Thread: push ups and sit ups

what would you say is a reasonable amount to be able to do in one set?

In sets of 20 is my preference. You can make it harder by adjusting your leverage and tensing the muscles that are involved in the movement.

how many sets of 20?

4 sets

how many push-ups should you do in a day, is there such a thing as too much?

Ok from the crunches standpoint
Sets of 30
1 straight
1 on either side
1 tucked
1 leg lifts

I think more than you can do with good form is too many.

I often see guys at the gym doing sets of 30 pushups with their backs arched so their stomachs are nearly touching the ground, their arms straight, going down 2 cms at a time with their shoulders only - Very, very bad and painful to watch.

Give me 5 good ones with a firm stomach holding everything in line properly, going all the way down and all the way up any day over 30 crap ones!

Seriously as a girl it was hard for me to learn to do push ups and it took a long time. Luckily I was taught to do them with correct form and now I can do as many as most guys.

Taking a little longer, doing fewer reps, to get the movement right to begin with paid off. If you can't do large numbers properly on your toes you can always add some on your knees on a soft mat or some chest press.

One thing to be careful of is what you do with back pain. I was told to cut down on pushups a bit when I started getting back pain. Now I make sure i do a lot of back strengthening work to balance it.

Originally Posted by JAVIER85

how many push-ups should you do in a day, is there such a thing as too much?

You don't want to do too much, as with anything.

I just do 4-5 sets of 25 pushups interspersed throughout the day. Make sure you keep your back straight, contract your abs along with the rest of the muscles used in the exercise. Go down to where your chest barely touches the floor then push yourself back up.

Besides contracting your muscles there's a couple tricks to make it easier, one is closing your dominant eye, or both your eyes. You can also vary the distance between your hands and adjust your leverage.

what my trainer teache me is go down half way, but do it explosive, to build ur shoulders!

At my gym we do 3 sets of ten strange push ups. I dontknow the name but they are used in some MMA gyms. You kind of drag your body close to the floor. It looks like you are trying to glide and have sex with the floor at the same tme!! Sorry for the crap description. I think Frank Shamrock uses them and they might be on the net.
I think they might be called Egytian or Hindu push ups. They work a treat.

Hiya all !!

Been awhile saorry. A fun way to do them is with a deck of cards, and after every flip take a knee until you flip the next card. An Ace is one pusup/situp, a two is 2 situps/pushups, a face card is ten situps/pushups...and so on and so forth. Do this until the deck is complete, lol, or at least try, ::P

I heard about that from rossboxing, it's fun and keeps things a surprise. You can mix match a card to any exercise that you want too.

By the way, how's things going with you John?

Hiya Chris !!

I am doing fine thanks: My daughter is down to 190, from 232, and is very dedicated to her boxing. She has developed quite the punch, and I havent noticed a loss of power in her punch. She is beginning to show some frustrations however due to lack of opponents and sparring partners. Seems their is a double standard from my assistant trainers between the male and female fighters. With the men, we sparr them with whatever is available, weight, age or experience plays no significant part in these sparring sessions, because we feel that boxers will work together during the sparring session. However, my assistant trainers will not let the other female fighters, which we have 6, spar my daughter, claiming she is to advanced. I understand this, but my daughter is getting very tired of being on the losing end of our cruiser weights fast and accurate jab, and has decided to stop sparring until the other females reach her level, I understand her frustations, being the underdog for 4 months. My club, Clairton Boxing Club, has recently been awarded a Proclamation from the Allegheny County Council, a very prestigious award for our efforts with the young people in our area.

I understand her frustrations but at the same time she'll probably find the less experienced girls are not much fun to spar all the time either as they'll challenge her less.

They might also feel more intimidated and take things personally from time to time making it hard for her to use all her skills against them without intimidating them even if she takes the power out.

I have always found this with bigger less experienced girls - it doesn't occur to them that they're trying to decapitate a midget because they are being tagged and it frustrates them.

Guys generally are not intimidated by me ever after about 6 months of regular sparring so I won't get an emotional response from them very often.

She's pretty skilled isn't she - why not pair her up with a guy who's not as skilled as your cruiserweight but still has some control?

Sure the girls will eventually improve and be less intimidated but that could take a while. What if they're not as commited as your daughter and they never get to the stage where their trainer will let them spar her? That'd suck!

I've had issues with female training partners and my latest is the first I've gotten to the stage where we work really well together but it did take a while for both of us to learn to work together and enjoy it easily even without supervision like we can now.

I've had fewer good female sparring partners then male and I generally avoid loading up against another girl for normal sparring but am allowed to have a bit of a go against the some of the guys from time to time without being murdered or resented for the effort.