Blonde will make you STRONG

[kukushkin88]

Advice please guys.

I do four sets of press-ups 3 times a week. I do each set until I max out then rest for 90 seconds before beginning the next.

If I rest for longer I can do more, and vice verca.

So my question is which is best, more rest and more press-ups or less rest, less press-ups?

TIA.

It's a great question. But the answer is, it depends.

Are you doing it for strength? To grow muscle? To do as many press ups in a minute? Rehab? KCAL burning? All have different answers.

A while ago, I noticed that as I got older I was losing upper body strength so I started doing a few exercises to try to stop the rot.

This is a great reason to do press ups and similar to the reason I got on to them. I noticed that my lower pecs weren't anywhere near as chunky as they used to be so wanted something to work my whole chest. There really isn't anything better in my opinion for overall chest development than the good old push up.

My advice Tom would be to continually mix it up. 4 sets 3 times a week will be good but where's it eventually leading? More individual reps in each set? Shorter breaks in between each set?

Perhaps you could do something different every night:
4 sets of as many as possible with a long break of say 5 minutes.
4 sets of 20 with a 60 second break.
4 sets of 10 really slow ones with a 2 second pause top and bottom so each set takes 40 seconds total.

Just a few ideas of what you might try.

Keeping posting on here with how you're getting on please. Would love to see your progress.

Have you tested your single set max? Any aspirations to hit 100? I know you started the 100 press up challenge on Blonde ages ago but like everyone else I assume you stopped when you realised it wasn't going to happen in 6 weeks as promised?

All great stuff, this is rapidly turning in to my favourite thread. On the subject of chest sculpting, I've found elevating your feet (a range of different elevations) is great for pec building.

[iRaise]

The higher you put your feet works to a point. Then you're a handstand press up which would make me so jealous.

For muscle building I think technique is key. Squeeze the floor so you engage your chest and use the correct angles through shoulders and elbows.

If you want to do as many as possible choose the way that hurts the least/easiest.

[EvilPie]

Just tried push ups immediately following my T25 abs workout. It involves a lot of plank type moves so definitely makes them harder.

Managed 25, 25, 20, 18 with strict 60 second breaks.

Off for a shower nom then I'll try AMRAP after.

The way my arms feel now I can't see how I'll do more than 20 but it'll be interesting to see what the break does.

Back soon.....

[EvilPie]

Just tried push ups immediately following my T25 abs workout. It involves a lot of plank type moves so definitely makes them harder.

Managed 25, 25, 20, 18 with strict 60 second breaks.

Off for a shower nom then I'll try AMRAP after.

The way my arms feel now I can't see how I'll do more than 20 but it'll be interesting to see what the break does.

Back soon.....

The answer is 48.

I think that's about a 20 minute break but I could definitely tell I was still fatigued. Think the fatigue was from T25 rather than previous press ups but it still hurt.

Might try this again tomorrow but completely separate it from T25 to see what change it makes.

[Marky147]

You guys are crazy, which is good, obv.

[Steve Swift]

"Saturday weigh in edging closer if I have a blinding rest of the week I might do my target, fingers crossed."

Well Saturday did come and the weigh in did not give me what I had hoped for.  As running is out for a while I worked my nads off on the exercise bike every day straight after completing T25, I had 2 hard days labour in the scorching hot weather we recently had and sweated like a mad man, this followed a poor previous week when I lost only 1/2lb.  So hoped to lose the 3lb required to hit my target, unfortunately just the 1lb loss. However I did a waist measurement and I lost another 1" since I last checked which means I have lost 4 in total and that was the target I set. Just the 2lb to go and we are done.  (up until the last 2 weeks I would have expected this to go easily  but i shall just work hard and see how I get on. 4 weeks left on T25, so I must get there surely

As I near to the end of this chapter I am starting to look at the next one and after reading this thread i think some sort of body sculpture might be next. WOW not the sort of thing I though that I would ever consider.

