Is doing push ups on off days from chest ok???

[Stang281]

My max push ups without stopping is about 40-45....Am I going to hurt my performance on my chest workouts if I do 30 push ups here and there during off chest days???

Which should I be doing for best growth???

[ixoyc]

i've heard pushups are more of a calesthetics/cardio than muscle building. i use to do 100 push ups 3 times a week. combined with a chest workout my working weight increased a decent amount.

[Jay H]

My opinion?

Yes, you're probably going to hurt your chest growth by doing push-ups on off-days. Like any other load-bearing exercise, push-ups create small tears in the muscle tissue which must self-repair for the muscle to grow. If your muscles haven't fully rested and repaired themselves from a previous workout (this usually takes 4-7 days), it makes no sense to create even more tears. If you keep doing this, your muscles can never respond to the stress by growing--they'll just keep getting torn up and weaker and weaker.

[CF-OC_gal]

I think it depends on how heavy you need to go when doing chest. If your bodyweight or the push up variations that you do tax your pecs then yes it's not a good idea.

On the other hand if you are lifting relatively heavy weights and have decent development then doing push ups might be a great way to "stay loose" on your days off. Much like walking or going for a bike ride the day after a leg day.

It's a matter of your intensity and development.

[etothepii]

Originally Posted by Jay H

My opinion?

Yes, you're probably going to hurt your chest growth by doing push-ups on off-days. Like any other load-bearing exercise, push-ups create small tears in the muscle tissue which must self-repair for the muscle to grow. If your muscles haven't fully rested and repaired themselves from a previous workout (this usually takes 4-7 days), it makes no sense to create even more tears. If you keep doing this, your muscles can never respond to the stress by growing--they'll just keep getting torn up and weaker and weaker.

When you lift weights, you cause damage to your muscles. This is often referred to as "microtrauma". Microtrauma involves the tearing and shearing of delicate protein structures within your muscle cells. This may sound bad but in reality it is necessary for the initiation of growth after your workout.
This microtrauma may be expected to require you to postpone your next workout until your muscles are back to normal. It is this logic that your average personal trainer will use when he/she tells you to wait, sometimes a full week, before training the same body part again. Recent research however is showing us that putting off your next workout until your muscles have "fully recovered" may not be necessary or even desirable!1,2,3 In a study performed at the University of Alabama4, two groups of subjects performed the same periodized resistance training routine either once per week or three times per week. The results showed that muscle mass increases were greater in the three workout per week group, compared to the one workout per week group. In addition, the strength increases in this group were on average 40% greater! So what does this mean to you? It means the fear of overtraining, which sometimes verges on paranoia, may be preventing you from getting the most gains you can in the gym.


References: 1) Nosaka K, Clarkson P.M. Muscle damage following repeated bouts of high force eccentric exercise. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc., 27(9):1263-1269,1995
2) Smith LL., Fuylmer MG., Holbert D., McCammon MR., Houmard JA., Frazer DD., Nsien E., Isreal RG. The impact of repeated bout of eccentric exercise on muscular strength, muscle soreness and creatine kinase. Br J Sp Med 28(4):267-271, 1994
3) T.C. Chen, Taipei Physical Education College, and S.S. Hsieh, FACSM,. The effects of a seven-day repeated eccentric training on recovery from muscle damage. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc. 31(5 Supp) pp. S71, 1999
4) McLester JR., Bishop P., & Guilliams M. Comparison of 1 and 3 day per week of equal volume resistance training in experienced subjects. Med. Sci. Sports Exrc. 31(5 Supp) pp.S117 1999

Can't resist spreading some iformation on this. Push ups on off days may still be bad for you, if it leads to over training. But you don't need to fully heal micro trauma before training again.

[fitricise]

good post- I wonder if there are any studies on the 1 muscle group per day/lots of volume versus full body thrice a week. There are some references on the HST website that would suggest full body more frequently would be better but I haven't seen much else. Can you post a link where you found this info? Thanks

[etothepii]

Originally Posted by fitricise

good post- I wonder if there are any studies on the 1 muscle group per day/lots of volume versus full body thrice a week. There are some references on the HST website that would suggest full body more frequently would be better but I haven't seen much else.

Citation 4 above is close to that. I don't know if it is a full body workout. It says "resistance training routine." Also note: this study was conducted on experienced lifters, not newbies, who seem to have faster initial gains!

[Jay H]

After reading etothepii's response to my comments, I went to PubMed to see what other research has been done on this question. It seems etothepii is indeed closer to being correct in his/her comments than I was in mine. Several published studies suggest that frequent bouts (>2x/week) of "eccentric exercise" (i.e., resistance training/weight lifting) have little effect on the indirect indicators of muscle damage (creatine kinase levels, soreness, etc.), which suggests that multiple weekly bouts might not have any adverse effects on recovery time.

However, I did notice that in one or two articles, it was noted that maximal isometric force (MIF, or more plainly, regular ol' strength) was reduced in subsequent bouts falling within seven days of an intense initial bout. So it may be the case that doing push-ups on off days won't hurt your chest gains, but you might lose some strength when chest day comes around again.

I dunno. This is all very interesting to me, and goes against the once-a-week rule that I and most lifters have followed for years. I see decent gains doing it the old fashioned way, and since I've fallen into overtraining when doing multiple weekly bouts, I'll probably stick to the once-a-week split. But it seems things aren't as cut-and-dried as I had thought.

[Stang281]

Originally Posted by fitricise

good post- I wonder if there are any studies on the 1 muscle group per day/lots of volume versus full body thrice a week. There are some references on the HST website that would suggest full body more frequently would be better but I haven't seen much else. Can you post a link where you found this info? Thanks

Thanks, I really couldnt find anything on my question and figured it was a question that many people have wondered themselves :

[Zackoz]

I truly believe that there will never be ONE TRUE EXPLANATION/THEORY. Everyone responds to weight training differently. Some people can work out a muscle group 3 times a week and see gains, whilst for example, I definately could not do this. Ive tried and my strength went downhill, even with proper eating. This is the reason why every person needs a tailor made regime.