How can I increase my pushup count?

Ok, so I'm 18 and I'm the director of this church retreat coming up this summer. At one of the meetings the team has to plan, I'm gonna be 20 doing pushups for each person there to symbolize sacrifice... We have 35 people on team. Thats 700 pushups!! This particular meeting is about 2 months away, so whats the best way to increase my pushup count? Is it best to do 20 at a time then rest for 30 seconds to 1 minute, like I will when I'm at the meeting, or should I do something to where I do pushups to failure? Weight training? Food? All that fun stuff...

Thanks so much in advance

Nothing works better than simply doing pushups. I do 3 sets to failure when I wake up and 3 more before I go to bed.

Yeah , push ups. and alot of them. Also working your chest , tris and shoulders will help alot. I dont even do push up..just work out.. I can do 100 correct push ups in 2 minutes

Here's the informal plan that worked great for me (I did 76 pushups on my last Navy PT test. . .)

- Do a Max set of pushups. Along the way, note the number of Reps where you start slowing down & getting tired, this will be your Training number.

- Several times a day, do a set to that Training number of reps. The goal here is lots of reps throughout the day, but never to failure. (Use whatever schedule works for you - top of every hour, commercial break during your favorite TV shows, etc).

- Re-test yourself each week. You should be rapid gains :)

Push-ups...yea... I was late to formation one day so instead of gettin written up i told my sergeant i would do 500 push-ups for him. little did i realize how long it actually takes to do 500 push-ups!! the best way to do it, is not get to failure. i did 20-40 at a time but had to rest for like 5 min in between sets after the 300 mark because it gets pretty ridiculous after that. i think all together it took me about 3-4 hours to do all 500. you could train to failure, but thats only going to raise your max number of pushups, not gonna help so much when your aiming for 700! i would suggest getting a scale and putting your hands on it in the pushup position to find how much weight your lifting when doing a pushup. add 10 pounds to that and do sets of 20-30 bench press until you cant do anymore sets. you should build up pretty quick that way.

After 10 years in the military you can almost expect that a person would know a little something about pushups right? Well here is my spill on the subject. It?s all about the placement of your hands. Also you want to save your triceps for last. Try this, practice doing burnouts but change your form when you feel like it?s getting harder. Start with your hands slightly outside of you shoulders. When you start to get tight move your hands in to shoulder width and keep going, when you get tight again move them in closer and so on. When you train your tri?s you might want to increase the rep range to help out with getting ready for your event. And take a day or two off prior to doing the event. I did the same preparation before I had to do the PRT in the military so try it. It might work for you.

[QUOTE=bigdawg13;165751231]After 10 years in the military you can almost expect that a person would know a little something about pushups right? Well here is my spill on the subject. It?s all about the placement of your hands. Also you want to save your triceps for last. Try this, practice doing burnouts but change your form when you feel like it?s getting harder. Start with your hands slightly outside of you shoulders. When you start to get tight move your hands in to shoulder width and keep going, when you get tight again move them in closer and so on. When you train your tri?s you might want to increase the rep range to help out with getting ready for your event. And take a day or two off prior to doing the event. I did the same preparation before I had to do the PRT in the military so try it. It might work for you.[/QUOTE]

Remember though...hes not taking a PT test, hes doing 700 pushups lol hes gonna be burnout regardless of how hes does them.

The key is going to be to not get to muscle failure and have long enough rest between sets so that you never get to muscle failure until you get close to that 700 anyways.

do pushups....? maybe? hahahaha

Research and apply the Grease the Groove technique.

Sounds impossible with your lack of time and training. Get in the gym.

- dumb bell chest press.
- tricep cable pull downs.
- pushups.
- overhead dumb bell shoulder press.

how many can you do now? just pray and work out

Just do push ups.

My father used to make me do 100 push ups everytime I got in trouble when I was younger. Well, I got in trouble allot so my push ups got VERY good. I used to hate him for it but now Im glad he made that rule.

My max as of lately (few weeks ago) was 80 in one set.

So just do push ups. What I used to do was a minimum of 300 a day. And 4 times I did 500 a day, all with sets of 50. Pretty easy.

I would take the legal route.

I didn't say, "I would do all 700 in one day". :)

If your not going to do the legal route, then you better start pushing the floor. Practice, practice practice.

[QUOTE=nutsy54;165748751]Here's the informal plan that worked great for me (I did 76 pushups on my last Navy PT test. . .)

- Do a Max set of pushups. Along the way, note the number of Reps where you start slowing down & getting tired, this will be your Training number.

- Several times a day, do a set to that Training number of reps. The goal here is lots of reps throughout the day, but never to failure. (Use whatever schedule works for you - top of every hour, commercial break during your favorite TV shows, etc).

- Re-test yourself each week. You should be rapid gains :)[/QUOTE]

come on...navy push ups don't count... :D

this is good advice though...

i'd also reccomend some weight training too

do pushups
eat
sleep
repeat.

thanks guys!! I appreciate it a lot... resting 30 seconds between each rep, I can get up to about 300. Then my whole body starts shaking and my toes, yes, my toes start cramping up.

Again, thanks!!

you better do those 700 pushups on a trampoline!

Do lots of pushups. Doing 20 and resting is one approach, another would be 'grease the groove' where you practise by maybe doing 5 for each person, 10 for each person, 15, then 20.

Try this. Do weighted pushups until you can only do 15. Keep working until you can do 20. Add more weight until you cut back down to 15 and repeat. I would stay away from unweighted all together. Then when you do them, you'll feel like you're 50 pounds lighter.

[QUOTE=imasavage;166498251]Try this. Do weighted pushups until you can only do 15. Keep working until you can do 20. Add more weight until you cut back down to 15 and repeat. I would stay away from unweighted all together. Then when you do them, you'll feel like you're 50 pounds lighter.[/QUOTE]

Now, thats an interseting idea! Im currently working on a one hundered push-up program, and as experience is, i know im unable to make 100, out of my currently 35 in six weeks. Therefore i have been looking for strategies, to just increase my amount of push-ups, so i might try your tip out. Also im working with chin-ups, and endurance training, sorry if i somehow messed up this thread, being alittle off topic or stealing the poster's attention.

do them until you ****ing puke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dont forget to switch hand positions to diamond, wide, and close to work different muscles. also stretch the hell out of them, i did that before i started power lifting. im 210 lbs and i did 66 in a minute, all i do is power clean, dead lift, bench press, squat, and plyometrics. benching weight can help you do more but you also have to note that once you gain more muscle in your chest doing pushups you triceps will work harder, so doing bench dips or parallel bar dips. lean as far forward as you can comfortably to feel the tension in your chest, do dips and various pushups before and after you sleep. you will feel results within a week.