Push-Ups: Train to Do the Most
If you want to be able to do 100 pushups in a row, do not
try to do as many pushups as possible every day. You'll probably
injure yourself and end up unable to do any pushups at all. Training
for competition requires an understanding of the stress-and-recover
rule and the interval-sets rule.
The best way to improve any athletic skill is to stress your
body on one day and then allow enough time for your body to
recover before you stress it again. On one day, take a hard
workout. On the next morning, your muscles feel sore. Take easy
workouts until the soreness disappears and then take a hard
workout again.
For your hard workouts, you can do far more work by
exercising in sets, rather than continuously. If you can do six
continuous pushups, you can probably do ten sets of two with
twenty-second rests between each set. Do repeat sets of two until
your muscles feel sore. Try to take workouts that are hard enough
to make your muscles feel sore for no more than 48 hours. An ideal
training program would consist of sets of three until you feel sore
on the first day, take off the second day, do sets of five on the third
day until you feel soreness, and rest on the fourth day. Repeat
these four-day cycles, and you'll soon be ready to compete.
Checked 9/29/08