Is it good for me to do push-ups everyday?

[Anonymous]

I'm 17 and I want to be able to do more push-ups and get a bigger chest and bigger triceps. I use to do push-ups everyday (until failure) and my max was 40 push-ups. I stopped doing it because I was told that I was wearing out my muscles and that my chest needs to recover. It's been about 2 months since I've stopped and now my max is 30 (as of yesterday). Is it bad for me, as a skinny, but toned 121 pound guy, to be doing push-ups everyday or is it beneficial?

[Levin]

Honestly, I don't see the point in that. There's some subjectivity involved in all this, but doing the same exercise everyday is utterly pointless in my view.

Yes, your muscles need time to recover. Neurologically, ie for your nervous system to recover and to have good *feeling* into whichever part of your body you're working out (which is what I believe people should be striving for, rather than an arm that seems dead to them), personally, I don't think you need huge volume, ie the same exercise between 1.5-3 times a week, depending on certain factors.

My cousin does this sort of thing, and I just think it's stupid.
1. on the second day of doing an exercise, he can't do as many reps, which tells me that his body hasn't recovered.
2. Quality will invariably slip, one uses a worse posture, the wrong muscles, less of a range of motion, less time under tension. Again, body hasn't recovered sufficiently.
3. It's totally pointless to throw pushup after pushup out, rep after rep. What about progressions to make the exercise harder (leading to one armed pushups), with less reps?
4. What about other exercises? Pullups, squats, leg raises? If you just do nothing but a pushup, you're neglecting pulling exercises. And you're also neglecting your lower body. You want to train the antagonistic muscles, and your body in a balanced way.

So overall, it depends. You're young, you want to have fun. Us adults have to train a little more efficiently because we have a little less give in terms of energy and healing. If you just work out like that, then sure, more volume is fine. But I'm balancing it with other exercise commitments, so realistically, I can't work out too many times a week. And I don't think it's good for the body anyway. The joints and muscles need some time to recover.

[Levin]

See, you're young and firey. Train consistently and intelligently. And you'll get slowly and surely bigger. Yes, it's boring, and requires patience. But it's way more sustainable, and within no time at all you'll be proud of your progress!

[NearlyNapping]

It's fine. When I was in wrestling we did zillions of them every day. Sports science has come a long way since I was younger. There may be something to skipping a day. But if you aren't trying to reach absolute max, then the old way is fine.

Id' work back to 40, and then keep going for more. Do sets, not all at once. Try different styles also with your hands in different positions. Personally I like to do max range with things. Like at the top give that extra little shrug of the shoulders for the extra inch of extension. At the bottom go all the way down. If you can find something to lift you off the ground a little try that. Like use two stacks of books and extend at the bottom.

You should also be doing other things besides pushups. Work some other muscles and keep your body in balance. You don't want to work one set of muscles exclusively.

[JiminsHoe]

Yooooo.
So if you really want to get muscles its not just about how many you do, but its about endurance and how long you do it for, if you do it for a long period of time thats way more affective than doing 20 every hour for 24 hours (i'm not being serious with the 24 hour thing, thats just an example.)
Not only that, but getting protein will 100% help to really build that muscle. Try eating more meat and drinking more protein shakes. Also, although push ups are good, pull ups and weight lifting are just as good, if not better, so try getting those in too, maybe switch it up. And this is just a suggestion, but if you have muscular arms and the rest of you is average, it might look weird. maybe try doing ab/back/leg workouts too>

[Imafreespirit]

i don't see many issues with push ups really, i mean, your muscles do need rest but push ups are just a body weight exercise so I can't see a problem, I could be wrong tho, so don't quote me on that but if you do want to get bigger you are gonna need much more than just push ups, you need to mix it up, I don't know if there's much you can add just by using your bodyweight, it definitely helps but just to an extent, you'll hit a plateau pretty fast, so I would recommend trying weight training and get your nutrition on point, if you wanna gain muscle you need to be in a calorie surplus, figure out what your macros (carbs, protein, fat) should be, try to get close to those number and bum! you'll get your results man

[AdamThomas]

In order to build muscle you have to lift something heavier. If you can do 40 reps of an exercise it's too easy for you, it doesn't give enough resistance to build muscle size, only endurance.