Firstly as mentioned before my main weight carrying area is my stomach, shocked I know. So I want to target that area specifically, 4 " lose of my waist is superb, especially  when using a cloth tape around you waist and seeing what 4" looks like, try it its a lot.  But I know that I have another couple of inches to go at least.  I can see in my face and others have commented that I look thin and haggard so don't want any more weight to go from these areas so again targeting seems the way ahead.

I have been challenged by an ex Army pal to do  22 press ups a day in aid of bringing awareness to the amount of suicides that take place within the US and UK Military ranks. and with all the press ups talk on here recently it makes sense to tackle this little issue at the same time.

Waist measuring

Ok how do you guys measure I see accuracy to 1/4" posted yet when ever I or my good Lady measure me it can be easily half an inch out pending on where you measure and how tight you hold the tape....  So I always measure around my naval as its always there as a good marker  and I pull the tape just so it isn't squeezing the flesh. I am pretty sure that I am measuring wrongly but at least consistently so that I can monitor change. Whist I was 40" I was wearing 34" trousers I guess the muffing top look, I have just dropped to a 32" trouser.  So I am either measuring wrongly or squeezing into too tight a trouser How do you guys do it?


Press ups

Firstly I have the arms of Montgomery Burns and the upper body strength of a 6 year old, wasn't always the case but is now.  So I thought I could do the 22 press up thing above, post and move on,  no chance.  I had an attempt straight after T25 and completed an amazing 8, I shook myself of waiting 10 mins and tried again...  FFS 8 again.  So I thought I wonder how many I could do with my knees on the floor.... 15.  So 22 proper jobs is a long way off, I was quiet shocked as I was sure I could knock out 20 and gruns through the last 2 required, but not the case.


So baring in mind all of the above I intend to:

Complete last 4 weeks of T25 and work to get rid of the last 2lb asp.
Aim to do 50 push ups none stop, with a view to looking at the 100 push up thingy in the future as discussed by Red and others.
Lose another 2" from my waist with exercises specifically for that area.

That's should about do, gl all

Steve

[EvilPie]

Hey Steve. Harvey has already said this but don't focus too much on lbs as they really don't matter particularly on a week by week basis.

If you're doing your T25 there's a good chance that you're not just losing fat but gaining muscle. That may be contributing to your slower than expected weight loss as the muscle is pretty heavy compared to fat. I'd just focus on the waist measurement and the mirror. Weight is a guide but if it demotivates when you don't see the numbers you're expecting it can cause more harm than good.

You might be disappointed at losing only 1lb this week but if you did the same for the next year you'd disappear completely. If that 1lb is a genuine sustainable loss then it's better than losing 4lb just by not eating or drinking anything for 2 days.

I find it a bit worrying that you say "just the 2lb to go then we're done". This is the problem with diets, there's that feeling that you diet for a purpose then go back to how you were. Seems ridiculous to me unless you're planning on sticking to it long term.

Your waist measurement should be taken just above your hip joint and below the lower floating ribs. If you were looking at a skeleton it'd be the narrow bit where you can see straight through to the spine. If you measure anywhere else you're taking bone in to consideration and good luck trying to make your hip bones smaller.....

The main thing is that you always do it the same way as before so you can monitor the changes. We all know that by tensing and squeezing and pulling the tape tight we can knock a couple of inches off. Well if you do all of that every time then you know that every week you're comparing from the same reference point. I go for tensed with the tape pulled tight enough so it can't fall. Looks like you have a similar system for consistency so I can't a problem sticking to that. The 0.25" thing for me is because I'm not expecting to lose much more than an inch so I need a bit more accuracy. If I was 40+ aiming for 35 then I may just go an inch at a time. I may be a little bit out sometimes but I'm hoping to spot a pattern over time where I see the higher numbers appear less often due to measurement errors. What you'll notice is that as you get slimmer there's less room for error so you can measure 4 or 5 times and still get the same result. If there's no fat to slip in to the gap where the tape was last time then you'll get the same result.

