Pushup Complexes
Pushups aren’t just a chest exercise. They’re a great movement for the scapula, serratus anterior, and shoulders as a whole. The premise of the pushup complex is to work the elbows and shoulder girdle in different ways. Today we’ll go through some pushup complex to spice up your routine.
Many legends used pushups to build their physique and boost their performance. They did pushups for hundreds of sometimes thousands of reps per day. Pushups are a great tool but this is where people go wrong. You need to dose the volume HIGH to get a big benefit from pushups for your physique.
Why Your Bodyweight Training Sucks
The Great Gama was known for doing 2000 Hindu pushups daily. The Hindu pushup is more of a dynamic movement than a traditional pushup and helped build the wrestlers upper body endurance and chest without weights. In his time there weren't gyms on every block, he had to use high repetitions to get good results.
Herschel Walker was a legendary NFL running back that was also known for his training intensity. Walker would do over 2000 pushups in workouts just like the Great Gama. As a young teenager Walker wanted to get faster and strong. His track coach at the time told him to do sit ups, pushups, and sprints. This simple advice started Walker on his training routine.
“There weren’t any weights then at school, of course, and we sure didn’t have any out in the country, but I used what I had, and that was the living room floor and the dirt road that ran from the highway out front up the hill to our house. I did my push-ups and my sit-ups on the floor most of the time, and I did all my sprints up that hill out front.”
Herschel Walker
Walker did perform other exercises but didn’t lift weights in college and still boasted a 375 lb bench press. It took years but 1500 to 3500 pushups became a daily routine for Walker by the time he got to college.
The Workout
Every complex here is only 3 sets. If you’re doing a pushup only workout, i’d recommend going for atleast 2.5X your max reps. Forexample, if you can hit 40 pushups (40x2.5 =100) do atleast 100 reps in your workout. You can do more, I would just work up to it. I recommend 3 sets as prescribed above if you’re also hitting pressing movements prior to finishing the workout with these complexes.
Other modifications:
Add sets but decrease reps to keep reps high quality.
Use easier variations like incline pushups
Use more difficult variations like deficit or ring pushups if you can bang out regular pushups no problem
Use a weighted vest and do less reps but more sets (something like 20 sets of 5 with 30-60 sec rest instead of 5 sets of 20 of bodyweight pushups)
Drop a comment below if you try any of these and let me know how it made you feel. Or don’t, just gate keep the pump.
Checkout the Article about Muscle Soreness ^ Click Here
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When i was a kid, i didn't always have access to a gym. I did later, but at home i took bricks from under the foundation that had holes in them. I slid them onto a lead pipe we had around and used that for weightlifting. It was very hilly where i grew up, almost all hills for miles around. I ran a lot to manage my weight problem, though i did nothing with regards to diet.
Do you know who took that photograph of Walker? It's a work of art.