Press ups

Everyone does press-ups or has done them, but how do you perform yours ? Personally I do mine in strict form ,i.e. back straight and touch my chest to the floor, as I read once "it's better to perform 5 correct press-ups rather than 50 sloppy ones". I also do them with my feet elevated and sometimes put some weights in a back pack and do a few sets.

Usually between a couple of blocks or chairs for a better 'pec' stretch

I'm a big advocate of press ups. If done correctly, they are one of the best compound exercises for functional strength.

When I do my callesthenics at the end of training, I do 100 press ups, broken down into 4 sets of 25. Doesn't sound alot, and maybe it isn't, but I try to do each one perfect. Like you say Dave (geordie), its all in the form. Back straight, core in, head looking forward, chest all the way to the floor, and don't fully extend the arms on the way up as you are buying a cheeky rest on each rep that way.

I do the first set flat to the floor, second set with feet elevated, third set feet elevated and hands on boxes (like Mr Turton says) then final set back to the floor. I do each set in between sets of pull ups and chin ups, to confuse the muscles and make them work harder. I'm not a big guy and never will be, but I'm alot stronger than I look because of my tendon strength, and I credit a lot of that to the modest press up.

Have to agree.. some of the 'ancient' never mind 'old' exercises still hold true..

I once had a neighbour who just wanted to (as he put it) fill out a bit and get a bit fitter..

I had him do 5 sets of free squats that were more like DKB's.. 5 sets of press-ups, 1 long set of as mant crunches as he could do and 3 sets of close grip chins..

in 6 months he had added 8lbs of good bodyweight, added 4 inches to his chest, 2 to his thighs and 1.5 on each arm, and even 1 inch from his waist.. happy guy

I invested in some perfect push ups (http://www.perfectpushup.com but check out ebay) and haven't looked back.

When I started I maxed out at 10 but now do close to 150 from a chair every other day. I break these down into 4 sets of 30-40 with my hands either wide apart, shoulder width or close together. These may not work for everybody but they have certainly made a difference to me in terms of strength and shape.

I have since bought a pull up bar, fair play chin ups are tough, and am hoping to increase my reps and sets in the same way. My target for the next 6 months is to use bodyweight exercises more and more to find my own shape so will be buillding brackets in my garage for dips etc. Following that I will assess whether I need to invest in free weights to change the workout.

Any advice on bodyweight exercises would be greatly appreciated

I've always stuck to 50 reps for a set of press- ups following good form. I used to do "Clapping press-ups" , I have seen a variation of this where you clap behind your back and I am of the opinion that "Clapping press-ups" help to develop quick reactions. If you find you need more resistance with press-ups you can always get your partner to sit on your back!

I used to do a lot of free hand exercises, but now use weights as a means of resistance.The thing with free-hand exercises is they build, tone and shape your body a bit like a greek god statue, plus they also give you a good cardio workout as well. I've always been a advocate of chin-ups, I've had a doorway chinning bar for the past 20 years, excellent exercise.Again bar dips is another excellent exercise that is far too underated. Chins are tough so don't expect your reps to increase quickly as your press-ups do, and strict form is a must, better to do 3 strict chin-ups than 10 half ones with legs your kicking.Vary how you do them one day palms facing away, next workout palms facing, you can also vary grip width,though with an doorway "pull-up" bar you obviously wont' be able to do wide-grip chins.Work up until you can do 3 sets of 10 reps, then I'd go for 3 sets of 15 reps,once you can do 3 sets of 15 reps I would start adding resistance by tying a 10kg plate around your waist. You could then do 1 set of 20 reps,it all depends on your own personal goals. The method I advocate for getting your reps up on chin-ups is do 5 sets of 5 say 3 times a week for one week, the next week do 4 sets of 6, the week after 3 sets of 7, then revert back to 5 sets of 7 for a week,then 4 sets of 8 for a week, then 3 sets of 9,etc.
Bar-dips I would suggest do 3 sets of 10, once achieved do 3 sets of 15, then 3 sets of 20, you can then tie a 10kg or 15kg plate around your waist and bang out 20 reps, then maybe a 20kg plate or 30kg , its up to you what your goals are. Don't expect this to happen over night, set your self a 6 month programme with hard but achievable goals,then at the end of 6 months you can draw up a new programme.

Great stuff guys, couldn't agree more.

I played with weights for years and it just isn't my thing. Now all of my strength training is bodyweight. Press ups, pull ups, chin ups, dips and crunches. Put that on the end of a session of running, skipping, shadow boxing and heavy bag work - and I'm a happy man

This article may interest you guys.

http://sfuk.tripod.com/articles_02/mighty_men.html

Was written by Dave Turton about the the training methods of the old time wrestlers who basically only used bodyweight( theirs or a training partners) to develop functional strength.

Weights were only used to develop somebody until they had enough strength to develop themselves to use bodyweight.

to play devil's advocate (qui? moi?) here is there any benefit to pressups other than convenience when weighed against using weights or machines?

you use more muscles to do press ups, including the back muscles, and it takes more repetitions. so, although it doesnt build as much muscle mass as weights and machines, its a more anaerobic workout that improves strength and stamina.

it all really depends on what you wish to accomplish.

Pressups work the core muscles as well in keeping the body 'rigid'.. I love most bodyweight stuff even though I spent over 25 involved in various aspects of the 'weights world'

for combat conditioning, a combination of pure bidyweight exercises and resitance added bodyweight exercises are tops in my book

Stuart Rider.. where do you dig up this stiff from mate Ha Ha

I Like to do my pressups 3 sets of of 40 on my knuckles Close grip, fists inline with my chest , Thumbs facing forward so my ribs kinda rubs my forearms on the way down, to 2" off the floor keeping back, legs and bum straight as possible. also like to alternate and sometimes Hold for 5secs at 2"

Another way I do them is wide, with palms down. used ti do them like this which I dont do anymore, is creating a triangle with your index fingers and thumbs and as you go down touch it with your forehead, again keeping everything flat.

Now I prefer to Bench press and do fly.

Got loads of your stuff saved away Dave, loads of good info in them.
Always worth going back to from time to time.

You should write a book sometime

One of the exercises we do (Learnt this from Troy) Is with your partner holding your feet do 30 Hand stand push ups, then with your partner lying on the floor knees up, under hooking your feet, you sitting on knees do 30 sit ups, then fire lift him on shoulders 30 Squats, he then does 30 of each, then you do 25 again of each and so on until you get down to doing 5 of each... Now the good bit starts, you both do 50 push ups both on your own, 50 Sit ups, 50 Squats... then 49 push ups, 49 sit ups, 49 squats etc etc until you get to 1... if you have ten people in pairs its a good bit of craic...

Also we do handstands, one arm stands and head stands against the wall, my old Kung Fu days ha ha....

enjoy

D

Hey Stuart ... have you been talking to Jamie O'Keefe ..he just emailed me asking me to do a follow-up book after the last one, in fact he wants 2 or 3 folow up books...
any chance of 30 hoiurs in a day instead of 24 ????

Jamie and i - a case of great minds think alike.

You could do a book just on the articles you have written over the years, those alone are worth the price of a book.
Get Karl to do some typing for you mate

i vary my press up style from standard press ups, tricep press ups, walking press ups, commando press ups and press ups with a 5 second pause at the bottom and top.
all are done with the correct technique and are extremely challenging when used with other exercises to obtain a complete burn out of the pecs and tris.