As of: March 6, 2024, 5:43 p.m
By: Alexandra Grauvogl
Comments
Press
Split
The right training plan helps you do more push-ups © IMAGO/xinsta_photosx
Many athletes find it easier to motivate themselves and improve their performance with a training plan.
Our 4-week training plan provides a structure that will help you push yourself to do more push-ups.
Are you already able to perform push-ups with correct technique, but your performance stagnates at a certain number of repetitions?
The back weakens at number 15, the arms fail at 20 - such experiences don't exactly promote motivation in the long term.
A training plan can help overcome physical and mental thresholds.
And there are good reasons why it is worthwhile to constantly improve your own performance.
Do more push-ups: That's why you should always try to improve
Prof. Dr.
Dr.
Jürgen Gießing from the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau emphasizes how important it is not to compare yourself with others, but rather to focus on your personal training progress.
“The goal always has to be to do one more push-up than I did in the last training session.
Because of this progression, the body is forced to continue to develop,” explains the sports scientist in an interview with merkur.de.
And that is the benefit of training for health: forcing the body to increase its performance – or at least maintain it.
“Because if we don’t do anything, the body will regress.” Around the age of 27, you have the most muscle mass that you will develop over the course of your life – after that it all goes downhill.
As a rule of thumb, people lose around one to three percent of their muscle mass per year if they do nothing.
“That's why it's important, no matter how good I am now, that I try to keep improving.
The goal must always be to do one more push-up than in the last training session,” summarizes Gießing.
Here you can download the 4-week training plan “Push-up Power for advanced users” after simply registering with USER.ID.
How many push-ups you should do: guidelines
Is there a guideline for how many push-ups you should be able to do?
Based on the study, Prof. Gießing says the minimum number of push-ups is 10 repetitions.
“That’s okay.
So you should be able to do 10 push-ups in a row.
With 40 repetitions you really reach the top level.”
My news
How many push-ups men and women should be able to do read
100 push-ups in a row!
Training plan for push-up professionals reading
This is what push-ups do for muscle building, calorie consumption and health reading
Finally learn push-ups!
The 6-week training plan for beginner readers
Avoid 7 common push-up mistakes for effective training reading
10 push-up variations for effective muscle building and varied reading
When considering the number of repetitions, however, it should be noted that the focus should always be on absolutely clean technique when doing push-ups.
Prof. Gießing: “Execute slowly and with full control.
This means that when you go down you shouldn't flop down, but rather actively shorten the muscle.
So resisting gravity is also important, not just pushing up.”
When done correctly, the push-up is an extremely effective full-body exercise.
Particular focus when building muscle is on the following body parts: chest (especially
the pectoralis major and minor muscles),
shoulders (especially
the deltoideus pars clavicularis muscle),
arms
(triceps brachii muscle),
stomach, back and deep core muscles.
Can't do a single push-up yet? Then we have the right training plan for you: In 6 weeks it will prepare you for properly executed push-ups. Simply register and download the PDF for free.
Push-ups: 4-week training plan for advanced users
For advanced push-ups, it is crucial that the muscles are exposed to the right stimulus.
This should not be too weak, but also not too strong, so that the muscle is neither overloaded nor under-challenged.
To intensify the training, push-up variants are used, e.g.
b.
Decline push-up (place feet elevated)
Deficit push-up (with handles, dumbbells or between two chairs)
Weighted push-up (place weight on back; use resistance bands or weight vest)
Diamond push-up (hands are placed closely under the breast, thumb and index finger touch in a diamond shape)
Uneven push-up (one hand elevated, e.g. on medicine ball)
Paused push-ups (hold the push-up briefly in the lowest position, then push up)
Our 4-week training plan shows how advanced users can structure their training to increase their push-up performance.
The prerequisite is that you can already do around 10 to 20 repetitions using clean technique.
The training plan is structured the same week after week in order to systematically build strength.
For example, you do normal push-ups every Monday and then progress to more difficult push-up variations or larger training volumes.
The 30-day challenge does not include any rest days to push you to your limits.
Each daily workout includes 1 to 4 sets.
On four days you work to muscle failure (maximum possible number of repetitions), on the others the repetitions per set are specified.
These repetition numbers increase from week to week.
Example: Week 1: 10 reps, Week 2: 12 reps, etc. The rest between sets is 60 seconds.
A training period of around 50 minutes is achieved per week - including a short warm-up/mobilization and cool-down.
Ready to get started?
Then download the PDF for free.
Do more push-ups – the training plan
4-week training plan for more push-ups © Photo: IMAGO/Pond5 Images
Are you already able to do 10 to 20 clean push-ups and want more?
Then download the 4-week training plan for advanced users for free as a PDF HERE!
The author is a former competitive athlete, certified fitness trainer and ski instructor.