Push ups, Time to add weight?

[eloony]

Thanks

[katarina]

Hello all, Yesterdays workout with very good form was 15, 12, 11. Do I start adding weight & reducing to 3X5? If So, Does anyone have any creative ways to add weight or where can I buy a Rucksack?

Thanks as always, Dave

If you have some extra money, you could try this, it is called Power Push-Up:

http://www.thestrengthcompany.co.uk/pro ... ushups.htm

In the USA it is available at the company LifeLineUSA.

[nycant]

Nycant, the program is a strength training program. Too many reps are good for endurance - for strength you should do higher weights & low reps. That's why you add weights each workout & do only 3x5.

Alternately you can switch to dips (like I did).

I do dips as my 5th exercise alternating between workout A and B.
Also 5x5 it says Pushups is 3xF, where F is until failure. That's why I assumed I push it to the max each time. What if I do the pushups slower on each count? Is that the same as adding more weight (something I can't do at the gym).

[Mantic]

You can also try plyometric pushups to mix things up.

Perform a pushup in the usual fashion but explode off the ground trying to get some air between you and the floor, lifting your hands completely clear as if the ground were too hot to touch.

If you like these (they're exhausting) you can try using a low platform between your hands to alternate landing your hands on (by platform I'm thinking anything narrow enough to fit between your hands and low enough so that you don't bounce your chest off it - low pile of books, medicine ball, etc). You can even bounce off the platform so that one hand hits the ground and the other hits the platform, rapidly alternating from hand to hand.

Plyometrics are a great way to mix up your training and develop an explosive power that you can use for other exercises (great for getting past sticking points on bench press for example).

Oh and if you're going to raise your legs for pushups, try putting your feet up on a fitball - you'll activate your core muscles even more than usual : )

[nycant]

Thanks Mantic, I think i'm going to try the elevated feet pushups first. Should be a killer, which is what I'm looking for...

[deadlift]

i sometimes get my 9 year old sister to sit on my back when i do them

[MidLifter]

I've actually placed a loose weight on my back, between my shoulder blades, starting at 1.2kg and working my way up to 17.5kg.

[oxnume]

I tried adding weight by placing a 10lb plate on my back but it's quite tricky getting it to stay there and not slip off. This rucksack you speak of...wikipedia says it's just another name for backpack. Can I just put weight in any backpack (ex. carrying books and such) and put it on my back?

[Rockfella]

These are bullshit push-ups! I am hindu too.

Fixed the video, ricepower.



Yeah, I'm Hindu, & we used to do these as kids...lots of them. Alternatively you can try divebomber ones - they are harder than the Hindu ones. I'm too lazy now to search for it, but youtube has a few videos on them.

[DoNotDisconnect]

If your going to put weight in a bag makes sure the weight sits high on your shoulders.. not your lower back!

[ricepower]

These are bullshit push-ups! I am hindu too.

Have you tried them? I can do sets of 20, 15, 12 of good traditional push ups all the way to the ground. But I can bareley do one hindu push up. They are extremely hard, need similar type of strength to overhead press & heaps of shoulder stabilty. Way harder than dips, (I can do 10, 5, 5 dips)