Apr 26, 2012 by Tatianna
Hi everyone,
Today I have a very fun little lesson for you, how to improve your push-ups. If you follow this program exactly day to day as how I am showing you, I will guarantee you that within a week you will gain strength in push-ups and increase the number of reps that you can do.
When I was a figure skater my upper body was so weak that my trainer didn’t even bother to teach me how to do push-ups, she told me it was useless and that I was never going to be able to do it, and that I should stay focused on my jumps which were the best in my group. But I’ve always dreamed of having a strong upper body. Years later when I joined my husbands trapeze group I started from complete less then zero, my upper body was so weak that I couldn’t even hold on to a bar, not even for a second. But my husband assured me that if I follow his advice I will get strong. Three weeks later I was doing 5 pull-ups by my self and 15 push-ups ( in good form
I can show you the way but you have to do the work. In the video below I go over the program that I’ve created as well as the proper form of the push-up.
There are some rules that I want you to follow
- When you are doing this program, I don’t want you to do any other upper body workout for the entire week. You will only focus on this program
- After you take your second test ( a week later ), I want you to take 3 days off from training your upper body completely.
- You have to follow the program exactly as how I’m writing it.
The Program
Monday
Today I want you to take your push-up test. This is how you are going to figure out your own level of push-ups or as I call it – your base. Set your timer for 1 minute. Within that minute I want you to do as many push-ups as you can either off your knees or the regular push-ups. If you can only do 5 regular push-ups, do so then get on your knees and keep going until the time is up. If you can only do push-ups off your knees then do as many as you can, stop for a second if you have to but keep going until the minute is up.
Now you know your the base of your push-ups
Tuesday
Today you are going to do 5 sets of push-ups with 1-2 minutes break in between. Beginners can do 2 min, more advanced trainees should rest for 1 minute only.
The first set of push-ups you will do will be to failure. Failure means you will do as many as you can until you can’t do anymore. Take a minute to 2 break. Then you are going to do 4 sets of your base with 1-2 minutes rest ( your base is the number you came up with on Monday )
Wednesday
Today I want you do do 6 sets total of your base but throughout the day whenever you find a minute available. Not all at once like we did on Tuesday. You will do 1 set at a time, until you reached 6 sets throughout the day.
Thursday
Today you will do 2 sets to failure with 1-2 minute break in between, then you will do 2 more sets of your base adding 2 extra reps to each ( and trust me you will be able to do it ). And all of this you will do at once ( Not like we did Wednesday )
Friday
Today you will repeat the same thing you did on Wednesday, 6 sets total but throughout the day. Also if you can and I know you can add 2-4 extra reps to your base.
Saturday
Today you will do 4 sets to failure with 2 minutes break in between.
Sunday
You will take a complete day off.
Monday
Today you will take your test again, and I guarantee you are going to beat your old scores from previous Monday.
Make sure to take 3 days off after you’ve completed this program. You can do this type of program every few month’s to keep increasing your strength. But be careful I don’t want you to do too much and go crazy, please pace your self because if you don’t you will overtrain.
And always always always watch your form – abs tight, back straight and hump free.
