Workout of The Week (#69)
Winners Do Pushups
People approach bodyweight training wrong. They want to apply the same parameters to bodyweight as they do for weight training. Unless you’re super weak, just perfoming 3 sets of 12 pushups probably won’t make you jacked or improve your fitness. Arguably, you shouldn’t be using bodyweight exercises to build muscle. If you are, then be prepared to throw in a lot of variations, use tempos, bands, and other tools to induce enough stimulus.
‘Everything works at first but nothing works forever’
Your skinny friend with a bit of muscle definition probably told you sometime how pushups made him jacked. Any training you’re not accustomed to will produce results, but not for long. There’s also a reason why many (not all) calisthenics bros aren’t huge. Sure some of them still sport good physiques, but the ability to do a lot of pushups and pull ups self selects those with less fat on their frame in general and beyond a certain point won’t build substantial muscle long term.
Stop thinking of pushups as a tool for strength and instead as a tool for GPP (general physical preparation). Hit pushups for higher reps, timed sets, or for a total rep goal (I’d recommend shooting for 100 reps or more per session if you set a total rep goal).
Another favorite use of pushups is as an agonist superset or finisher. My favorite agonist superset for chest is doing a hammer strength press followed by deficit pushups (elevate hands on a 3-6’ surface) to failure.
Benefits of Pushups
1.) You can do them literally anywhere. Even in a bathroom stall or at the airport.
2.) There are many variations you can perform by change your hand position or by elevating your feet.
3.) They work your serratus anterior, often a weak point for big guys who like to bench press but avoid sets of 12 and bodyweight exercises like the plague. Unlike a bench press where the scapula is pinned against a bench, a pushup will allow for scpular protraction which will engage the serratus anterior (“boxers muscle”). A bench press may look like an inverted pushup, but your scapula works a lot harder in the pushup.
The serratus anterior is a big player for scapular stability. Years ago when I was olympic weightlifting I came out of a clean and it felt like somebody stuck a dagger through my shoulder blade. I tried some rows the next day and the next morning i couldn’t even put pressure on my arm to get out of bed.
I looked back at my training and there were no pushups or horizontal pressing in general since at that time I was attempting to specialize for the snatch and clean and jerk. Big mistake. This is why you should include movements in every plane of motion.
Horizontal Pull, Horizontal Push, Vertical Pull, Vertical Push
The Workout
Single Arm Swing x 5L/5R
Pushup x 10
10 Rounds, rest as needed.
I recommend keeping the pushups pretty crisp and not taking them to failure for this workout. Rest as long as needed to accomplish the reps with good speed and technique. Modify to an incline off a smith machine if you need to.
First and foremost, thanks for this great post and explanation of how push ups are beneficial for making gains, and why they can lead to plateaus for those of us who are seasoned in strength training. I'm sharing this with a friend who is looking to bulk, but is solely into calisthenics at this point...
I've been adding some weights (i.e. weighted vest and bands) to my push ups, as well as varying them up to ensure that I'm really working the triceps. I also have been doing 2 pump burpees and navy seals to increase my rep of push ups per workout.
One of my favorite workouts is slightly similar to the one you've designed. I do 10 devils presses, 10 2 pump burpees and 10 2 count bodybuilder burpees x10.