Q&A for: 14-Aug-05
364. Q:
Hi Mike, for the past couple of days I've been trying to do push ups for a fitness exam. I can only do about 6 good ones but need to do 25+ by mid September. Are there any substitutes I can do to gain more strength so I can pass.
A:
In a situation like this you need to just keep doing A LOT of pushups. They build up quickly and you have a very good chance of reaching 25+ in one month. Do them at least 3 times day (morning, afternoon, evening) every day and every one of those times do 2-3 sets to exhaustion (so in your case you might get 6 on the first set, rest a few minutes, squeeze out another 6, rest a few minutes, squeeze out another 4 or 5 or however many you can).
At the same time if you're overweight, you may want to try and lose some weight -- if you're lighter, you'll be able to do more pushups! Check out my new Fitness Guide to see a suggested diet for weight loss. You don't have to follow it exactly, of course, but do something like it (eat several small healthy meals with lots of green veggies and little or no bread/pasta/rice/sweets) to help speed up weight loss. Normally I recommend losing about 1 pound per week, but in your specific case, you may want to aim for 2 or even 3 pounds per week loss to help make the pushups easier -- so you can decrease calories from the suggested diet even more.
25 pushups may sound like a lot now, but you can definitely get there in one month. Good luck!
365. Q:
Hey Mike, on Q199 you made a 6 week benchpress schedule for me, when i said that my max was 135 ( http://mikesfitness.com/asktrainer.php?id=199 ) you said that 165 would be my new max maybe, does that mean my 1RM?
A:
Yep, that's what I meant. 1RM stands for 'One-Rep Max'.
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