Moving past a push-up progression

I am having difficulty completing 4 sets of 15 push-up reps in seamless consecutive order.  I am not yet strong enough.  Does anyone have a recommendation to help develop more strength in this area?  Shall I incorporate bench-press with weights, or just continue “plugging away”?  How often in a week can I do this exercise without over-training, in hopes of achieving appropriate strength to move on to the next progression?

thanks!

Krissie

Hi Krissie, are you following the foundations? if yes I can give you more reasonable suggestions because I have a reference for the program you are using.

12 hours ago, Krissie Kunkel said:

I am having difficulty completing 4 sets of 15 push-up reps in seamless consecutive order.  I am not yet strong enough.  Does anyone have a recommendation to help develop more strength in this area?  Shall I incorporate bench-press with weights, or just continue “plugging away”?  How often in a week can I do this exercise without over-training, in hopes of achieving appropriate strength to move on to the next progression?

 

thanks!

Krissie

And keep plugging away… many of us have been stuck on the push-ups for months/years  :-) 

Hi Alessandro,

I am following Foundations 1, yes.

HI Krissie, I need some more information:

-what is your level of sPL?

-how many times per week are you training?

-is the pushup your first exercise in the schedule?

Hi Alessandro, 

- I’m not sure I understand your question fully, but I’m at step 8, PE2, Foundations 1.

- I train GB 4 day’s a week, do not adhere to  a GB set schedule and do the pushups twice a week. I move between core/upper-body/legs where I can cover them all at least twice a week.  I practice an MMA conditioning class and a Caveman Circuit kickboxing class on Saturdays and Sundays respectively, where there’ll be a push exercise both days.

- on the days that I do this push-up exercise, I perform it before any other push exercise.

thanks,

Krissie

HI Krissie, What PE of the straddle planche progression are you training now?

9, PE6.  Good question!  

17 hours ago, Krissie Kunkel said:

Hi Alessandro, 

- I’m not sure I understand your question fully, but I’m at step 8, PE2, Foundations 1.

- I train GB 4 day’s a week, do not adhere to  a GB set schedule and do the pushups twice a week. I move between core/upper-body/legs where I can cover them all at least twice a week.  I practice an MMA conditioning class and a Caveman Circuit kickboxing class on Saturdays and Sundays respectively, where there’ll be a push exercise both days.

- on the days that I do this push-up exercise, I perform it before any other push exercise.

thanks,

Krissie

 

Alessandro mean the straddle planche, scapular pushups is pe1 and forearm plank pe2. Have you mastered the scapular pushups 5*15 Krissie?

Hi Jonas,

I’ve since corresponded with Alessandro.  I am on Step 8, PE2.

Hi Krissie, this could be the reason, the push up needs some anterior shoulder strength, something which you can develop with the sPL elements especially when you begin to work the planche lean.

My suggestion for now (since you have not already reached the lean) is to not train to failure on all the sets but save 1-2 reps and add one additional set at the end of your scheduled sets. 

Hi!

im actually on sPL PE6, leaning right into it.  5 sets of 30 seconds.

i appreciate certainly your recommendations.  I suppose that ultimately, one has to just keep plugging away at it.  

I struggled with HBP PE2 for quite a while.  It was the most difficult mastery so far as it took me four weeks to progress from 68 pushups to the full 75.  

I train 6 days a week so I hit pushups three times per week, and it was always just plug, plug, plug away.  I found that focusing on my PPT and squeezing the glutes was my most productive cue.  I also supplemented with random single sets of 20+ pushups during non-training times of the day, just to let my mind know that 15 reps weren't an actual limit.  

Such a brilliant response!  Thank you for reaching out to me, Mateo.  I like the mind trick approach.  Everyone is tremendously helpful in our GB fam!  

One of two things might help.

Option 1: Do Dips atleast 2 days apart from your workout that has pushups.
This will offer you time to recover and not impede the workout. Also, when doing the dips just make sure they're upright full ROM. Do as many as you can in a single set. You can stop at that or you can do two more sets in reverse pyramid training style. So do as many as you can 1st set, rest 3 min, shoot for 90% of the reps you did the first set. rest 3 min, do 80% of your first set. Done. So it'd look for example like this
10xBodyweight, 9xBW, 8xBW
The dips will shine your weak point, which if I had to guess is either your shoulder girdle or your triceps if not both. Just like for alot of people the limiting factor in pullups is the grip strength. Which leads me into option two.

Option 2: Isometric holds for time.

Do a set of isometric pushups in top position, 90 degree arm bend and 1 inch from the ground position. Hover in each spot for 20 seconds.
Try 5 rounds of isometric pushups followed by 5 full regular pushups. This will 100% shine out where you're weak in your pushup. I know for me when I very first did these my tricep tendons were on fire as well as my shoulders, in both the bottom and middle position. So it might like like: Fully extended arms pushup top position 20 seconds, lower to 90 degree hold for 20 seconds, lower to hover just above floor 20 seconds > press up to middle position and hold 20 seconds, push up to top and hold 20 seconds. The fifth time down, hold for 20 then go right into the 5 pushups.
So that will be 500 seconds of work + 5 pushups. This will burn lol, so feel free to amend the time and reps as needed. But it will help pushup specifically.

Option Two is more specific to pushups so if that is the one weak area I would recommend doing the isometrics on an off day 2 days out as well. The biggest benefit from them is building a stronger neural connection to the muscles and forcing your weak points to work far more than they might be during your regular pushup routine. 

Adding dips would be my main reccommendation only if your weak point was a muscle weakness in your triceps. But that's likely not the case. So i'd go with isometric pushups if it were me.

There's also always Greasing the Groove Method by Pavel. Doing half the reps that you're capable of doing in a single set throughout the day. So if you can do say 40 pushups max, you would drop down and do 20 perfect reps at the top of the hour, several times a day. I've seen results with that for pullups as well.

Ronnicky Roy, 

Thanks very much for your detailed advice. I will play around with both options.  I particularly appreciate the isometric push-up suggestion and look forward to experiencing the targeted development.  Very cool!