When it comes to Push-Ups, they're one of the top essential forms of Bodyweight Training. Been used for as long as before the Roman Empire and has more variations than we can even care to count. Learning dozens of them myself over the years. The amount of variations is not what's important, what is important is how valuable are they to you and what you want to do for various goals.
The military uses the standard push-up mainly in all branches and are a cornerstone for testing a man & women's upper body strength. In sports, push-ups have been a part of programs since the early days of Kushti, a style of wrestling from India. They would what we today call the Hindu Push-up. Some call it cat push-ups, others call it judo push-ups (or a variation of it) but all in all, its a pretty damn good one. Karl Gotch made this a primary next to the squats for his wrestlers.
Push-ups can be used in all sorts of ways...You can do them one handed, slow, fast, elevating the feet, using a wall, do them on balls, using handles such as the Push-Up Grip Spikes, use your fingers, your knuckles, your wrists and many others in between. In reality however, you can know all the variations but which ones work best for you?
One of the big methods of doing push-ups is doing them in high reps like hundreds to a thousand a day. People like Gotch, Herschel Walker, Ray Lewis, even the legendary actor Charles Bronson would do their training that way and were successful. Now, they did multiple variations with a rep/set scheme to build up to those high numbers and would do them throughout the day, at times in one workout. High reps or leading up to a certain number by the end of a workout or day are good and can build muscle, strength & endurance, but it's not meant for EVERYONE!!! Is it required from a general POV to do a high level of reps? No, unless you're in a sport, the military or have a certain goal, you can do them in different formats and still get great results. High reps are an option, that's really it. Is it impressive, hell yes. Shit I've done as many as 600 in one workout, not that many since and at times would up to 250-300 but 100 or so is more than even I will need since I got other ways to make things interesting.
When it comes to form, people debated what looks like the perfect push-up, crisp, sharp and keeping things smooth. The trouble is, people have different body types and not every form of a push-up is going to look like you're building muscle like a Dragon Ball Character. It depends on what you're shooting for. Some will do them in a shorter range of motion to build muscle in specific areas. Form can be a complex ideal but the objective is to utilize what gives that individual benefit and helps prevent injuries as much as possible.
It is very possible like any other method that injuries occur with push-ups if you don't respect the exercise and your form is so freakishly bad that tendonitis, rotator cuff issues, joint problems in the wrists and elbows can happen either over time or even during/after a workout. Pay attention to what you're doing. You don't need to set a record every fucking time. Be aware of how your body operates during certain variations.
Now, the point of this article is to not show several variations or tell you you shouldn't do push-ups in high reps, this is another option to look into especially for those who are over 40 and beyond and need something that doesn't always require killing yourself in order to get results. One way to go about them is doing what's called Time Under Tension in an Isometric format....
You hold a push-up let's say military style for example in the top position for a period, then hold at parallel but your chest doesn't touch the ground and hold that for a period. Simple really but the longer you hold either way, you're going to feel things not from typical repetition push-ups. You're building a different level of strength and control. It's not about speed, it's about precision and focus. This is constructed as a yielding isometric or in other words fighting gravity. You can do them on your palms, your knuckles or even on your fingertips if you're feeling ambitious but this style of TUT has incredible benefits for maintaining strength & endurance especially for older folks. You don't need to do a ton of them to feel it.
Different ways to do this would be....
The 90 Second Push-up where you hold for 45 Seconds at the Plank Position and then 45 Seconds with arms bent staying in the middle point as best as possible and not letting your sternum touch the floor. 45 seconds may not seem long but when you're fighting to stay in alignment as you turn those muscles on, the contraction becomes the biggest entity. You're not flexing at 100% but you're using enough tension to where you're whole body is one unit. You can go longer if you wish or it it's possible for you but you catch my drift.
The other is doing Push-ups at different times without dropping to the floor. Let's say you want to do something for 2 minutes; you hold the top for 30 seconds, mid point for 30 seconds, top for 15, mid for 15, top for 15 & mid for 15 without ever having your chest or knees touch. That's 3 Push-ups in 2 minutes. May not seem like that long but again, you're fighting to stay aligned and you're not just building strength but endurance, control and teaching the body to act as one.
These two alone can be done with different variations but I like them because they can be used as part of a workout in between other exercises. I'll do a 60-90 Sec Push-up in between Isometric Exercises where I would do 3 positions and then a push-up and repeat that a few times before calling a day. This works in unison focusing on Strength & Stamina at the same time and going from a Overcoming to a Yielding to challenge my body with little rest. I feel lighter on my feet, have energy, feel stronger and it works as prehab/rehab form as well keeping my joints healthy.
There are many options and these two are another style you can do to make your training interesting. Is it the fountain of youth? Maybe, maybe not but none of us want to go through that "I've fallen and can't get up" phase of our lives and I believe Isometric Training is a great way to minimize or even prevent it even. Find what works for you and benefit from it. The way you train will indicate what your capabilities are later in life. Be amazingly awesome and kick ass.
