[sully2rgj]

John & Greg
What do you class as high volume pushups as in number of reps. I know people are different and have different fitness and strength levels but is there a certain number that is the bench mark?

Sully

[John Peterson]

Hey Sully2rgi,

You ask a very good question and I will use Charles Atlas's numbers as outlined in his course as a guideline.

Atlas wanted his students to work up to at least 100 reps daily but stated that if they wanted to maximize development that 200 Atlas I Push-ups should be the goal that everyone should strive to achieve.


That said, I personally believe that one should get as much out of each level before moving up. For example: Get as much as possible out of 100 reps daily before moving to 150 and then 200 and so forth,

For me 300 Atlas III is my best level of High Volume.

---John Peterson

[sully2rgj]

Thanks for the reply John
A guy at work who has a great physique from bodyweight exercises raves about high volume push ups but he is quite adamant that it should only be done 3 times a week max. I'm not sure why though maybe it helps him recover but looking at him it has worked for him doing it this way.

Sully

[Greg Newton]

Sully,

There are no hard or fast rules, but I'll go with what your co-worker does. I've done both pushups everyday and every other day. If I am doing 300-500 pushups a day this limits what other exercises I have time to do, so often I split my routine, which I am doing now. However, if I am doing 100-200 a day, I can usually do them daily and manage other exercises in my routine.

Greg

[keith james]

Hi Guys

High volume pushups worker wonders for me when i did them. Haven't done them in such a long time, maybe now is the time to get going and start another high volume workout for a bit.

John & Greg

I was just wondering that some people say that high volume work is bad for the joints, what is your take on this.

Many thanks.

KEITH JAMES.

[Greg Newton]

Keith,

I've never had any problems with high volume pushups. High volume pushups over time helped heal a long standing rotator cuff injury. The only time I've suffered ill effects from pushups was from too much stretch in the down position with Atlas Pushups or too much intensity when I was using the Warrior Power Tees.

Supposedly you are going to be injured from "overuse syndrome" if you do too many pushups. This is an excuse for a lot of guys to limit their training, because a high volume of pushups is too hard. They don't take into consideration that pushups are a natural movement that utilized almost all the muscles of the body in some form or fashion.

If you vary the types of pushups you do - widths, foot elevation, etc., and don't train to failure, I don't see how you could go wrong. Too, volume has to be worked into. What is high volume and what is maintenance varies with your level of conditioning. For example, high volume for John is in the 700-1000 range, wherease 300-500 is maintenance. For me 350-500 is high volume, whereas 100-200 is maintenance.

I'll never forget years ago reading on the Atlas forum about a guy who was doing 5 X 25 in the Atlas pushups. Being a strong weightlifter I snickered at that pansy workout. That is, until I tried it. Then I started getting an inkling of how little strength and conditioning I actually had.

Anyway, I hope this gives you some clarification.

Greg

[keith james]

Originally Posted by Greg Newton

Keith,

I've never had any problems with high volume pushups. High volume pushups over time helped heal a long standing rotator cuff injury. The only time I've suffered ill effects from pushups was from too much stretch in the down position with Atlas Pushups or too much intensity when I was using the Warrior Power Tees.

Supposedly you are going to be injured from "overuse syndrome" if you do too many pushups. This is an excuse for a lot of guys to limit their training, because a high volume of pushups is too hard. They don't take into consideration that pushups are a natural movement that utilized almost all the muscles of the body in some form or fashion.

If you vary the types of pushups you do - widths, foot elevation, etc., and don't train to failure, I don't see how you could go wrong. Too, volume has to be worked into. What is high volume and what is maintenance varies with your level of conditioning. For example, high volume for John is in the 700-1000 range, wherease 300-500 is maintenance. For me 350-500 is high volume, whereas 100-200 is maintenance.

I'll never forget years ago reading on the Atlas forum about a guy who was doing 5 X 25 in the Atlas pushups. Being a strong weightlifter I snickered at that pansy workout. That is, until I tried it. Then I started getting an inkling of how little strength and conditioning I actually had.

Anywat, I hope this gives you some clarification.

Greg

Hi Greg

Many thanks for the reply. Yes your thread covered everyting i wanted to know, thanks.

I never thought that anybody saying that high volume pushups was bad for you, was because they were to hard for them to do.

Once again many thanks.

KEITH JAMES.

[John Peterson]

Hey friends,


Interesting questions and answers here. The key to not experiencing injury to joints and tendons is to not push one's self to the point of muscle failure so that the muscles no longer serve their protective function. By that I mean that if one pushes to the edge of failure so that one's muscles are exhausted one places more and more of the resistance on the tendons and joints. When that happens, regardless of the type of resistance, one is placing one's self at risk of injury.

---John Peterson

[dynogoalie30]

Sully, In my case, I can do between 100-200 push-ups a day and that would not overtrain me, but if I uped it to 200-300 a day then I would have to train every other day, because I could not recover in enough time, and also I have a physical job, so I would need time to recover, I dont recover as well as I did when I was younger , ,does your co-worker just do push-ups, or other bodyweight exercises? His approach probably works good for him, and maybe he does a lot of reps in his workouts, and that the day off between workouts will make him fresh for the next workout keep up the great work with your training.and keep us updated on your progress.

[sully2rgj]

Dynogoalie
Yes he does other bodyweight exercises like squats and situps but he only does high volume 3 times a week and the rest of the time he is just maintaining.

Sully