100 push-ups a day for a month. Home workouts. Challenge

Push-ups are a popular exercise for strengthening the core and upper body muscles. Many people add them to their workouts. The benefits of performing this movement daily include increased muscle growth and improved cardiovascular health.

Push-ups are a basic exercise for increasing physical strength. Although it primarily works the muscles of the arms and chest, the torso and legs are also used. Thus, they prove to be beneficial for the entire body.

This article will help you understand what will happen if you do push-ups every day. We will consider not only the advantages, but also possible disadvantages. We will also try to come to a conclusion - is it possible to do push-ups so often, is it useful and what will happen if you do 50-100 repetitions daily for 1 month and a whole year.

In the gym, you can only work towards one goal. It is impossible to train to gain muscle mass, strength and endurance at the same time. If you come to the gym expecting to work in several areas in one workout, you will be less likely to achieve results. The goals of strength training can be different: to develop strength, endurance or cause hypertrophy, but at the same time they are not achieved and require a different approach to organizing the training process and performing exercises.

Therefore, it is important to decide what you want: to build muscle, increase strength and start doing 100 push-ups in one set, or just maintain good shape, this will determine how often you need to train and how many repetitions to perform.

If you're looking to get big, here's everything you need to know about the different variations of this exercise and the number of repetitions for active muscle growth.

What the experts say

Jim White, a trainer and teacher at a fitness school, advises doing as many repetitions as possible in one approach. You can use this number to calculate the total number of push-ups you will perform in your upper body workout day, breaking them up into multiple sets if necessary:

• If you can do less than 25 reps, do 50-75 reps a day
• If your max is between 25 and 50, do 75-150 reps
• If you get more than 50 without losing technique, do 150-250

White suggests doing this amount in 2-4 sets. But this does not mean that you should stop at this level. This is a good start, but you want to do a lot of push-ups in a week. And try to do them in such a way that the last few repetitions are difficult for you.

You shouldn't expect a miracle. White says you should be able to add no more than 1-2 reps to your max in a week.

Advice : if you feel like you can do more than what is described here, remember that the main thing is technique. White says your maximum is reached when your perfect technique begins to falter. If you can't maintain proper technique, quit.

This means that the hips should not rise or fall, the neck should be neutral, and the chest should be lowered to 5 cm from the floor. You should pause at the bottom of the exercise before returning back.

Pros of push-ups

You already know that this is a simple basic exercise that is also accessible to beginners. But this simple movement has other advantages that you didn’t even know about. And this is what push-ups give you:

• They develop strength faster than the bench press

Participants in one study who did push-ups gained more muscle mass and became stronger than the group who did chest presses.

• It's an easy way to measure your fitness level

Push-ups are a great way to test your physical fitness. One study found that the amount you do in 30 seconds is a good way to test your overall health and fitness.

• Improves the condition of the circulatory system

White noted that push-ups help the circulatory system, especially when combined with other exercises. If you do them together with cardio, squats, and pull-ups, you can strengthen your heart no worse than your triceps and pecs.

Risks and possible harm

Let's now figure out whether it is useful to do push-ups every day or, on the contrary, harmful, what risks await us and what this will lead to.

As with many exercises, this movement comes with a small risk of injury as a result of improper technique. People should consult a trainer before attempting push-ups or variations of push-ups.

Overall, the benefits far outweigh the risks, however, there are potential dangers of daily exercise:

• Training plateau

People who repeat the same exercises regularly soon notice that they reach a plateau - this is when the exercises become increasingly easier to perform, but muscle growth does not occur. If it’s easy for you, it means that the muscles no longer receive the necessary load and do not grow.

To avoid a plateau, a person must add a wide range of exercises to his routine. This will allow you to use many muscles at once.

People who want to stay fit can get many benefits from aerobic exercise. A 2013 study found that people who do aerobic exercise are more likely to maintain muscle mass throughout their lives.

Ideally, training should include the following types of exercises:

• Exercises for the torso
• Workouts for balance
• Stretching

• Backache

Some variations, such as moving your arms forward or towards you, increase the work done by the back muscles. This may lead to discomfort or back pain.

These exercises can also temporarily compress the joints in the back that are at the junctions of the vertebrae of the spine.

Between every two vertebrae there is a disc that separates one vertebra from the next. If you put too much stress on your back, the discs will wear out faster, causing back pain.

