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Bodyweight Push ups number to shoot for?

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Oscar

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Hi all,

I've been practicing GTG push ups for the last month. I dont have any specific goal, I'm mostly doing them because I have a newborn at home and is one of the few things I can do that doesn't take time. Also, I'm doing them as a preparation for Q&D 033 protocol, I'm at the moment doing Q&D snatches. Also, push ups are awesome.

So the question is, what is a reasonable number of unbroken push ups to shoot for? Last time I tested 2 weeks back I was at 22, not grinding. As I dont have any military test to comply with, maybe 30 or 40 unbroken push ups is fine?

My current program progresses volume as a step cycle. Every two weeks I test my max, and my daily volume is 250% of my max. At one point I dont think that progressing further makes sense. I would switch to a harder variation of push ups or Q&D.

The only rigid goal I have is to be able to do Q&D after this program of GTG push ups.

Thanks!
 
Hello,

I do not think there is a daily magic number.

I usually perfom 300 a day, using GTG. I notice this number
- does not create fatigue so it leaves plenty of room for the actual routine
- is enough to strengthen joints and tendons
- is enough for daily endurance (assuming there is another press move but strength-oriented)

I enjoy doing different kind of push ups everyday to keep progressing, being interested and saving my joints.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
I usually perfom 300 a day, using GTG. I notice this number
Thanks Pet for the reply. That's a big number. How many unbroken can you do and how long are your typical sets? Do you do any other type of push ups?
 
I think over 30 unbroken would be a minimum for me, ideally over 40, if training it specifically, over 50, and in my prime, was 60.
 
No magic number but GTG is a great method for Pushups. You can either continue to increase until you reach an in broken number that makes you happy or progress to OAPU’s and start over :)
The stronger you get with the OAPU’s your regular push-ups unbroken max will go up.
Keep us posted
 
Hello,

@Oscar
I do sets of 100, unbroken, but for some time, I exclusively trained with high repetitions of easy variation (regular push ups for instance). I guess some of my endurance comes from here.

Now, this endurance is simply maintained using GTG with both the 300 I mentioned, plus another GTG with OA or OAOL push ups. I am quite religious regarding this strategy. It works so well on me: no fatigue, no soreness, quick recovery, massive strength and endurance gains.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
@Bro Mo thanks for the reply. Those sound like reasonable achievable numbers. I'll try to get to 40 for this cycle, and then keep maintenance above 30. I my prime I was also close to 55 so hopefully reaching 40 will not be that hard.

@Karen Smith yes, GTG push ups are great! I'll do a few months and try to get to 40, then I will switch to either Q&D swings and push ups, or continue snatching and progress to GTG one arm push up progressions. I'll keep you posted!

@pet' 100 reps unbroken in no joke! How do you break up your 300 daily reps?
 
@Bro Mo thanks for the reply. Those sound like reasonable achievable numbers. I'll try to get to 40 for this cycle, and then keep maintenance above 30. I my prime I was also close to 55 so hopefully reaching 40 will not be that hard.

@Karen Smith yes, GTG push ups are great! I'll do a few months and try to get to 40, then I will switch to either Q&D swings and push ups, or continue snatching and progress to GTG one arm push up progressions. I'll keep you posted!

@pet' 100 reps unbroken in no joke! How do you break up your 300 daily reps?
 
I would say - it depends very much on the “quality” of push-ups. I can do 50 touch’n go style - but only 20 high tension strong explosive reps.
 
I'm a fan of doing sets of 10, 20, 30 and 40 for a 'nice' way to break up 100 reps into manageable chunks. Somehow four sets of 25 or 5 sets of 20 feels like harder work.

Haven't been able to get close to an unbroken 100 for several years now but that's not really what I'm training for these days.

When it comes to 'dead stop'/'hands off' push ups (ie you rest your chest on the floor and lift your hands from the floor at the bottom of each rep so you start from a dead stop) my numbers are a lot lower but overall rep quality is usually better.
 
@Oscar
If you are prepping for Q&D, I don't think the number of consecutive pushups is very important. I think it's more important to develop and practice the specific power pushup form.

As I described in this thread, I had never spent much time training pushups, so when I read (before the book came out) that Q&D included pushups, I decided to start practicing them to prepare for trying the program when the book eventually came out. At that point I had not seen any description or demonstration of “power” pushups. So I alternated sets at a moderate controlled tempo and sets with maximal power on the concentric (with a controlled eccentric). I somewhat arbitrarily decided to do sets of 10, and arrived at doing a set every 3 minutes, since that was about the minimum that allowed me to do 10 strong sets of 10—basically re-inventing the 015 protocol (without knowing about it) but with just the pushups. I did this close to daily for two or three weeks, and by that time my pushups were feeling very comfortable and strong.

So I'd just stick to sets of 10 (or fewer if you can't do 10 at full power). If want to do them more GTG and not in one block, do 2 sets in a row on the 3 minutes (as in the 015 protocol), or 2 sets in a row on the minute (as in a Q&D 10/2 series), or 4 sets (1/2 the reps/set) on the 30 seconds (as in a Q&D 5/4 series). BTW, I dislike 5/4 for KB ballistics because it feels so unpleasantly rushed, but dislike it less for pushups because each set of pushups takes much less time (if you use a free fall drop and explosive concentric). If you don't feel ready to do the full free fall, "playing chicken with the floor" drop, I think it's worthwhile to do a slower controlled drop with an explosive concentric.
 
@Steve W. Yes, I agree with you that I should rather focus on power push ups to prepare for Q&D. However, being able to do only 18 normal push ups when I started this cycle, it appeared to me that I was too far of the Q&D power push ups and that I required some sort of base building.

About 4 weeks before starting Q&D, I'm thinking on keeping the GTG format and volume, but doing them as power push ups in Q&D series, as you suggested. So if my daily volume calls for 80 reps, it would be 4 series of 10/2 or 4 series of 5/4. By the end of that month I think I would be able to tackle Q&D.
 
@pet' , how long does it take you to do 1 set of 100 pushups?

At some point (and I'll bet @pet' has already passed it), I imagine that a single pushup becomes so easy that doing a reasonable set is something like running on your hands - repetitive engagement of slow-twitch fibers. I would guess that sort of super high reps, like running, are awesome for toughening the joints and ligaments, and for training your muscles to make less acid, but not geared so much for increasing max strength or power.

So, for an upper target on reps... if your goal is strength/power (presumably it is if you want to do Q&D), it's probably about the point where it feels like you've changed over from challenging your fast-twitch muscles to suppressing the burn.

I'm on a GTG pushup kick myself these days, using the heads and tails strategy from Plans for Building Powerful Pushups | StrongFirst. Slow reps, pausing at top and bottom, and when I test I stop when it feels like I'm on the edge of the burn. If I ever got to the point where I could do a few OAPU (I'm not even close now), I'd definitely switch to that. I don't know what the right ratio is, but personally I'd be a lot more proud of knocking out a set of 10 OAPU than 50 regular pushups.
 
Hello,

@WhatWouldHulkDo
1 set lasts a little less than 2 minutes.

I totally agree with you:
At some point it mainly reinforces the joints and works on pure endurance more than anything else. It improves the ability to endure lactic acid. I also see it as a way to work on the breath, as I do them by nose breathing.
Doing a few sets to a true failure may lead to a strength maintenance but not an increase of max strength (at least this is my experience).

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
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