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How effective are push-ups as an average Joe's muscle exercise?

loeg 4y ago
I'd recommend squats instead.
meltyness 4y ago
Lot of a average Joe's can't do them. I'm probably in good company to say you really only need 6 exercises. From light to heavy: Chinups, Shoulder press, Rows, Bench, Squat, Deadlift Or, roughly, in calisthenics: Chins, shoulder push-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, squat, sit-ups. Probably the most useful of these movements is deadlift, nothing will make throwing office furniture around more fun than the strength you can train with deadlifts. Front raising a TV off the wall is pretty cool, too.
- randoglando 4y ago
  Can you link to a sit-up? Is that a crunch? I don't understand how it is a parallel for deadlifts.
  - meltyness 4y ago
    They're similar moves, but with different range of motion. Deadlifts are the heaviest move I listed and it works the abdominal muscles via isometric contraction, which is considerable tension at very high weights. I'll cede that deadlift is more similar to an abdominal plank than a sit-up.
alxmng 4y ago
Push-ups are great for strength, muscle growth, and health. But their usefulness for strength and muscle growth drops off once you are able to perform many standard push-ups. At that point you’d need to do harder variations (like archer push-up) or weighted push-ups to keep seeing muscle growth and strength gains.
agumonkey 4y ago
I loved them. Get floor handles to avoid stressing your wrists at first. Go slow, stay flat, breath deep. Simple routine: pushups, crunches, diagonal crunches, squats like exercises. But I prefer normal sports (running, biking, soccer.. anything) when I can.
davidvarela_us 4y ago
Any exercise is better than no exercise. But in my experience, bodyweight training will not put you anywhere near the ballpark of size/strength that a good weight training program can. I say this because I see a lot of impressive looking dudes selling calisthenics programs, but I heavily suspect that the lift weights and/or do steroids in addition to bodyweight programs. I exclusively did bodyweight training during the pandemic and it kept me healthy and my physique definitely improved for the better. Once the gyms opened and I went back to weight training, my size/strength absolutely blew up from what it was before with no changes in diet/sleep/time spent training. I gained about 18 lbs of muscle in a pretty short amount of time and I suspect I can gain a good deal more once I dial in my diet and sleep.

loeg 4y ago

I'd recommend squats instead.

Lot of a average Joe's can't do them. I'm probably in good company to say you really only need 6 exercises. From light to heavy: Chinups, Shoulder press, Rows, Bench, Squat, Deadlift Or, roughly, in calisthenics: Chins, shoulder push-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, squat, sit-ups. Probably the most useful of these movements is deadlift, nothing will make throwing office furniture around more fun than the strength you can train with deadlifts. Front raising a TV off the wall is pretty cool, too.

randoglando 4y ago
Can you link to a sit-up? Is that a crunch? I don't understand how it is a parallel for deadlifts.
- meltyness 4y ago
  They're similar moves, but with different range of motion. Deadlifts are the heaviest move I listed and it works the abdominal muscles via isometric contraction, which is considerable tension at very high weights. I'll cede that deadlift is more similar to an abdominal plank than a sit-up.

alxmng 4y ago

Push-ups are great for strength, muscle growth, and health. But their usefulness for strength and muscle growth drops off once you are able to perform many standard push-ups. At that point you’d need to do harder variations (like archer push-up) or weighted push-ups to keep seeing muscle growth and strength gains.

agumonkey 4y ago

I loved them. Get floor handles to avoid stressing your wrists at first. Go slow, stay flat, breath deep. Simple routine: pushups, crunches, diagonal crunches, squats like exercises. But I prefer normal sports (running, biking, soccer.. anything) when I can.

davidvarela_us 4y ago

Any exercise is better than no exercise. But in my experience, bodyweight training will not put you anywhere near the ballpark of size/strength that a good weight training program can. I say this because I see a lot of impressive looking dudes selling calisthenics programs, but I heavily suspect that the lift weights and/or do steroids in addition to bodyweight programs. I exclusively did bodyweight training during the pandemic and it kept me healthy and my physique definitely improved for the better. Once the gyms opened and I went back to weight training, my size/strength absolutely blew up from what it was before with no changes in diet/sleep/time spent training. I gained about 18 lbs of muscle in a pretty short amount of time and I suspect I can gain a good deal more once I dial in my diet and sleep.