Hello all again,

Since I have decided right now to not plan on racing a schedule this year (maybe one or two races only) and focus more on long distance riding, centuries, etc. I want to start working areas that have been previously neglected in the past. One area I have never been real happy with is my upper body. I have nice strong mid section but my arms and chest, etc are quite weak.

I want to build that area a little and since I am thinking about going to a police academy in a year. I need to start thinking about pushups to build the areas I need to do them in the future. I also find that pushups make my arms stronger and lead to benefits on the bike.

Today I did 4 sets of pushups to failure (about 10 per set only right now). After the last set I could barily do one or two so it was defintly to failure. How ofter do I need to do this to achieve the fastest results. When I speak of results I mean being able to double + the amount of push ups I do now. Basically should I do them 3 - 4 times a week or everyday or inbetween?

Thanks as always

Push-ups are an excellent exercise. They also strenghten the lower back which is a critical body component. I would suggest you add an exercise to strengthen the front of your body like sitting crunches with weight to keep a ballance.

I've had to reduce my pushups since I inceased my cycling time. The leaned-over position takes a lot of energy and kills my motivation/energy to do situps.

Al

I went to the Illinois State Police Academy in 1996. I guess the question would be are you going to a Police Academy College or are you required to stay at a State Police Academy for your three months in the military style setting. If it is a college I wouldn't worry about it, they are a breeze. If it is the military style we did the Navy Seals exercises and ran alot, 5 miles instead of the 1.5 required and did tons of sit ups etc. It is based on the military boot camp keeping you up, few hours of sleep, manufactured stress etc. Every time one of your classmates does something stupid or isn't listening you will be doing push ups with varying hand positions where you feel like your triceps are gonna blow.

do them every other day. i stay between 25 and 35 reps per set, adn i do 3 sets. once you are more fit, you can do a lot more types. you can do diamond pushups, with your hands close, wide arm pushups, and various incline pushups. normally, keep your arms at about shoulder widthe apart. i would also do some crunches and pull ups if you can. that will give you the best all around workout

Most are college types but there are alot of PT in them. I could run what seems like forever (thanks to arobics from cycling).

Thanks all, I will be looking at this more.

I've had people tell me pushups are an endurance exercise and to do them every day. One example I got was to bang out 10-20 every time I go to the bathroom, if you drink alot of water...well, you know.

I haven't tried it yet, so we'll see. I was also wandering around online trying to find info on this very subject. I read some stuff on a couple of forums, I'll see if I can find links. However, most of these people aren't cyclists either, so your needs are probably a little different from theirs.


Edit: Here's one of the links to a forum I was checking out. These are mostly LE/Military people, so take what you need and discard the rest


https://www.911jobforums.com/vB/showthread.php3?t=36578

the thing aobut body weight exercises is they can be muscle building or endurance, depending on how you do them. if you want upper body muscular endurance, do them everyday. if you wanna build more muscle mass, every other day. when your muscles have time to heal, the muscle rebuilds fully. both ways will amek you stronger

I'd agree with every other day. Back before I found road biking for relieving stress, I was a pushup junkie doing 3 sets of 90 six days a week. I probably woud have been better off doing less pushups, slower and concentrating on form which is what I currently do (3 sets of 30 about every other day). Keep your head up (enough so that you can touch your chest to the floor without your chin/nose hitting first) and go in slow, controlled motions. Pushups are way harder this way (as opposed to head down, and going as fast as you can) but you'll get just as strong with less stress on your wrists and without fear of smacking your face on the floor (yes, I've done that a few times, alcohol and pushups don't mix).

I also found that the best way to increase your reps was to get in your head how many you are going to do before starting a set. Even if you have to stop and rest in order to finish, make sure you complete the set. The next time you try for the same number, you may only get one or two more before you need to rest, but eventually you get to the desired number without stopping. Then increase it again. It's fun, I swear.

if 4 sets of 10 is hard, then take a day off.

Once you get to being able to do 50+ at a time, you can do them whenever, as at that point its getting to be more of a muscular endurance thing than a strength exercise.