Bench/Push Up. Am i doing something wrong?

[iam87]

the other day my gym was closed so i had to improv workouts at home and for chest all i did was 5 sets of 20 push ups (and i NEVER do any pushups).

anyway the next day...my chest felt like it was completely obliterated, (it became "VERY tender")..more so than i have ever gotten from benching and it felt really good...

my question is...
how can i be so sore from just push ups?
does this mean im doing something wrong with my bench pressing?

(idk if this matters but im doing madcow 5x5 now...but few months ago i was on a diff routine and my bench DID stall for 4 weeks... but right now its increasing, although very little, week by week.)

thanks in advance.

[Everybody_Poops]

If you're not used to push-ups then I would expect 100 slow reps, even split into 5 sets to actually work the muscles pretty well. Your muscles might have the strength to do push-ups easily, but not the endurance.

You should throw in a week of high rep exercises with about 70% of your normal weight. Every 2 or 3 weeks, have a week like that to help confuse your muscles a little bit. I find it works for both me and a friend. We'll come back the next week feeling like we can set a couple of new 1RM's.

[iam87]

If you're not used to push-ups then I would expect 100 slow reps, even split into 5 sets to actually work the muscles pretty well. Your muscles might have the strength to do push-ups easily, but not the endurance.

You should throw in a week of high rep exercises with about 70% of your normal weight. Every 2 or 3 weeks, have a week like that to help confuse your muscles a little bit. I find it works for both me and a friend. We'll come back the next week feeling like we can set a couple of new 1RM's.

well its not that im unfamiliar with pushups...its just that i avoid doing them now with my current routine to avoid "overtraining"....so you guys incorporate pushups into your routines? i alreayd have 2 benching days from madcows 5x5 thought it might be overkill

[Scha4]

well its not that im unfamiliar with pushups...its just that i avoid doing them now with my current routine to avoid "overtraining"....so you guys incorporate pushups into your routines? i alreayd have 2 benching days from madcows 5x5 thought it might be overkill

Pushups are different than benchpress. When I first started lifting, I was able to do approximately 54 (chest to a rolled up towel) pushups in one minute, but was only capable of benching 205lbs. Now, I can do more than both those but, since I've been concentrating on lifting instead of only pushups, my bench capabilities have increased a greater percentage than my one minute max pushups have.

I sometimes do 5 slow decline (feet on the bench I'm using) between sets and it helps the muscles get warmed up. If you haven't tried "the perfect pushup", I recommend it, it feels alot different than standard pushups.

What hand placement were you using during these pushups (ie wide, narrow, regular, diamond, etc...)? How does that compare to how you normally benchpress?

It sounds like you did a different exercise and shocked your muscles (it's a good thing). Congrats.

[Everybody_Poops]

The concept of "overtraining" gets thrown around way too much... Push-ups are one of the best warm-ups for chest day in my opinion. I enjoy doing the more difficult pushup varitions requiring more stabilization and more decline to make it harder.

[iam87]

Pushups are different than benchpress. When I first started lifting, I was able to do approximately 54 (chest to a rolled up towel) pushups in one minute, but was only capable of benching 205lbs. Now, I can do more than both those but, since I've been concentrating on lifting instead of only pushups, my bench capabilities have increased a greater percentage than my one minute max pushups have.

I sometimes do 5 slow decline (feet on the bench I'm using) between sets and it helps the muscles get warmed up. If you haven't tried "the perfect pushup", I recommend it, it feels alot different than standard pushups.

What hand placement were you using during these pushups (ie wide, narrow, regular, diamond, etc...)? How does that compare to how you normally benchpress?

It sounds like you did a different exercise and shocked your muscles (it's a good thing). Congrats.

i did regular pushups on my 25 lb dumbells...normally i use to do them with flat hands, but after looking around and reading i was told gripping something while doing push ups is better on the wrist, so thats what i did..

when i normally bench i go very wide, i have very lanky arms and if i dont go very wide...my triceps get burned first...so i finally learned to go wide not too llong ago actually..maybe 4 months ago.

and thanks man...it did feel really good lol

The concept of "overtraining" gets thrown around way too much... Push-ups are one of the best warm-ups for chest day in my opinion. I enjoy doing the more difficult pushup varitions requiring more stabilization and more decline to make it harder.

well i have a chest day tommorow so ill give it a shot... thanks

[alvingilders]

Might have got a better stretch with teh push ups with gravity helping out. Make sure you get the shoulders back on the bench to realley hot the chest

[nerd_power]

the other day my gym was closed so i had to improv workouts at home and for chest all i did was 5 sets of 20 push ups (and i NEVER do any pushups).

anyway the next day...my chest felt like it was completely obliterated, (it became "VERY tender")..more so than i have ever gotten from benching and it felt really good...

my question is...
how can i be so sore from just push ups?
does this mean im doing something wrong with my bench pressing?

(idk if this matters but im doing madcow 5x5 now...but few months ago i was on a diff routine and my bench DID stall for 4 weeks... but right now its increasing, although very little, week by week.)

thanks in advance.

You're so sore from just push-ups because you were working in a rep range your muscles aren't used to. 5x20 is a very different workout than 5x5. And, as far as I understand the science, 5x20 is less effective for strength or hypertrophy, which is why push-ups aren't usually the recommended compound chest exercise.

-Andrew

[Tluna3]

push-ups can really help blow your chest up. i incorporate push-ups in my chest workouts at least once a week. i work my chest on mondays and friday (incline and some flat monday, decline and flat friday). I usually do decline push-ups on monday to help work my upper pecs. throwing push-ups into your routine will not "overwork" the muscle, as long as you get a good stretch and days between chest you should be fine. im guessing your just not used to the amount of push-ups you were doing.