People who already have back pain should talk to their doctor about adding push-ups to their workout regimen.

• Wrist pain

Some people experience pain in their wrists or hands when they do heavy bench press exercises. In most cases, the pain is localized at the back of the wrist when the person bends the hand back.

A 2014 study found that 84% of all people who experienced wrist pain while doing exercises had some kind of wrist deformity. About 76% of these deformities are due to malposition of the nerve. The second most common cause was a healed ligament tear.

It is unknown whether these deformities were congenital or acquired, or whether they were the result of previous exercises.

Regardless, people who experience pain while doing exercises should consult a doctor, who can advise on how best to perform the exercise. He may also suggest an alternative.

• Elbow injury

Doing it quickly or incorrectly can damage your elbow.

A 2011 study looked at the effect of increasing push-up speed on the incidence of elbow injury. They tested three speeds - fast, slow and medium.

Researchers have found that the speed at which movements are performed is directly related to the pressure on the elbows, ligaments and tissue around them. They concluded that speed may increase the risk of damage to these and other structures.

The study also found that when performing slow push-ups, muscles were activated better.

In general, going slow is better for your muscles and easier on your joints.

Conclusion

Doing push-ups every day can build strong muscles, improve muscle tone, and strengthen your upper body. Other possible effects include improved cardiac health and stronger shoulder muscles.

However, doing it every day carries with it certain risks. Possible problems include pain in the lower back and wrists, and damage to the elbow joints. People can reduce the risk of injury by using proper technique.

Standards

The standards (number of push-ups) are set out in the table:

M - boys, youths, men

F - girls, girls, women

B - bronze badge

C - silver badge

Z - gold sign

For older ages, it is planned to perform the exercise while resting on a gymnastic bench (X step) and on the seat of a chair (XI step). The standards are as follows:

Is it possible to do push-ups every day?

“Yes, they can be done almost daily,” says White. However, he warns to be careful if you have problems with your arm muscles.

You can perform daily push-ups as long as you do them in moderation. This would be 10-20 reps if your max is 25, 2 sets of 10-20 if your max is between 25 and 50, and 2-3 sets of 10-20 if your max is above 50. “If you do them a lot and try to do the maximum amount, then it’s better to do them every second day.”

But as with every exercise, you need to tailor the plan to suit you and your body. If you notice that you're feeling very tired and run down, White advises simply taking a break and working out the next day.

Push-ups are a basic exercise for increasing physical strength. Although it primarily works the muscles of the arms and chest, the torso and legs are also used. Thus, they prove to be beneficial for the entire body. People who decide to exercise so often must do different types of exercise. This will improve your overall health than doing just one type of movement.

Correct technique

Before starting his fitness challenge, Sam Stryker consulted with certified trainer Astrid Swan and received some tips:

1. The main mistake of beginners is relaxed back and torso muscles. When you do push-ups, your core muscles should be tight, just like when holding a plank.
2. Start with 10 sets of 10 repetitions - that's enough.
3. If you feel like you can do more, increase the number of repetitions per set to 15-20, and if you feel sore muscles, you can reduce them to five.
4. If 100 push-ups seems unrealistic to you, you can start with 20. In addition, you can do push-ups from your knees if you can’t do full push-ups yet.
5. Concentrate on the exercise and how you feel. Stop immediately if you feel pain.
6. Proper technique is of utmost importance. If your exercises only vaguely resemble push-ups, don’t waste your time: mistakes in technique can result in injury.
7. The timing of the push-ups also matters. If you're a morning person and feel good in the morning, try to do most of your push-ups before lunch, while you're still energized.

What happens if you do push-ups every day?

Benefits of regular exercise include stronger joints, improved muscle tone and strength.

Strengthening joints

Push-ups are very effective for strengthening the muscles around the shoulder joints.

These muscles and tendons in the shoulder area are responsible for moving the bones of the arm. It is due to these muscles that the bone does not come out of the joint.

However, it is important to increase the number of push-ups to gradually build more strength in the muscles. Overloading weak muscles can lead to muscle rupture or ligament damage.

Improved muscle tone and increased strength

There are many different ways to perform push-ups, and each type activates the muscles differently.

A small study conducted in 2020 compared the effects of different types of push-ups.

