Pushups And Bench Press Same Day

Posted : admin | On 17-09-2021

The push-up uses less absolute load, but muscle activation is equivalent to the bench press (2). After all, the push-up is a closed-chain version with more range of motion while allowing for the shoulder blades to move freely, all of which make an exercise enticingly favorable (3).

You might encounter many of the same problems for a month when you do 50 pushups a day for a year. More often than not, the body will end up getting used to the repetitions and the corresponding force. One solution for doing 50 pushups a day for a year is to increase the volume that you do each day. While the bench press on the flat bench is a great chest builder, it's not the only one, and not necessarily the best one. Whereas you might be able to decline press 225 pounds for 8 reps when it's slotted in the number 3 position in your routine, doing it first may allow you to handle 225 pounds for 11 reps, or perhaps 245 pounds for 7. The 3-Day Workout Program. These exercises can be combined together to form two training days full of compound lifts only, which will make it be a full body workout. This means that you will need a rest day following each training day, and the end of the week is two consecutive rest days.

Conventional wisdom says you can’t bench press every day. Your shoulders and elbows just can’t take it. You can squat every day. You can eat an apple every day. But you can’t bench press every day.

A few weeks ago, I set out to test that hypothesis. I had a hunch that there were two basic reasons lifters got hurt from benching too frequently:

They lacked balance between their pushing and pulling strength.
They didn’t have a plan, or at least not a good one.

Because my one-rep max pull-up is actually 25 pounds heaver than my best bench press — and I had what I thought was a flawless plan — I was confident I could bench every day for a month. After that, I’d rest for a few days, then PR my bench by 10-20 pounds.

Here was my plan:

In order to avoid overloading my joints, I would train five days per week (Monday–Friday) and use a different variation of bench each day.
I’d focus on undulating the loading parameters and rep ranges and using varied tempos and bar setups to overload different phases of the lift.
I would auto-regulate depending on how I felt that day. Summoning my inner Goldilocks, some days would be heavy, some would be light, and some would be juuuuuust right.

My menu of barbell presses included close-grip bench, bottoms-up bench from pins, overcoming isometric bench, eccentric bench, banded bench, paused-rep bench, 1.5-rep bench, squeeze press, and guillotine press.

My plan also included supplementing pushing with lots of pulling. Each day, after benching, I intended to perform some sort of row, pull-up, or face pull. On top of that, between sets of bench press, I would focus on a low-level rotator cuff or 'shoulder care' exercise like band pull-parts, scapular slides, external rotation, or lower trap raises.

Results of the Experiment

Things were going great for the first 2.5 weeks. I even e-mailed the editor of an online fitness publication to pitch my idea for an article about my experiment. Then, one morning, I woke up with a cranky shoulder. All morning I fretted over whether to take a day off from benching or try to push through the discomfort.

If I skipped benching for a day, would it completely invalidate my theory? Or, on the contrary, would it just add the wrinkle that you have to be smart about it? If you’re not feeling it one day, then skip it, rest up, and return the next day.

When the time came for my afternoon workout, I decided the latter was the smarter move. And, to my good fortune, as the day continued the shoulder pain subsided. Then—like an idiot—at the end of the day I decided to keep my streak alive and do a few quick sets of bench before heading home.

Now, thanks to lingering shoulder, upper trap, and neck pain, I haven’t benched since.

What Went Wrong?

Was there a hole in my plan —or in its execution? Or can you really just not bench press every day, no matter who you are and how good your plan?

Looking back, I realize I didn’t do all that great a job of balancing the pushing with an equal amount of pulling. (I estimate I was performing about six sets of bench press to every three sets of pulling exercises.) I also didn't listen to my body and take a break at the first sign of discomfort.

In addition, my experiment coincided with the CrossFit Open, which had me performing weekly high-rep workouts that included shoulder-intensive exercise like snatches and (kipping!) pull-ups. Finally, I’d already been having neck issues for a few months, likely stemming from the fact that I’m in dire need of a new pillow.

Prior to this whole ordeal, I was well-nigh convinced that the people who said you can’t bench every day were simply doing it wrong. Now I’m not so sure. Maybe you can bench every day for two weeks but no more. Maybe benching, which requires the shoulder blades to stay pinned to the bench, needs to be balanced with a healthy diet of pushing exercises that allow freedom of movement of the shoulder blades (e.g. push-ups, overhead press, dips). Or maybe there's something else that I'm still missing.

In the future, I plan to run this experiment again, only with more pulling (and/or fewer sets of bench daily) and better control of confounding variables. It’s definitely important to challenge one’s biases, but for now I’ll have to side with conventional wisdom: you can’t bench press every day.

