How good are pushups?

[Lil'Lifter]

Today was my first real day of track tryouts (I am in high school) and one of the last things we do are pushups. The coach said to them until you can't do them anymore. We do 3 sets to failure. One of regular one of wide to work the chest and one of diamond grip to work the tri's. My problem is I did close to 150 pushups and really don't think I could lift. My question is how good is that. We do other stuff, leg work and millions of crunches would it be ok for me to write that off as my work out? The sets of pushups were MABEY 3 minutes apart so are we doing more bad then good there? Thanks.
-Mike

[NateDogg]

They are better than nothing, but nowhere near as effective as a decent chest routine that utilizes progressive resistance (something that is quite difficult to apply to push-ups).

[Alex(AJ)]

they're okay to get you into fitness, but are pretty much worthless compared to other exericses you can do

[HowHigh]

Think of it as a bench press with low weight, lots of reps, and where you never increase the weight. Doesnt make much sense does it?

Same dealy with crunches.

You will develop a great endurance for those particular movements (competing in a crunch contest anytime soon?) but you wont build much muscle with them.

You are much better off going to the gym, using heavy weights (low reps), and gradually increasing your weight over the course of the season.

[Lil'Lifter]

OK I must not have made myself clear I am not doing this because I want to I am doing this because they MAKE US DO IT at track preactice. But after about 150 pushups and lodes of running I don't feel as though I can lift. How much do you think I will lose during track? Is that good enough for me to maintain my mass I just won;t gain any mass? Once again I am not using this as an alternative to lifiting it is somthing that I HAVE to do. Sorry about the confusing first post.
-Mike

[NateDogg]

Have you talked to your coach about not making you do them, or maybe stopping after fewer reps? Your team is forced to do them probably with the thinking that most of you don't train outside of practice.

[Lil'Lifter]

I have asked him about it, but I am new to the team this year and he doesn't really know me. Also he has been the coach their for a while and is kinda set in his ways I don;t think that will work......man this sucks

[Hazukidojo]

Yeah...Coaches suck a big one!

[Dins_PR]

This is an old post from page 2 but I wanted to address a few things:

"they're okay to get you into fitness, but are pretty much worthless compared to other exericses you can do"

I have to disagree with this quote. You are on a track team, unless you are a sprinter you want to do alot of pushups because they will increase you muscle endurance which is vital to running anything beyond a 400.

What needs to be asked is how focused you want to be on track and how focused you want to be on gaining muscle mass. Cause you can't have both.

When I was a competitive runner I came up with a compromise, i did insane ammounts of pushups and still did benching, just make sure you eat protein and carbs with avengence since you muscles are going to cry out at the extra work.


never underestimate the power of a pushup... Before I became super competitive in running I was a gymnast and could do an Iron Cross, if you don't know what that is you should look it up. I could do a cross without ever benching a bar in my life, we did masses and masses of pushups and we were ripped to all getup.

[morocco]

What are Iron Crosses then?

[Down_Under]

Iron cross is when your on the rings you hold them by your sides, then let yourself down so your arms are out straight and parallel to the ground I think. We used to try them in school they are extremely hard, you need alot of upperbody strength to do it.
If im wrong correct me, or if you can explain them better please do.

[Merrida]

Yes, to my understanding, those are refered to the "Iron Cross." I think it IS that particular movement on the rings. Your body is in a crucifiction position, like a cross. It's probably one of the most notorious positions to hold due to its difficulty and the impact on the shoulder joints (although it also, obviously, uses your lats, and other muscle groups, but there's an infamy around the torque on the joint). I "think" that's what it is, so same here, if I'm in error, please correct me.

As for the pushups, I would not suggest trying to correct the coach or even approach him. How he's training the track team is very "sports specific" and it is not going to either (a) be the same thing as, or (b) necessarily be complementary with, -- doing a resistance training program at the gym.

I understand, this is not your choice, it's what you're being instructed to do, part of the exercise routine as designed by your coach for the express purpose of what he's training you for (which is not bench pressing or muscle building, etc.)

You want to know if the fact that you can do 150 of these, that you're not lifting weights, that that is all you're doing, -- if that will be enough to maintain your chest muscles? As someone else pointed out, it's about picking and choosing, and it sounds like firstly, you don't have a choice right now, and since your interest is in track, following the experience of your coach and trusting he'll do that which will make you a better at whatever event you're in training for. You're being trained to increase endurance, and that's the focus, that's what you'll develop.

[Dins_PR]

Iron Cross


here ya go guys...

[Lil'Lifter]

Originally posted by Dins_PR
I have to disagree with this quote. You are on a track team, unless you are a sprinter you want to do alot of pushups because they will increase you muscle endurance which is vital to running anything beyond a 400.

Actually I am a sprinter/jumper so I am not worried about long distance at all. But thanks anyway.
-Mike