Bench Press vs. Push Ups?

[donkeykongking]

Hey, I've been lifting weights for about 7 months, so I'm still relativley new to all of it's intricacies.
I was wondering what's the difference between push ups and bench press? It seems like a push up is the same motion as a bench press except instead of lying on your back and pushing upwards, your hands are on the ground and you push your body upwards. Do these two excercises work the same muscles. I've noticed that since I've started doing 100 pushups/night, my max bench has gone up quite a bit.
Also, I weight around 160lbs. so when I do a correct pushup, am I basically lifting my entire body weight?
Sorry for being a bit wordy, but hopefully you guys could help me out.

[Judge N]

there basically an up-side down bench press the way i see it,push-ups are great for the chest.

i think you only lift 60% of your bodyweight on push-ups though,not sure

[Senor macho]

your max bench is most likely increasing because you are benching, not because you are doing pushups

[donkeykongking]

your max bench is most likely increasing because you are benching, not because you are doing pushups

True, but I went from a 180max to a 195 max in 1 week. That was the week that I started doing pushups, which is why I thought there might be some sort of connection.

[BiGD_49]

you max every week?

[martydaman]

pushups work, but you eventually plateu after you get used to your bodyweight.

[donkeykongking]

you max every week?

I had done a max 2 weeks ago, then last next week I was really busy and unable to get out to the gym, so I started doing pushups everynight. This week I was back in the gym and wanted to see if doing pushups was helping any so I did max again.

[pumpster]

Pushups are excellent, the only problem is that you can't adjust the resistance. Get some straps like these and they can be substituted for benches:

http://www.lifelineusa.com/products....4&productid=12

FYI pushups shouldn't be done every day, just as weights shouldn't be used every day.

[Tyciol]

If they're bodyweight you probably can once it's easy, but yeah, new records should have rest afterwards. I want to get some of those lifeline ones myself.

Pushups are closed chain like squats,, so they're probably better than a bench press.

[psychojoe]

whoa wtf! tyciol, of TT?!?!?!

hardcore


pushups are ok (i cant do many) but planche **** might be a good alternative to just normal pushups dudes. You can start by doing pushups in the usual way but with your hands placed further back towards your feet, point your fingers towards your feet so as not to **** your wrists

[MattyG]

Problem with pushups is that it's hard to add resistance. I like to get a friend to push down on my back as I do push ups, but you have to make sure your friend knows what he's doing. For practicality I'd say bench is better. You can easily monitor your progress as the weights are all measured, whereas if you get a friend to push you down in pushups you never really know how hard you're pressing and wheter your getting stronger. Weighted pushups are definately very good imho - a general rule is that a movement that involves the body moving through space as in squats, pullups, dips and pressups is better than the version of the same movement that involves no movement of the body through space - legpress, pulldowns, dipmachine, bench press.

[Judge N]

Problem with pushups is that it's hard to add resistance. I like to get a friend to push down on my back as I do push ups, but you have to make sure your friend knows what he's doing. For practicality I'd say bench is better. You can easily monitor your progress as the weights are all measured, whereas if you get a friend to push you down in pushups you never really know how hard you're pressing and wheter your getting stronger. Weighted pushups are definately very good imho - a general rule is that a movement that involves the body moving through space as in squats, pullups, dips and pressups is better than the version of the same movement that involves no movement of the body through space - legpress, pulldowns, dipmachine, bench press.

i've seen some kind of vest that you can slap a couple 45's in,you guys know what i'm talkin about?anyways that would be good to increase resistance in push-ups and body weight exercises in general.

[MichaDE]

Hello,

Sorry to restart an old thread, however, I am looking to just lean up and get my body toned up more and I was wondering if push-ups would be good enough for this? Seeming as I do not wish to add muscle mass, but merely tone things up.

Thanks a bunch!

[Flying_Fox]

Hello,

Sorry to restart an old thread, however, I am looking to just lean up and get my body toned up more and I was wondering if push-ups would be good enough for this? Seeming as I do not wish to add muscle mass, but merely tone things up.

Thanks a bunch!

Make a new thread next time, this is useless. In this case particular, use the search button. Toning is done by losing fat, so eat clean and do some cardio.