• Standard : Hands are shoulder-width apart and elbows are in a straight line with the shoulders. The upper body or torso is in a straight line with the legs. All the muscles of the torso are tense.
• Wide : The distance between the hands is greater than with standard ones.
• Narrow : The arms are located under the center of the chest. The thumbs and index fingers on opposite hands touch each other.
• With arms forward : arms are shoulder-width apart as in standard push-ups, but extended 20 cm forward.
• With arms shifted towards you : arms are positioned shoulder-width apart, but shifted 20 cm back, towards the torso.

The study found that:

• The option with a narrow position of the arms better used the triceps and chest muscles
• The option with a shift forward and towards you best used the abdominal and back muscles
• Techniques with the arms shifted toward oneself generally involved more muscles.

The study authors concluded that push-ups may be the most beneficial way to perform them for strengthening the muscles of the whole body and their physical strength.

Narrow or diamond push-ups are recommended for people who want to increase the size and strength of their triceps and chest.

Improved heart and circulatory health

Increased muscle endurance can reduce the risk of all heart diseases.

Several studies have already linked greater muscle strength to a lower risk of heart disease.

A 2020 study looked at the relationship between the number of push-ups a person can do and their risk of developing heart disease. This study included 1,104 men.

The researchers found a big difference between the group that did more than 40 push-ups and the group that did less than 10.

Men in the stronger group had a 96% lower risk of developing heart disease than the second group.

It is important to remember that the study involved only healthy middle-aged men leading an active lifestyle. More studies will need to be done to find the same effect in women or older adults.

What happens if you do push-ups until you drop?

If you suddenly decide to do push-ups every day to the maximum, and your maximum is not 5-10 times, but much more, look at what this can lead to:

• There is a risk of overwork and losing more weight than normal due to muscle wasting.
• You will constantly feel tired hands, which is not very pleasant. The muscles will not have time to recover.
• Your elbows may start to hurt. The joint resource is also not infinite.

Further, there may be 2 outcomes: either you will acquire a chronic joint disease, or your body will adapt to the load, and your endurance will noticeably increase. It all depends on the characteristics of your body. But it’s still better to check carefully.

Of course, this all applies to those who are able to do many push-ups in a row. If your limit is 2-3 repetitions, do as many as you can.

What happens after a month of doing 50 push-ups a day?

If you do 50 push-ups a day for a month, you will target that muscle group for 30 days. If you've been doing them infrequently before, you'll likely notice big improvements in your fitness. Consider this from a logical perspective: if you were not interested in this muscle group before, then with an unexpected load these muscles will begin to develop rapidly.

In the first month, you will notice weight loss in the deltoid, triceps and biceps areas. For many people who are obese or simply overweight, fat is deposited in these areas, which will improve your overall health and self-esteem.

In addition, you will immediately see an improvement in your overall physical strength, which will continue to increase throughout this month.

If you do 50 push-ups a day, you'll be training a muscle you haven't worked before. The body, as a rule, reacts aggressively to such unexpected changes, and therefore you will feel severe pain and discomfort in your arms and upper abdominal muscles for the first week.

After a week, your body will get used to the stress that your arms and chest will receive. Then he will begin to build muscle to compensate and be able to withstand such a load.

It is important to note that doing so many push-ups will lead to fatigue.

In some cases, if you did 50 times yesterday, the next day it will seem like too much. In the following days, on the contrary, 50 repetitions will seem easy to you.

Ways to correct this problem is to perform the same 50 times at a faster speed, but without losing the correct push-up technique. You can increase the load by placing a weight on your back. If you are tired, you can do sets of 5 or 10 repetitions. Short sets will allow you to pay more attention to form.

What results can you expect after a month of push-ups?

By doing 50 push-ups a day for a month, you will work this muscle group so much that you will inevitably notice changes that will happen to your body. The logic is clearly visible here: if you were not into this exercise before, your muscles were not familiar with such a load, then when you start doing push-ups, your body will join a new process and start working to its fullest.

The first thing you will be pleased with is significant weight loss in the deltoid, triceps and biceps areas. This will be especially noticeable if you are overweight, and in small quantities. Many people who are obese and have significant amounts of fat on their chests and arms will find even greater benefits from doing push-ups.

This is all well and good, however, if you have never done this exercise before, start gradually. In any case, you are guaranteed muscle strength at the initial stage. By training muscles that have not worked before, when faced with a new load, they will react poorly to it. This will result in severe pain in the upper body, back, arms and abdomen. In this situation, turn your attention to a massage or a hot bath to “disperse” the lactic acid accumulated in the muscles.