I don't agree with those who say you NEED to go to the gym though to build a big chest, upper body etc. Look at the upper body of a gymnast. You can build a good body on calisthenics alone, the only part that is limited is legs because they're a lot stronger than your upper body and usually do need some kind of weight to have enough resistance.

Push ups can be made a lot harder. Can you do one arm chin ups? How about a planche? Those are hard exercises that most weight lifters aren't strong enough to do.

It's important to do other exercises to target the rest of the body too. It's no good having a good chest with a weak back. Not only does it look bad but it will. affect your posture in a negative way, leading to structural weakness and injury. So make sure to include plenty of chin ups in your plan. For the core, do planks. For legs, do one legged squats or if you can manage it, pistol squats. Maybe use a weight while you do those too. For the shoulders, kick your feet up against a wall and do handstand push ups. Do planches. Do front levers. All of those will build a high level of strength and muscle.

[Jan1ssary_]

Well.. doing push-up is good and its nice way to start. Thats how I started too.. with push-ups. I was doing like 40 - 50 push-ups when I was about 15, now its 80 and it becomes 100 when I have great performance.

However I don't support you to do push-ups everyday, Afterall your muscles must be recovered and ready for the other day. But if you go too hard on them then they won't improve that much. Don't do exercise at least 3 days in a week it will be much better for you. And try diffrent push-up techniques, common push-up technique will only improve your chests and shoulders, keep in mind to learn new techniques if u want for Triceps aswell.

[fsu19]

You're upping your muscular endurance but it's gonna be hard to get hypertrophy from pushups. You need to hit the gym and lift weights with around 6-10 reps per set. You doing pushups everyday is gonna just mean you'll have to do more and more pushups. If you can only do pushups, do them with a backpack with weight or something

[Onthesc]

Well I wouldn't have thought it would do you any harm at all as you are only using your own body weight for these exercises. I would build yourself up to a level you are
Comfortable with each day and stick to that. if you want to really get bigger (bulk up) then you
Will have to hit the weights and make sure you are eating right

[Asker]

Yeah I hit the gym too. This would be something on the side

[Ephemera1]

Let your muscles relax for at least 36hrs. You won't make any gains if you just work them everyday. How tall are you? 121lbs is ridiculously low, put on some meat.

[Asker]

I'm 5'8

[Phoenix98]

Don't do em everyday at the very least do them every other day so your chest has a chance to rest.

Also doing pushups alone is not going to get you a big chest you have to lift weights for that.

Source: Professional Trainer.

[AskNaz]

Don't necessarily need to lift weights.

You can build really good muscle with calisthenics alone.

[Phoenix98]

@AskNaz You can build a little muscle but if you want actual significant size you need to lift weights.

I know what I'm talking about, my career and field of study is fitness and working out among other things.

[AskNaz]

Lol well you're obviously not open minded and haven't actually explored or experienced enough different training styles

You can make significant muscle gains with calisthenics alone if you have proper techniques and good progressive resistance

Simply look into some guys who do calisthenics exclusively and you'll see some impressive gains

[Phoenix98]

@AskNaz *shakes head* no you can't and I have some of the worlds best people and fitness champions who can back me up on that.

Also what makes those guys bigger is their genetics, genetics are everything in our world.

[AskNaz]

Dude there's literally living proof that you can

You can't just dismiss this because you have little knowledge of it

[Sausagehoarder]

I think as long as your chest doesn't get sore and you at least take 1 day off a week then push ups every day is fine, you're young so your recovery time will be better. But is you feel any pain stop until it goes or you might make it worse.

[Sausagehoarder]

Also if you want a bigger chest you might need to do more than just press ups.

[Asker]

Yeah I go to the gym too. This would be something I would do on the side

[skier080]

Well I've done the same thing. I did about 40 max, and then stopped because I didn't see any change in my body. May just be me

[AngelDenna]

It can be both unhealthy and beneficial but don't take my word for it

[TwinFace]

Better get to it cause we live by the rule "no chest, no sex" 👌🏼

[Audi-A5]

Yeah it is. And stay in the push up position after you done your push up till you feel your arms shaking in pain. You will feel strong and manly.

[Cali15]

Enjoy life. Workout at the gym when you're 19-20

[tayoker]

yes, very good. unless you do it wrong.

[Anonymous]

I think it's good to do