Push-ups

[chris]

OK, if I don't have access to a bench press on a training day that calls for them, push-ups seem to be the appropriate alternative. What percentage of your bodyweight does a push-up lift? What about feet raised to level with your shoulders?

[Ovr40]

I don't know the answer to the "percentage of bodyweight" question, but it seems easy to calculate. Try putting your feet on a bathroom scale while you do a pushup, and have someone read the result. Or, if you want to save your mom a trip down to the basement (sorry, couldn't resist the poke), put your hands on the scale and read the result yourself.

Throwing on a backpack would be a good way to add weight, if desired, since letting the neighbor kids sit on your shoulders and straddle you neck might be considered a parole violation (oh god, there I go again).

[Alpinfox]

[Dru]

Feet raised to level with shoulders? Are you sure you don't mean "knees lifted to level of ears"?

[snugtop]

If you want to lift 100% of your body weight, try hand-stand push ups.

[ashw_justin]

You can increase the intensity of pushups by jumping during extension, either off of your hands, or off of your hands and feet simultaneously.

 

You can ensure a high-intensity workout by splitting a deck of cards with a friend. You go through the deck doing the number of pushups indicated on the card. The intensity remains high because the sets are short and you explode off of each extension.

 

Why do you want pecs, anyway? I usually pull on the rock/ice, not push. To each their own, but I'd do pullups and dips instead.

[layton]

put your feet on a stability ball to maximize the training effect. up the ante by lifting one leg

[Jim]

Counter exercises such as these are good for injury prevention as a balance to the typical rock workout.

[chris]

The scale idea is good - I didn't consider it before.

And Jim's right, I'm doing this occasionally to balance out my pull-ups - its also part of a whole-body-power-endurance program a friend showed me, that includes some weight lifting. But since some days I can't make it to the gym, I was trying to figure out approriate alternatives, like push-ups instead of the bench. This question was to help me compare the difference in gains. Thanks for everyone's ten cents!

[Couloir]

...since letting the neighbor kids sit on your shoulders and straddle you neck might be considered a parole violation (oh god, there I go again).

It's only a parole violation if they find out.

[Billygoat]

I thought this was going to be about bras...

[Jens]

You know you are truly a sport climber when you can do more pull-ups than push-ups.

[Gary_Yngve]

Throwing on a backpack would be a good way to add weight, if desired, since letting the neighbor kids sit on your shoulders and straddle you neck might be considered a parole violation (oh god, there I go again).

 

When I was in undergrad and hitting the weights regularly, I'd occasionally find myself getting trashed at a party and doing pushups with a coed lying on my back.

[tomtom]

When I was in undergrad and hitting the weights regularly, I'd occasionally find myself getting trashed at a party and doing pushups with a coed lying on my back.

 

Gary, Gary, Gary ...

 

You should have done the pushups with the coed lying under you.

[archenemy]

That requires endurance and stamina.

[EWolfe]

Coach used to drop and do push ups to impress women at parties. It didn't work so well for him.

[joel20]

but how many push ups can a sport climber do?

[treknclime]

Doing push ups on rings positioned just above the floor increases difficulty and brings in core strengh. Elevate the feet to further increase the suffer factor...

[JoshK]

Why do you want pecs, anyway? I usually pull on the rock/ice, not push. To each their own, but I'd do pullups and dips instead.

 

Cause it makes you look better?

 

In all seriousness though, i have always thought that training should involve every muscle in the body, even if you are emphasizing the training of certain groups. Nothing makes me laugh more than the meathead "lightbulbs" in the gym who have a giant upper body and chicken legs. An out-of-balance chest/back combo is bad too, imho, so I think working both is important.

[treknclime]

Why do you want pecs, anyway? I usually pull on the rock/ice, not push. To each their own, but I'd do pullups and dips instead.

 

OK...do your pull ups and dips on rings, instead.

[lemkor]

Push ups aren't just for your chest you know.

If you do them right

and by right, I mean, maintaining rigid posture

(ie: no butt sticking up in the air or wobbling or drooping)

it is much a much better body tension workout than pull ups could ever be.

Just by arching or slumping your back slightly you could work out a different part of your chest.

 

there's several ways to change ye olde standarde pushe up

 

First

Put yer feet up on something, like a coffee table or a chair, so that more of your weight is on your hands and you get a better upper chest workout

 

or

meet your hands in the middle, forming a diamond with the forefingers and thumbs. works yer arms different - more tricep less chest/shoulder. If you're wearing a necklace/pendant you can try to make it land in the diamond every time for extra pump

 

or

spread the hands out past shoulder width, to increase definition between them man boobs, the middle of your chest

 

if you really want to do it hard

Put your feet on a table and your hands on two chairs just shoulder width apart. When you go down, lower your chest past your hands. Bet you'll do less of those.

 

Turning your elbows outward works your upper chest and shoulders more while pinning them to your sides works the lower chest

Place your hands lower and higher wrt to your shoulders (ie: either at/above head height vs at/below nipple height) to adjust the amount of body tension required

 

There's clapping pushups like dood said earlier

But, if you want a body tension workout (climbing, climbing climbing)

Try to hop your full body up and "clap" both your hands and feet

 

so

um

yeah

I like pushups

[lemkor]

Woah

got carried away

 

what I was trying to get at is

 

There's no set % of your body weight you lift by doing a pushup

it all changes depending on how you do it

 

uh

don't know if that bathroom scale idea will give any better than a rough estimate of what you're lifting

 

like snugtop said

if you want to lift 100%, do handstands

otherwise, you'll never really know

 

 

omfg, I HAVE to go climbing today

[jt]

If you protract your shoulders at the end of your arm range of motion during a push up (like when you are finished with the push up, but you still can get a little more lift our of pushing a little further) you can work subscapularis, which may be the most important shoulder stabilizer. Anyone who concerned about there shoulder should be doing some type of pushing exercise (low weight, high reps, which makes pushups perfect), as well as working external rotators (tubing is good for this).

 

My shoulders are unstable from hanging on them for so many years. I think posterior instability is really common in climbers.

[layton]

jt's exercise also works the serratus anterior, another very important scapular stabilizer.

 

if that's boring, put both feel on a 65cm stability ball and try it.

if that's boring do that plus extend one leg off the ball

if that's boring do that plus both hands on a wobble board in addition

if that's boring put ankle weights on the leg you have extended

[G-spotter]

and if thats boring, do it in a pit full of crocodiles while wearing a tutu!