[EvilPie]

Regarding your push ups don't set the bar too high. 50 is hell of a lot in one go and I wouldn't be surprised if it took you a year to get there. 50 is a fine target as long as you're not going to get pissed off in 2 months when you can still only do 20.

I have to ask one thing regarding the T25. If you're struggling to hit double figure press ups how do you manage the 'total body circuit' on T25? Some of the plank walk, press up type manoeuvres are too much for me so I don't get how they're possible?

Do you have to stop doing T25 after you've done the programme? Just doing the abs routine from level one twice a week will really help with your goal for your waist. It'll also help your press ups as they require a lot of core strength. People think it's all about arms and chest but if you can't hold a plank for 60 seconds you won't be doing many press ups I can assure you....

It'll be a long road but a rewarding one. Stick around and impress us all please.

[RED-DOG]

I was shockingly bad when I first started a few months ago but I have improved a bit. Now I can do 40 for the first set and 3 more sets of 15 each with 90 seconds rest.

I asked the question because I've stopped improving, but the other day I had just finished my first set when the phone rang, I was only on the phone for 4 or 5 mins but when I did my second set I managed 25 instead of the usual 15.

To be honest I like the short rest period because that means my whole routine on what I call floor days takes less than half an hour, and truth to tell, I don't want to keep pushing and pushing until it becomes such a chore that get discouraged and stop trying. (that's what happened with the 100 push up thing).

I just want a sustainable routine but that said, I also want the best possible return for my time and effort invested.

You say that you've stopped improving but you also say you want a sustainable routine. Why do you need to improve if you want sustainable? I would imagine when you first started you had some sort of target and now you've hit it you're just sticking there.

That's absolutely fine if your target is to always do 40, 15, 15, 15. You won't improve if you never ask your body for more. Why would it offer more if it didn't need to?

I'd strongly suggest just changing things around a bit. Do me a favour and try this for your next floor session. (Note this is not a favour I'll be paying returning...)

Start of session do 4 sets of press ups.

20
20
20
20

Have a strict 60 second rest in between so that's a total of 80 press ups in less than 5 minutes. Stopping at 20 on your first set might seem strange as you know you can do another 20. Don't worry though, by the last set of 20 you'll be struggling and know it's working. If you feel set 3 was a bit close to failure then have an extra 30 seconds before set 4 just to be sure you can hit your 20 target.

Now do the remainder of your floor exercises.

Once you've finished everything go away and do something else for 10 minutes. Shower, make the dinner or whatever. Once you've completely recovered just imagine drill sergeant Red-Dog shouting "drop and give me forty!!" My cue for my final set to failure is when I sit down for dinner. I do my 4 x 25 before I make dinner. I then do my 1 x 50ish before I sit down to eat. If your other floor exercises don't exert much strain on your chest and shoulders you may be able to do your final big set immediately following that rather than needing a break. See how you feel and make a decision. The idea is that you're fully recovered and able to do as many as if it was your first set.

Just blast out one set of press ups to failure. I'd imagine it'll be about 40 so you're only talking an extra 40 seconds of your life. It won't be enough to wear you out or require another shower and when it's done it's all over for the day. You've increased your daily press up count from 85 to 120 without much additional effort and in slightly less time.

The problem with doing your big set first is you're exhausting the muscle to failure. It's then taking a long time to recover and 90 seconds perhaps isn't enough. You saw that with an extra couple of minutes you were able to do a lot more.

If you don't exhaust in the first place you won't need quite so much time to recover. You're so far from failure on set one that 30 seconds less rest and 5 more reps on set 2 should be achievable. It'll still be tough by set 4 though I promise.

Just so you know I came up with this routine through trial and error. It's the most efficient way for me to get a decent quantity out in the shortest possible time. If I do 40 on my first set I need 5 minutes before I can do my next set. If I do 25 I only need 60 seconds. You can keep mixing it up until you find what works best.

