day I get 500%?


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## girlfiredup (6 Apr 2004)

As an alternative to cows milk, try Rice Milk.  It comes in different flavours too.  Vanilla, Chocolate and Plain.  You can find it in the health food section of any Loblaws.


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## rdschultz (6 Apr 2004)

Are you doing 100 reps on each machine?  Or 100 reps per muscle group.

If you‘re trying to build strength, you want generally low reps but high weight.  I‘ve found that I seem to get the best results doing 8-12 reps per set.   And regardless of your goals, at the end of a set you should always be at failure.  Which basically mean you should have to try like **** to squeeze the last rep out.  

As for nutrition.  Without milk, it isn‘t going to taste good, but you can mix protein shakes with juice and other stuff.  I suppose it depends on what you get though, and what you like.  Just keep in mind that milk is a decent source of both protein and vitamins, but I guess if you don‘t like it, you don‘t like it.  If you want a simple plan that works, get a good protein powder (whey) that works, and take a multi-vitamin.  Don‘t rely solely on the powder though, as there are plenty of good natural sources of protein.  Tuna, Eggs (or egg whites),  and any number of other sources.  Arnolds book (The modern encyclopedia of bodybuilding) has a whole chapter devoted to nutrition, as I recall.  See if your library has it, or get another book that covers the subject.

Another good tip is to ask around at health food stores who sell the stuff.  Remember that they‘re salespeople first, but they can provide useful tips.  Heck, if you‘ve got time, spend a day going around to different health stores to get different opinions.  Knowledge is power, as they say, and there‘s plenty of reading material available on this subject.


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## md200 (6 Apr 2004)

I would say that you should really up your protein intake,its the main nutrient in aiding the recovery and building of muscles.You should get anywhere from .5 to .75 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.Try to get a protein powder with atleast 20 grams a serving.

I think you have a case of over training.Especially when you say you‘ve gone to the gym for 3 weeks straight.Don‘t worry about it though when i starting weight training i over trained like a maniac and actually lost muscle and strength.

When you go back to the gym just try to concentrate on pushups,situps,chinups and running.As you get better at those exercises you muscle fatigue will be less and then you can throw some weight training in there a few times a week...

Just a few suggestions..

Mike


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