Push-Up Workouts

To achieve the best results, a push-up workout should have the following components:

• It should be personal - the program should be tailored to the individual, designed specifically for the persons current fitness level, and their fitness goals.
• It should be progressive - as the aim of the program is to improve, you should be gradually increasing the workload enabling the body to adapt and improve.
• It should be varied - muscles respond best to variations in the load placed on them, so the push-up workout should make use of the variations in push-up techniques, and the workout intensity should vary too.
• It should have a goal - there should be a purpose for the training, to achieve a certain fitness goal.
• It should be measurable - you need to be able to assess the current fitness, monitor changes and determine when the goal has been achieved. You can use the push-up fitness tests to do this, or simply record how many push-ups you are able to perform.

The Push-Up Guide's Push-Up Workout

The Weekly Plan

1. Start the week with a test: when feeling fresh, record the maximum number of consecutive push-up you are able to do. (e.g. 8)
2. Calculate your daily total: Using the weekly test score, multiply that number by four. This is your daily workout total. (e.g. 8 x 3 = 24 push-ups)
3. Create your workout: Each workout comprises seven sets of push-up exercises, each set will be approximately 25%, 20%, 20%, 15%, 10%, 5%, 5% of the total (e.g. 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, 1, 1 push-ups)
4. Perform the workout: prepare by doing some upper body stretches, then perform the workout. The rest period after each set should be at least equal the time to perform the set.
5. Have rest days: you need two or three rest and recovery days each week, in which you can make use of the time to work on other areas of fitness, such as lower body strength and aerobic fitness.
6. Mix it up: after you have followed this workout for a couple of weeks, you can modify the push-up exercise by choosing one of the variations to increase the intensity of each set.

After each week, the push-up assessment should be conducted again, and the workout program recalculated. Hopefully there will be a good progression and the workloads will therefore be progressively increased.

For example, if you are able to do 30 push-ups after a few weeks, your sets for that week will be 22, 18, 18, 13, 9, 5, 5 (total 90).

Resources

• Variations of the Push-Up technique
• Description of the standard push-up technique
• Alternatives to the Push-Up

 

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