@dadnotsuperman That sounds fine, take it slow and keep it up, almost every day if you can. It's the sort of thing that you won't even realize you've benefited from once you're flexible enough. Training grip strength/forearms would probably help too.
@dadnotsuperman I'm 6'3 170lbs 47 yrs old and they were super hard for me to get as well. Here's how I worked up to them:
I got to pushups, where I could do 5x5 no problem.
Then I deloaded to kneeling pushups, but I closed my hands about halfway and did 5x5, 3x week like I was doing stronglifts. Each workout I moved my hands closer about the width of one hardwood floor board. When I was at 5x5 kneeling diamonds I went back to pushups, but with my hands closer together by 1 floor board. every time you get the 5x5, move in one floor board. A little more than 6 weeks later I could do a shaky diamond pushup, 2-3 weeks after that I owned them. Slow is good
@dadnotsuperman Just do pushups. 6'1" 220 lbs here. Diamonds are easy as hell once you train pushups, but 3x8 pushups isn't trained. Get closer to 3x30 and you'll be in a better spot.
You just aren't ready for them yet. Nothing to stress about. Just keep at it and you'll get there. I believe in you!
@jarydc33 I'm just a little confused by this. Most sources I read about doing body weight exercise recommend against doing more the 3x8, and just moving onto the next progression. I'm up to diamond push ups, but should I be working towards increasing my Reps in each set?
@sweettbaby6 If you can do diamond just do it. Personally I found them not much harder then normal pushups. Hurts the wrists a little but that's expected I think.
@dadnotsuperman He's right, I was doing 5x20 pushups when I tried diamonds and had no problem jumping right in at 3x10 diamonds. You need to build up some strength, do more pushups and forget about that 3x8 bullshit
@dadnotsuperman Increasing reps will really help you improve coordination and control, which will allow you to progress in difficulty. Yes, people say to only do low rep, but that only considers the optimum condition for muscular strength increase. There are other components that must be trained, and when you reach an impasse like this, it's a signal that a change (even if temporary) is probably necessary.
@onlyeringail As I said, I only want to progress to clap push-ups, I don't want to gain muscle (at least until I get to clap push-ups), do you suggest doing push-ups with weights or increasing reps?
@dadnotsuperman You act like you're going to swell up by doing more push ups per set. I don't think you realize all of the muscles that go into push ups. Doing more is going to increase strength that's the only way to do it. 24 push ups every time you excersize them is not going to allow you to progress.
@newlife30 Then why does the recommended routine say to do no more than 8 reps per set with 3 sets? I'm not very well educated wrt strength building, so I'm genuinely interested. I used to think that more reps = better, but the FAQ seems to directly go against it.
@dawn16 Honestly I don't know a whole lot about this sub or how it started but I've been lifting for strength and bodybuilding for a little over a year now and I've found that after about 2-3 weeks of using the same weights I'm able to move up about 5lbs on things. For strength training it's not best to stay at the same weight forever and I think the same applies here. If you're used to doing 8 reps per set and you can do that but can't move on to more things (diamond pushups in this case) then you should do more of the regular push ups to build strength in order to move on to diamond push ups. Obviously everybody is different but what I got from this post is that OP is only doing 24 push ups every work out and expecting to be able to move on. In my opinion that's just not going to cut it. Hope this helps understand where I'm coming from.
@newlife30 OK. I'm in the process of working towards diamond push-ups and I'm also relatively new to this sub (some history with weights in high school, but not much).
I've been keeping 3x8 as my limit and I progress by moving my hands closer so that I physically cannot do more than 8 per set, but i make sure to hit at least 5 reps per set. This is just like weight progression (I would do 3 sets of 10 reps, where after 10 reps I would be physically incapable of doing any more; rest and do the next set), and I feel like I'm making similar progress.
I can't do diamond push-ups yet, but I've improved significantly since starting the recommended routine, so I see no reason to increase reps. Then again, I'm not very educated in weight training beyond a couple classes in high school and college, so I'm also here to learn.
@dawn16 Working out is almost all about finding what fits best for you so if you feel like you're progressing and getting stronger then all power to you. I've gone to the gym a lot of times just to do trial and error on lifts that I feel contract my muscles the most. One thing I can recommend for pushups if you aren't doing it already is to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible while still being somewhat comfortable. It should help get a better feel for diamond push ups before you actually get there. Also hand placement. For me I like to make a triangle with my hands on diamond pushups because it gives me a better base in my palms. If I tried to max out I could probably knock out 15-20 of them but I don't do them often. The best piece of advice I can give you is to continue to give it your all every time you get in the gym. Really focus your mind on the muscles you're using. You'll get there before you know it. Also another thing I saw someone mention in this thread is to do negative reps where you go down as slow as possible and help build the strength on your way down even if you can't get back up.
