Will 50 pushups a day make a noticeable difference?

[lucyt25]

Dear community,

I have been going to the gym for 4 weeks now with a friend, twice a week, i am 53KG, but i was around 51, and i am hoping to hit some weight goals.

We we're benching and i got very close to 35KG bench, my friend is on vacation for a week and we talked about me getting that, if i would do 50 pushups daily, in reps of 10, would i gain enough muscle strength?

I am not a big fan, but if i can hit my goals, yes please!

I am also trying to reach 80KG deadlift 4 times, but that's another story.

Thanks in advance!

 

[godsend11]

@lucyt25 The best way to build strength in the bench press is to bench press. Pushups will build strength too, but you're not going to get a 1 for 1 tradeoff between increasing your pushups and increasing your max bench, if anything it'll help you build up the number of reps you can do in the bench press.

It's not a bad idea to do pushups while waiting for your friend to come back to town, but it's probably not going to get you over 35kg by next week. The best way to build strength is to keep working and be patient. You've only been going for roughly a month, and in another month you'll probably be closer to 50kg than 35. Early gains are the fastest so no need to rush to specific numbers, you'll get there.

 

[godsend11]

@lucyt25 The pushups won't hurt. The goal of 50 is ok, but if you're on set 4 and failing, just call it for that day. Also if you have a lot of muscle fatigue the next day, let your body rest, or at least find an exercise that works a different muscle group. If you overwork one exercise it'll make it harder to lift heavy until your body recovers, and you get diminishing returns from the work you're doing.

 

[judgenotbutyourself]

@lucyt25 I'd say pushups won't hurt

The key to train is nutrition, sleep and pushing yourself.

As long as you're eating roughly 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, sleep 7-8 hours a night and push yourself when you're in the gym, your early results will be pretty satisfying and get you addicted.

Make sure If you're doing pushups, try not to compromise on your form much. If you can't do a good pushup, then try some elevated pushups, perhaps even on your knees towards the end of a workout. The goal is to improve your volume of quality pushups, not just the number of times you can touch your stomach to the ground.

 

[seekfind]

@lucyt25 Lookup Pavel's fighter pushup program, follow that.

 

[franciscovelasco]

@seekfind I think you mean the Pull Up program, though the same principle applies.

 

[noelotus2]

@godsend11 There is no point in doing bench presses if you can't do at least 20 strict push-ups. Simply bc you will create a disbalance: when you perform pushups, you engage your back, core, legs, and arms. What is going to happen is that your triceps, chest, and shoulders will become very strong, but the rest of the body will drag. I haven't seen gymnasts doing the bench press, yet they are strong and lean.

I would suggest starting from increasing your range of motion and flexibility first while learning perform basics: pull-ups, pushups, dips, L-hang, toes -to the bar, leg tuck, etc. with different variations, and repetitions.

 

[seth504]

@lucyt25 the total number of pushups doesnt matter, just do like 5 sets to failure twice a week and add a small amount of weight with a backpack once youre above above 15 reps or whatever rep range you like. doing high rep pushups daily or just doing an arbitrary number of pushups a day id a waste of time. youll get so much farther by doing weighted calisthenics. You can also progress by doing more ROM like using parallets or propping your hands up on some books, boards of wood, etc etc.

if you want something fun you can do a 'cluster set' where you see how many pushups you can do in like 5min. Youd chose a weight you can do 15 reps with, bang out 10-12, wait 15-20seconds, bang out 5, wait 15-20 seconds, 5 again etc etc and just do as many as you can in the time allotted. then try to beat that number in the same amount of time next time. this also works for pullups really well.

 

[omadaze]

@seth504 good advice like your gets buried in lots of shit replies. most of the threads where recognized bodyweight experts don't comment are like this.

 

[seth504]

@omadaze oh well lol

 

[dawn16]

@lucyt25 Muscle gains take time, just eat enough protein, sleep well and have patience.

 

[debro]

@lucyt25 If you’re currently very untrained, then yes, probably. But after a few weeks, 50/day is going to feel pretty easy.

 

[landon13]

@debro Something must be wrong with me then. I've been doing ~50/day 2-3 times a week for a few months and it's still hard at the end.

 

[dawn16]

@landon13 Do you break it up into sets? Break it up into 5 sets of 10, then try 5 sets of 11, and so on. Once a week measure you max reps. This is the only fool proof method I’ve found that easily helps me increase my max reps.

 

[debro]

@dawn16 Agree; doing 50 consecutively with good form is quite difficult, even with some training.

 

[omadaze]

@debro what's the point of doing it other than to increase the max number of reps? Nobody is getting strength adaptations from doing 50 pushups/day.

 

[yochanagrace]

@omadaze That’s literally the whole point of the thread. And yes, getting 50/day will help, for a novice trainee like OP.

 

[omadaze]

@yochanagrace Why should anyone give sub-standard advice?

everybody should strive to give the best advice to untrained novice who lack info like @lucyt25.

They want to gain strength. Why would anyone recommend 50 pushups a day (high chance of overuse injury) unless the need to pass a fitness test or to get more reps?

 

[yochanagrace]

@omadaze See my other reply to you.

What you are saying is uninformed, unhelpful and just plain incorrect.

 

[chumleypm]

@omadaze There has been research that has shown otherwise. It’s just not worth doing at one point because of how much time it takes.