To avoid, or at least reduce discomfort, do 10 repetitions on the first day, 20 the next, and so on until you reach 50 repetitions per day. The muscles will gradually get used to the load, and the discomfort will go away.

What happens if you do push-ups every day for a year?

You may encounter the same problems that bothered you during the first month. In most cases, the body will get used to the load and adapt. One way to improve is to do more than 50 times a day to keep moving forward.

But you can only increase the volume of exercises you perform if you perform the exercises with the correct technique and do not experience fatigue by the end of the day. You don't have to increase the number of push-ups, but instead increase the intensity of each repetition or their speed.

This option may appeal to those who are tired of the monotony of the exercise and who find it difficult to force themselves to do the same thing.

But to prevent injury to your back or elbows, always remember not to do push-ups too quickly. Often those who perform 50 times a day forget about the importance of technique, namely, it is responsible for muscle training.

The human body changes rather slowly and always strives to return to its previous state. This is why you can gain back five kilograms in a few days that you have been trying to lose for a whole month. But if you do it 50 times every day for a year, you stimulate the production of growth hormone, which builds muscle.

You also stimulate not just one, but several muscle groups at once, as well as the entire torso. When many muscles have to work hard, the body releases growth hormone, which stimulates muscle growth. This is especially important for people who want to build muscle after 40 years, because their body is already beginning to slow down the production of this hormone.

It is recommended not just to do push-ups, but to perform other exercises along with them that should affect other muscle groups. When doing push-ups, the arms, chest and abdominal muscles work primarily. If you add free weight exercises, you can stimulate rapid muscle growth and gain a decent amount of mass in one year.

What happens if you do 100 push-ups?

What came of it, and what effect did these exercises give in my case:

Let me remind you what everything looked like in June, before I did the exercises a little more intensely:

But to clearly notice the difference, you need to look at what I was like about a year ago, in July-August 2020:

At the time this photo was taken, I weighed about 90 kilograms. Very swollen, as you can see. This is a year and a half after I quit smoking.

And of course the weight - you can also notice the difference in it. In June, when I wrote that post, it was 82-83 kg. Now it fluctuates around 79-80.

This is still a little fatty, 3-5 kg ​​still need to be removed, just until the fat on the sides and stomach dries out. But the closer you are to your ideal weight, the more difficult it is, apparently.

What to do if you can’t do push-ups from the floor even once?

If you can't do a push-up on your first try, there's no reason to be upset. Many people suffer from severe obesity and find it difficult for their arms to support and stabilize such mass. In such cases, experts recommend standing on your hands and knees - a simplified form of push-ups, where you have to stabilize the weight not with your hands and feet, but with your hands and knees.

Even if you perform this simplified form, your physical strength will increase. The moment will come when you can move from your knees to your feet, and then your abdominal muscles will also work.

We also recommend reading: how to learn to do push-ups on one arm, the described technique will help you too.

You can also complement these simplified push-ups with other types of abdominal exercises, because it is a strengthened torso that will help you get from your knees to your feet. This is how many people made the transition from the kneeling method to the standard version.

It is important to carefully monitor safety precautions - any exercise performed incorrectly poses a health hazard. If you didn't stop when you noticed the pain, you again increased the risk of harming your health. And the injury will immobilize the affected limb for a long time and will interfere with you not only in exercise, but also in everyday life.

What if you did 100 push-ups every day?

Will you gain muscle, will you become stronger? Let's look at what happens if you do 100 push-ups every day.

Will you increase strength or muscle and is it possible to get bigger this way?

So there are two options here. Let's consider below what will happen if you do this .

Let's start with the most likely outcome

You will be better at push-ups

Most likely, nothing interesting will happen - you will simply become more trained in performing these exercises. You definitely won’t have super powers - you won’t be able to do them on one hand. 100 push-ups is not that much, especially if you do them in several approaches.

However, if you haven't done so many of them before, you will certainly become stronger. But if you were previously able to do 100 push-ups per set, you won't notice much of a difference.

Why is this so ? The human body is very adaptable. If you have given your muscles such a load before, they will quickly get used to it and will not grow. If you do more than 30 repetitions, you won't notice much of a difference . Instead of chasing quantity, focus on finding other options for building bigger muscles.

You will find the 8-week push-up program useful.