[MichaDE]

Hm, I found it to be rather relative, considering the original poster also had virtually the same question.

[Flying_Fox]

Hm, I found it to be rather relative, considering the original poster also had virtually the same question.

No, the question is entirerly different. if it were virtually the same, your question would have been already answered.

You are asking how to lose fat.

[TheClips]

Hello,

Sorry to restart an old thread, however, I am looking to just lean up and get my body toned up more and I was wondering if push-ups would be good enough for this? Seeming as I do not wish to add muscle mass, but merely tone things up.

Thanks a bunch!

To give you a straight answer, in order to lose fat, you do have to worry about your diet. At the same time, building muscle helps you to lose fat in the long run. If you are looking to build/tone muscle without bulking up, then push ups as opposed to bench press would be a good exercise for you.

BTW, you did use the search function for this, didn't you? I assume that you didn't just find the oldest thread you could and then bump it, as Flying Fox seems to be saying. Either way, who cares? You had a question and you asked!

[MichaDE]

Yes, it was searched, The Clips. Thanks a bunch for a helpful reply rather than a useless flame

[ranger1975]

Hello - I'm new here.

Wanted to start my first post off by saying that I am currently testing out how strong I can get from doing push-ups, pull-ups, & dips only.

I am going to do them for 6 months (about a month and a half in now) then walk into a gym cold, do one warm up set, then try to bench 300lbs.

A little background on me - I've been pretty much working out my entire life with weights only. The most I ever benched was 380lbs (naturally) and I weighed in at about 240lbs when I did that. I loved the feeling of being that strong and never gave the other side a try before until now and I must say...........I actually like doing the aerobic stuff better. Why? Because for some reason and maybe it's just because I have never stuck with it for as long as I have this time around, I feel stronger.

To give even more detail - I currently weight approx 195lbs and haven't touched a wieght in about 2 1/2 years so this should be an interesting attempt. I'm not doing this to prove a point or anything (it actually started out as a bet but I then began to start taking it seriously as in, I want to really do this for myself) I just like to challenge myself and love working out in general (there just is no better activity in my opinion).

So what do you think? Do I stand a chance?

[RU4A69]

pushups are very underrated

[ranger1975]

Sorry - I could have sworn this thread was under the "Exercises" section and not this one - I don't mean to bump this thread yet again but do threads get moved around here?

[thedestro]

Any exercise that involves the movement of the human body through the space is going to superior. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to add lots more resistance to the pushup beyond bodyweight, and thus we settle for the bench press.

[subjugate]

im pretty weak, i used to bench press around 120-140 at my school's gym along with other exercises and had not seen much chest improvement. Over the summer I started doing pushups. I started at like 70/80 per week. I would do as many as i could in the first 1-3 sets then even out at about 8-10 every other set. Im now up to 150 pushups total. I do about 30 my first set. Ive seen much more growth than when i bench pressed. It might just be because im weak so pushing my bodyweight is hard work on the muscles

[razors_edge]

I have a 65 pound younger brother that I have hop on my back while I'm doing pushups.

Honestly, I have seen no progress from push ups.

[Adrenolin]

Am i the only one to notice the thread is from 2005??


That's on hell of a BUMP!

[zrage]

pushups with 1 or 2 45 plates on your bag = sexy for an awesome chest...

i know a friend that only did 10 sets of that on his chest workouts along with 3-4 sets of dbell flys.. and after 3 months that fakers chest was looking neat-o

[Chommer]

pushups are bodyweight exercises.
bench press is EXTRA WEIGHT.

[upperg]

wear a heavy backpack while doing pushups

[Animal.]

I do weighted pressups at the end of my workout 50 lbs on my back

[Sebastian80]

Any exercise that involves the movement of the human body through the space is going to superior. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to add lots more resistance to the pushup beyond bodyweight, and thus we settle for the bench press.

People keep saying that, but it's not true at all. You can do all sort of push-ups. For instance, I do bare knuckle push-ups (75) and then I do inclined push-ups. I can do a maximum of 30-32 of the latter. I'm also adding one handed push-ups, though I cannot do many of those. If I really wanted, I guess I could do inclined one-handed push-ups, but I doubt I can do even one.