Try it for a few weeks and see how you go. I think you'll like it

Thanks Matt. That seems to make sense. Now that I understand the concept better I'll play around with it a bit and see what works the best.

[Steve Swift]

Matt,

Thank you for the detailed reply and the ongoing support it is greatly appreciated. My daughter is a Doctor and she says exactly what you say about, weight not that important but waist is more so.

Firstly I don't see it really as being on a diet, from a food POV I have just cut out all the bad things and eating slightly smaller potions and during a meal asking myself do I need to finish this plateful or have I had sufficient. Stuff that's probably sustainable. I come form a family of skinnies and am confident that once I get rid of what is clearly excess around the midriff, providing I exercise 2/3 times a week I will be good to go long term. 

The lose a stone and 4" thing is only a target, it helps with direction and motivation so don't see it as an end, just as a datum point. I think with my ex Military back ground, upbringing and general OCD tendencies, I have an over whelming desire to complete something I set out to do.  Hence I must finish T25, even more so as my wife, my son, my DIL and one of my daughters did not get past week 2.  However I am aware that I have the one thing that stop many people completing these such programmes and that is time.

T25

To answer your question on how I get on with plank walks etc., I don't.  I do the best I can every time and  when I collapse, I take a nano second break and crack on, I clearly struggle with the press up elements and normally have to drop down to my knees to keep the ball rolling. I am aware of this weakness but am sure that when I tackle my press ups and waist exercises this will improve vastly.  I am sure that you are aware that the T25 package has a tick chart with it and after every session you can tick barely made it or nailed it (or words to this effect) of the 36 session completed to date I have ticked nailed it just the once, so I think I am being very honest as if I have to stop or collapse during the session I cannot say I nailed it   I think they need a column somewhere in the middle, which I would hit a lot

Yes I will cherry pick certain T25 sessions and maybe some Insanity too.

Funnily enough I am enjoying the Beta session more than the Alpha, they seem to be a bit more cardio and  a few more "REST" exercises throughout, so surprisingly fairly enjoyable.

Pain
I hate moaning about aches and pains it just seems a bit, bleh however,

I still ache every where but some of that comes from being a certain age.  But my knee issue is the major problem, last night it kept me awake as when I turned it really hurt when in certain positions. During T25 it is ok, although I can feel it in certain spots and I just hold back a little.

We moved house 6 months ago and did 80% of the full refurb my self, during this time I did what I think is pulled a muscle in my left bicep, it only hurts in certain positions and I was hoping that it would heal its self. Obviously that has not helped press ups and the like either, but as it has been 7 months now I feel a visting to the local witch doctor needs to be done before I head for the  "Long Term" target of 50 press ups


Keep up the good work.

Steve

[iRaise]

Squats yesterday.

Over the last 6 months I have been really redeveloping my squat (probably for the 3rd/4th time now).

I finally got the flexibility to go deeper and into the hole at the end of last year, but lacked the strength. So I would bounce at the bottom, effectively not using anything but my knees as a trampoline. Since Feb, I have been really focusing on control.

We have had box squats, paused squats, high reps and even partials to help with this.

Yesterday I got up to 97.5 for 2x6, so next week will be a 100. It will be a huge difference between the 5x5 at 110 last year. I feel in control of nearly every part (the very bottom is still tough, but I have a mini pause to make sure there is no bounce. At everything up to 90 the whole rep feels in control).

Been a frustrating last few months with it, as I never feel natural in a squat, but with a lot of CONSIDERED practice and making it a priority 2 days a week (plus all the mobility stuff everyday) it has come on no end.

A quote that was passed around in our mentorship group last week was 'Mastery beats Novelty' which I am sure you can use in all aspects of life but it definitely sums up my last few months in terms of legs. Just lots and lots of the 'basics'. Going to keep focussing on it of course, and will remain a priority for a few months more until I move onto to retuning my DL technique. Then when thats done, its onto the bench. Which is by far my worst movement from a technique point of view. But I understand that as I never really do it.

