Daily push-up challenge a no-no for powerlifters?

[Ryan]

Ok, so my wife is doing this 90 day charity pushup challenge where you need to do 10k, 20k or 30k pushups over the span of 90 days.

Now, you can do this daily or every-other-day or twice a week or once a week I would guess, but I'd imagine that most people doing this would want to do this in smallest bites possible (therefore daily, and at intervals during the day at that).

She asked if I'd like to do it, and I promptly said "No thanks". My reflex thought as a personal trainer was: "sure why not- it's a bodyweight exercise, it can't hurt anything as long as I eat right, sleep right, etc.". But then I put on my powerlifter hat and thought: "no way- this is overtrain city when added to a measured powerlifting training regimen that already includes 2-3x weekly benching, not to mention shoulder work AND all the other structural stresses placed on the body by our sport". I decided "no" mainly because even if I only do pushups on my bench days, I'd need to do roughly 400-500 pushups along with benching and that seems neither practical nor productive.

So, I'm not sure whether I actually have a "question" to ask you guys, or if I'm just looking for other feedback from any/all angles, but if I've got a question, it's probably something like this:

Am I right to think that doing approximately 120 pushups a day every day for 3 straight months is beyond overkill to a powerlifter given the demands of the sport, or is this just me falling into an "overtraining" trap that's overblown?

[3speed]

Ryan, I did 200-300 a day for several years back in my teens and early 20's - 100-150 every morning and every evening. I could knock them out without even thinking about it and my shoulders were the healthiest they have ever been but I was quite young. My advice would be to give it a try but proceed cautiously and evaluate often.

[Ryan]

Thanks for the input Woody.

[osu122975]

I think if you "grease the groove" and hit sets of 10-20 throughout the day until you reach your daily goal you'll be just fine. I used to do that with chin ups. A set here and there throughout the day to meet a rep goal.

That and Woody's talking about 30-40 years ago too

Bad thing is, he can still lift more than me so I can't say too much

[dbunch]

I was thinking along the same lines if you broke them up into bit size chunks I don't think you'll even notice them. I say go for it

[Ryan]

Thanks guys. I'm taking your advice and trying this thing out. Started last night and doing sets of 25 at intervals to equal out to 150 or so a day until I see how this feels longer term.

Thanks for the suggestions as usual!

[dbunch]

So its been a week, give or take. how goes the challenge?

[3speed]

Jun 10, 2016 12:39:19 GMT -5 dbunch said:

So its been a week, give or take. how goes the challenge?

I was actually just wondering the same thing.

[Ryan]

150 a day with no real problems but my shoulders feel sore. I've tried switching hand position to see if it changes anything but no luck.

Im considering either reducing sets to 10 per from 25 per and just doing more sets per day, or only doing pushups on bench days and doing them in larger quantities to make up the difference.

All in all, its going OK but I've been on vaca, so I haven't yet combined this with my normal training.

Stay tuned....

[Ryan]

UPDATE:

Today is day 51 of 92 in the pushup challenge. To date, I've done 8,435. My shoulders feel tired, but no other ill effects, and also no positive benefits either which makes sense since pushups are muscle endurance and that's not what we blockheads train ourselves for to begin with. lol

Anyway, I initially was doing 120 or so pushups daily, broken into sets of 25 at different points during the day which had me in line to reach the 10k total goal.

However, recently, since I felt no ill effects, I began pushing my daily total from 140 to 160 to 200, 230 and now I'm at between 285 and 300 daily.

It got to the point where it looked like I was gonna fall in no-mans land for this challenge by finishing with around 15k pushups, squarely between the two goals of 10k and 20k so I instinctively started ramping up to the daily volume Im at currently.

If my math is right, I need to continue on my current pace for the duration of this challenge in order to hit the 20k level. As of this moment, I don't see a problem with that.

Again, stay tuned.....lol

[dbunch]

Nice - Keep it up!

[Ryan]

Update:

I've recorded 15,580 pushups through 75 days of this 92 day challenge. If I maintain a daily avg of 270-275 pushups over the next 16 days, I'll have accomplished the 2nd level of the challenge (3 levels are 10k, 20k, and 30k).

There's nothing remarkable about doing push-ups, I agree, but doing an avg of close to 300 daily for 3 months while training for PLing definitely takes a toll on your wrists and elbows. However, on the positive side, there's been absolutely no negative effects of this challenge on my bench training. In fact curiously, my bench has actually slightly improved during same time period, although too many things about how I bench have changed during same period for me to attribute gains to doing daily push-ups.

This will be my last update. Next report will be final tally on or around Sept 1.

[Ryan]

Results:

Ok, well the pushups challenge ended last night at midnight and at 8pm EST, I logged my very last and 20,000th rep of the challenge.

Interestingly, my bench numbers have gone up this summer which could have something do with this challenge, but too many other factors were in play to say definitively that any one of them "caused" anything. For instance, to go along with copious amounts of pushups, I went back to benching heels-down w/squat shoes (where I find I have a tighter arch and better body drive and control), my back is frigged up so I havent been able to devote any real energy to SQ or DL, and then on the negative side: My medial epicondyle (bone on the interior of your elbow) which is also known as golfers elbow has been sore as h3ll for the last month, which reeks of overtraining.

However, what I do know is that I was able to finish the challenge at a respectable level (20k pushups was the middle one of three levels) and it didn't have a negative effect on my PL training in general.

Disclaimer though: I did learn from the golfer's elbow thing that it's not a good idea for me to be hammering out 300 pushups a day every day for months on end, in the sense that there's no point to that level of volume at that level of consistency for someone my age who competes in a strength sport. In other words, if there are benefits of doing pushups relative to my PL training, those benefits are quickly neutralized if not lost when taken to an extreme.

What I learned: I think one thing we all probably knew to begin with is that there's little benefit to ANYONE performing an exercise every single day, even if just bodyweight/calisthenics. It may not hurt you, but you need rest to get stronger and if you're doing something everyday, then well, you're not resting. lol. However, there is also at least some benefit to pushups in the context of strength sports (possibly as a stabilizer conditioner for shoulder girdle and upper back as Woody's intimated in the past), but I believe most of this benefit can be achieved at a volume of something like 75-100 pushups on bench days (or 3 to 4 days a week if you only bench once or twice a week).

If anyone has any questions or comments, fire away!