You will develop muscle imbalance

Whether you're a beginner or an expert, focusing on one specific muscle group is a bad idea. A good workout is designed to use as many muscles as possible, develop them all equally, and achieve good balance. Push-ups mainly affect the muscles of the arms and abdomen, but you should also train your back, even if you can’t see it in the mirror.

This is why you should add other types of exercises that will strain other muscle groups. Rows and presses will help the best.

You will overload your chest and triceps

If you've been struggling to do 100 push-ups and you've barely finished them, then you should probably take a break. For maximum weight gain, you should give the muscle group a rest for two days. If you continue to tear the fibers with consistent training, you will damage them, not make progress, and maybe even injure yourself.

If 100 times is not difficult for you , you will simply give your muscles a simple endurance workout. A hundred push-ups will be a simple workout for you - a waste of time or a good warm-up for real training.

You may see positive results (if you are a beginner)

If you are a complete beginner, your muscles will be very sore for the first few days. In the second week, you will notice changes in the muscles of your arms, abdomen and chest. You can gain physical strength and notice gains in the muscles of your entire upper body.

But very soon you will notice that you have reached a plateau... and the training will lose its meaning.

Benefit and harm. Truth and fiction

Push-ups are a great and incredibly effective exercise for strengthening your arms, chest, and stabilizer muscles. It can be done at home, at work, and in the gym - you do not need a simulator, a trainer, or long-term training in technique.

To understand what will happen if you do push-ups every day, let's find out what type of load the exercise is - cardio or strength.

The latter involves working with additional weights; this complex is designed to stimulate muscle growth. It requires significant energy expenditure and, accordingly, a long recovery period. After training in the gym with a barbell and dumbbells, the athlete will need to take a break for at least 2 days, otherwise his muscle fibers will not be ready for new activities.

Push-ups are more of a cardio exercise that is performed with your own weight and involves multiple repetitions at a fast pace. If you don’t work hard, but with the goal of warming up your muscles and invigorating yourself, you can do push-ups every day, as a morning exercise.

Nothing bad will happen to the body due to such a warm-up; on the contrary, the muscles will always be in good shape, immunity will increase, the person will be better prepared and physically developed.

So, doing push-ups every day is not only possible, but also necessary! The most important thing is not to be overzealous, to exercise for your own pleasure, without overworking.

What can you do to get pumped up without doing hundreds of push-ups a day?

1. Learn these 4 exercises that will evenly load the entire body

Pull-ups, push-ups and dips for triceps, squats . They activate all large muscle groups. Thus, you will see improved results in your overall strength, endurance, and even your appearance. But a big part of your success depends on your diet. She also needs to be monitored.

1. Focus on full body workouts

Want to do a simple workout? Choose 3-4 exercises and simply do them every week. Keep adding more reps as you get stronger.

1. Find exercises you can do at home

There are workouts that fit a specific goal. You can find the workout you need online or using a smart app.

1. After each workout, wait 48 hours before doing the same workout.

There are two reasons for this: you want to give your body time to recover and you don't want the workout to become irrelevant too quickly. Ideally, you should target large muscle groups - arms/chest, back, legs and torso on different days of the week or perform different workouts 3 times a week.

Push-ups as exercise

Morning exercise often includes push-ups and squats (for the lower body). This is the simplest set of exercises that can raise blood pressure and tone a large number of muscles.

Therefore, these exercises are used as daily physical activity. Squats target the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. And push-ups strain the core muscles, triceps, shoulders, and chest. The same starting position for push-ups corresponds to the “plank” exercise, which is designed to train the core muscles.

In general, the benefits of an exercise such as push-ups are as follows:

1. If you do push-ups every day or every other day, your arms and chest are much stronger and more resilient than the average person.
2. If you do at least 20 push-ups, there is a chance that you will be able to push away an opponent or a heavy object that has fallen on you in an unexpected situation.
3. Push-ups are necessary to train breathing and increase blood circulation. And the latter is required for good health and the prevention of many diseases.
4. Any workout is a reminder to muscles and joints of their functions. They even say about cars that it is “harmful” for them to stand in the garage for a long time.

Share your opinion! How often do you do push-ups?

Every day. For me this is a must.

59.84%

Few times a week. When I train, I do push-ups at the same time.

22.63%

Once a week - when I train my chest muscles.

4.53%

I’m a romantic and a dreamer... Someday I’ll start doing push-ups... Probably!