Pretty crazy to think my next year of training is 'planned' and it involves getting slightly better at 3 movements. But I am definitely seeing/understanding/appreciating the value anyone can get from just being really good at those movements. They work the entire body, and are a clearly a very good test of all round strength.


Will still have my mobility/BW/gymnastic days in too, but my lifting days are all about technique for the foreseeable. As I am getting to the sort of weights that if I keep doing 'wrong' or don't work on getting them better, I am pretty sure it could get painful.

Long story short, keep working on getting better at the simple stuff. It nearly always works. Lift better, eat more protein, sleep better. Those are pretty much the 3 things you need to either build muscle or lose fat.

In for bench today, got a very unconvincing 3x3 at 100 last week. If nobody is there to spot, will stick at the same and aim to be a bit more confident. If there is, will stick 105 and accept I am gonna need some help.

[Marky147]

Chest

Flat BB Bench - 4r @ 80kg + 2ass

Inc DB Bench - 8r @ 25kg + 2ass

Flat Cable Flies - 6r @ 18kg +2ass (per side)

Inc Hammer Press - 4r @ 30kg + 2ass (per side)



Biceps

Bicep Curls - 8th Notch - 6r +2ass

BB Seated Curls - 6r @ 30kg + 2ass

Seated DB Hammer Curls - 8r @ 15kg + 3ass

Have improved across everything over the last few months, and this will give me something to gauge the Vegas damage on.

Chest

Flat BB Bench - 2r @ 80kg + 2ass

Inc DB Bench - 5r @ 25kg + 2ass

Flat Cable Flies - 5r @ 18kg +2ass (per side)

Inc Hammer Press - 2r @ 30kg + 3ass (per side)



Biceps

Bicep Curls - 8th Notch - 4r +2ass

BB Seated Curls - 6r @ 30kg + 2ass

Seated DB Hammer Curls - 4r @ 15kg + 2ass


After 5 weeks off, I was quite surprised not to be a fair bit weaker than that, and only tried the same weights to give me something to gauge it before next week.

Quite pleased overall, and hopefully not too long before I'll be beyond where I was pre Vegas.

[iRaise]

Chest

Flat BB Bench - 4r @ 80kg + 2ass

Inc DB Bench - 8r @ 25kg + 2ass

Flat Cable Flies - 6r @ 18kg +2ass (per side)

Inc Hammer Press - 4r @ 30kg + 2ass (per side)



Biceps

Bicep Curls - 8th Notch - 6r +2ass

BB Seated Curls - 6r @ 30kg + 2ass

Seated DB Hammer Curls - 8r @ 15kg + 3ass

Have improved across everything over the last few months, and this will give me something to gauge the Vegas damage on.

Chest

Flat BB Bench - 2r @ 80kg + 2ass

Inc DB Bench - 5r @ 25kg + 2ass

Flat Cable Flies - 5r @ 18kg +2ass (per side)

Inc Hammer Press - 2r @ 30kg + 3ass (per side)



Biceps

Bicep Curls - 8th Notch - 4r +2ass

BB Seated Curls - 6r @ 30kg + 2ass

Seated DB Hammer Curls - 4r @ 15kg + 2ass


After 5 weeks off, I was quite surprised not to be a fair bit weaker than that, and only tried the same weights to give me something to gauge it before next week.

Quite pleased overall, and hopefully not too long before I'll be beyond where I was pre Vegas.

Definitely feels pretty strong to me!!

[Marky147]

Definitely feels pretty strong to me!!

Fingers crossed the rest of the week goes as well.

Legs tomorrow, so hopefully not lost too much ground there.

[iRaise]

Had 3x3 at 100 yesterday but needed a spot on the last rep of the last set. Kinda annoying as each of the first reps went up so quickly.

Considering they did go up so quickly I might add some 1rm stuff into it.