# Can you build muscle by doing pressups until tired every day for a few months?



## WalkingDisaster (Nov 27, 2010)

Just wondered as it seemed to work for someone I know.


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## VanDamMan (Nov 2, 2009)

yes


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## Zen Mechanics (Aug 3, 2007)

no. anymore then about 8-12 reps and you start just getting in to endurance training. doing as many 'pressups' as you can every day will just get you better at doing pressups (i am assuming they are the same as pushups). if you want to build muscle, don't go over 12 reps. try to do 3 sets of 8-12 reps.. wear a backpack and put weights or water jugs or whatever you can in it to make it heavier. as soon as you can do more then 12 reps with that weight, add more. when you do the pushup, power through the postive (from the floor up), and as you lower yourself back down count to 5 in your head, pause at the bottom of the movement then power upa gain. you gain muscle by progressive overload, that is by slowly increasing how much weight you lift. if someone gained muscle by doing pushups till they were tired every day they probably have freaky genetics that let's them gain muscle doing *anything*. but i guarantee if you gave them a proper program or proper weights they would gain muscle 10x as fast

so yeah, do pushups with weights on don't go over 12 reps.. also do chinups/pull ups if you have somewhere to do them, again wear weights if you can do more than 12. throw some dips in as well.


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## Ape in space (May 31, 2010)

Make sure you bring your chest so that it's almost touching the ground, so you can get the maximum benefit. It's easy to start taking shortcuts and only go down part of the way, and you're doing less work than you think you are.


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## milo2020 (May 22, 2011)

I agree with Zen, if you should really do 3-6 or 8-12 reps 3 timesto gain muscle, doing it until your completely tired will not bring you any results...


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## Ramon (May 24, 2011)

Ah no wonder lol


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## cmed (Oct 17, 2009)

It depends on your diet. What are you eating? How much protein are you getting?


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## farfegnugen (Aug 16, 2010)

Any physical strain will build muscle over time. The problem with just doing pushups is that it works primarily the pecs and triceps. You need to work other muscle groups too.


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## WalkingDisaster (Nov 27, 2010)

I was just doing as many pressups as I could in one go each day. I was hoping the number I could do would gradually increase. I really have no idea what is useful excercise and what isn't.


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## Sunshine009 (Sep 21, 2008)

The Insanity and P90x programs are close to millitary fitness where the pushups are varied in form, that varying is important, it builds muscle.


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## bsd3355 (Nov 30, 2005)

Yeah


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## btryan (Jun 3, 2011)

I assume you're talking about push-up. It works but it takes quite a long time. Years ago, I started doing only 25/day, and increased the number incrementally over 6 months to 80/day, 1 year to 100. After that you would reach a point of diminishing return.


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## Zen Mechanics (Aug 3, 2007)

StarryMessenger said:


> I assume you are referring to building biceps by doing push-ups? If that's the case, I don't find push-ups very effective. I think it trains more of the back muscles. I think pull-ups are better at building biceps.
> 
> I started off with pull-ups on the assisted pull-up machine in the gym. After 1 month of daily workouts, I could do one. And then after another month, I could do 10. The hardest part is doing the first one.
> 
> I haven't done pull-ups for a long time, but I have been maintaining it by lifting weights, and I would say it has helped to maintain my muscles quite well


erm, pushups work chest and tris.. not back.


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## Zen Mechanics (Aug 3, 2007)

WalkingDisaster said:


> I was just doing as many pressups as I could in one go each day. I was hoping the number I could do would gradually increase. I really have no idea what is useful excercise and what isn't.


the number you can do *will* gradually increase, but you will build a minimum amount of muscle in the process. as i said, once you get above 12 reps you start training more for endurance then strength, and you only need to look at at the body of marathon runners to see endurance training does little to benifit muscular size


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## jonny neurotic (Jan 20, 2011)

Isometric pushups. And get a chinning bar. Do isometrics on that too. After a couple of weeks of isometrics go back to the dynamic exercises. Don't work the same muscles everyday. Work a 3 day cycle. Do one set of muslces one day - ie. pushups, chinups. Then do another set the next - squats, core. Then rest for a day. Repeat in same order.


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## Reinvented (Apr 25, 2011)

I do 3 sets of 8-12 reps for 6 different upper body dumbell exercises (and I take a 3-4 day break between workouts to recover). If you can get some adjustable dumbells, you will never need to visit the gym because they are better than any machine.

Zen is right about pushups - doing as many pushups as you can will just make you better at doing pushups.


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## jonny neurotic (Jan 20, 2011)

> If you can get some adjustable dumbells, you will never need to visit the gym because they are better than any machine.


I'll second that.


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