This new study will definitely surprise you. Check it out.

Compared to the bench press, the push-up is often seen as a less effective alternative. After all, bench pressing is hardcore and push-ups are only for prisoners or people without gym access right?

Wrong. Frontpage 2010 crack.

People have this strange misconception that the heaviest exercises get you the most jacked but, physiologically, load is fairly irrelevant when it comes to building muscle.

External load isn't what drives muscle growth, but rather internal force production, otherwise known as mechanical tension. Load or any form of resistance – whether it's band, cables, or your own bodyweight – are merely tools to apply mechanical tension.

Don't believe me? Check out this new study.

The Study

Kotarsky et al took 23 intermediate male lifters and divided them up into a bench press group and a push-up group. (1) Both groups did three workouts a week for a month. Each workout had three working sets of about 6-8 reps, so 9 weekly sets total of horizontal pushing for both groups.

Both groups also had an objective progression model. That just means that once a performance was reached, progression was auto-regulated based on the study design.

For the bench press group, they simply added load like you would at the gym. Prove you got stronger by hitting the maximum rep range and slap on some more plates.

For the push-up group, they progressed in push-up variation. The study design had nine variations starting with the wall push-ups your sister did in elementary school all the way to one-arm push-ups.

These progression models are crucial because without them subjects are just training willy nilly instead of actually building strength and creating adaptations. Ironically, plenty of researchers don't implement them and pretty much end up wasting everyone's time.

What They Found

After four weeks, the study measured chest muscle thickness, explosive medball throw performance, and bench 1RM. Both groups also did a push-up progression test.

From a statistical standpoint, both groups made similar progress on all measures except the push-up progression test where the push-up group did significantly better. Not too surprising there.

While the bench press group had a slightly bigger 'effect size' for bench press 1RM, I was surprised that the push-up group did so well considering the law of specificity. The push-up group didn't bench for a whole month and basically got just as strong at benching. Goes to show how versatile the push-up is.

As far as muscle size goes, push-ups were just as hypertrophic as benching. But let's look closer at the data. Ultimate unwrap 3d pro v3 crack.

When looking at the average raw effect sizes, the push-up group built over three times as much muscle as the bench press group did (4% vs. 1.2%). Considering this was just a four-week study in already intermediate lifters, total muscle growth is expectedly slow indicating that the results were simply underpowered.

Youtube convert to mp4 mac. Had the study continued longer with more participants, the gap would've got closer, but the push-up group likely would've made statistically better gains.

But enough about statistics. The big takeaway is push-up variations (even ones without weight) are, at worst equivalent to the bench press and, at best, superior.

How Can This Be?

Remember, load/weight isn't the end-all, be-all in exercise selection. The push-up uses less absolute load, but muscle activation is equivalent to the bench press (2).

After all, the push-up is a closed-chain version with more range of motion while allowing for the shoulder blades to move freely, all of which make an exercise enticingly favorable (3). Also, the push-up is less fatiguing, so in practice it allows you to do more volume.

Oh, and it's definitely worth mentioning that push-ups are much less injurious. I mean, how many people do you know that hurt themselves doing push-ups compared to barbell benching?

What This Means For You

Remember, for push-ups to be effective, they have to be challenging, but that's not an issue for most people.

Even the most hardcore of bros can't do 4 sets of 30 strict push-ups with a consistently controlled eccentric/negative. Start there, especially if you're a push-up skeptic.

However, if you're truly a beast, you can do one or more of the following to up your push-up game.

Increase range of motion: Elevate your feet or hands on blocks.
Make them unilateral: Do archer push-ups (see video below) or one-arm push-ups.
Add load: A bumper plate or some chains on your back will go a long way.
Add gymnastic rings or a TRX: The instability will make push-ups more challenging.

Archer Push-Up

Related: The Toughest Push-Up You'll Ever Do

Related: The Push-Up That Prevents Injuries

References

KJ; Kotarsky CJ; Christensen BK; Miller JS; Hackney. 'Effect of Progressive Calisthenic Push-up Training on Muscle Strength and Thickness.' Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Calatayud J;Borreani S;Colado JC;Martin F;Tella V;Andersen LL; 'Bench Press and Push-Up at Comparable Levels of Muscle Activity Results in Similar Strength Gains.' Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Pozzi, Federico, et al. 'Electromyography Activation of Shoulder and Trunk Muscles Is Greater during Closed Chain Compared to Open Chain Exercises.' Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, Elsevier, 12 May 2019.

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