Q&A for: 19-Jan-06
1235. Q:
how many calories does one push up burn
A:
Very few. You are doing yourself a disservice by approaching pushups with a 'burn calories' perspective. The main point of pushups and other weight training exercises is not to burn calories while doing them (though they will burn some), but to provide enough stress to physically damage your muscles which will in turn force your body to repair them afterwards which in turn burns far more calories and raises your metabolism.
So the goal of resistance training for weight loss is to provide sufficient stress to physically damage the fibers within your muscles. That requires, in general, using weights or resistance heavy enough that you can't do more than 12 repetitions in a row without.
So you'll most benefit from pushups when you are not yet very strong and can only do a few of them in a row. Once you can do 20+ pushups in a row they'll provide only limited stimulus to your muscles and become more like a traditional 'calorie-burning' exercise -- at that point you might as well just run or do some other form of cardio instead since you'll burn more calories through that than through pushups. And for resistance training, instead of doing dozens of pushups, you'd benefit more from heavy whole-body weight training.
So, to review, pushups burn very few calories while you actually do them, but if they are difficult for you to do (you can only do a dozen or less) then they will provide other fat-burning and metabolism benefits AFTER you do them.
1236. Q:
Hello Mike,i would like hear ur advice.I do proper nutrition and weight training 5 days a week.But 2 of these days i have to work at night till morning.And the 2 of them are together(Friday and Saturday).That means Friday morning i work at gym and night i work at my job till morning then i sleep in the Saturday morning and after i wake up i go to gym again Saturday afternoon and after at night working again till Sunday morning.As u can imagine it is very hard(also at night as i work i eat every 3-4 hours good foods )so i would like u to tell me ur opinion:Does this work?Does my body have the necessary time to recover from one weight training to another?Would it be better the one session of these 2 days to be added to anothers day session?I have heard also that it is better to have a break between weight trainings and a day in which u will totally rest.So,iam thinking of adding Fridays session to another day so i do 4 days a week and with a break thus allowing my body to rest and recover better(also every day i train different parts of my body).
A:
It definitely sounds like you understand the issues involved here and trying to do all the right things. In the end you are in better position than anyone else to say whether such a routine is too much for you -- look for the usual signs of overtraining, especially around the weekend: lack of strength, lack of appetite, possible insomnia, tiredness during the day, irritability, sickness, etc. 5 workouts per week is on the high end anyway, so I would probably err on the side of caution and drop at least one of those Fri/Sat sessions and just do 3 or 4 workouts per week on other days. Even if you keep the 5-day routine for now, don't do it for more than a couple of months in a row. Good luck!
1237. Q:
Why after 2 months ppl change their program routine at gym?I havent changed mine since 7 months and still works for me.What happens if u always do the same exercises?Also,why after weight training ppl make some bicycle or the other machine in which u walk on it(i dont remember its name exactly in English:))for 5-10 mins before they finish?
A:
You don't have to change your routine every 2 months, especially if you are a relative beginner, but it's a good idea in general. Your body 'gets used' to any routine when done for too long and the results diminish. All well-designed routines for atheletes, for example, should incorporate some sort of periodization and progression where the routine changes in volume and intensity with time. Recreational lifters can benefit from the same program design concepts to maximize strength/muscle gain and/or fat loss.
As I said, relative beginners (those with less 2 years of lifting experience) don't need to worry about this quite so much since they still have a large 'adaptation window' -- meaning they will make progress much easier than more experienced lifters. Still, it's a good habit to change up your routines every few months -- whether in volume (going from, say, 100 sets/week to 50 sets/week), intensity (going from 10-12 reps/set to failure to 6-8 reps/set to failure, for example), or just the type of exercises (such as replacing all barbell exercises with equivalent dumbbell exercises).
As to your second question, many people like to finish their workouts with a cooldown period. It's not essential, especially for weight training, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything. Another option is to finish up with stretching the muscles your worked out -- that's probably a little more useful in reducing future soreness. Or you can do both.
1238. Q:
What happens if u do weight training till failure and u dont overeat(ust eat normally).Does this mean weight training is useless to u this way?I cant eat more that i eat already,i eat 5 times a day nice clear foods but i cant up my kgs anymore.I dont wanna eat more.Does this mean weight training is useless to me anymore?Cant i gain more muscles this way?
A:
You will still get stronger, gain muscle and lose fat, but the process will be veeery slow if your weight never changes. As usual, if you are a relative beginner, your progress will be faster, but in all cases no weight change means no or very slow body composition changes compared to when you gain or lose weight according to your goals.
One thing you may want to consider, if you are over 18, is if you have some extra fat you want to lose is to go on a cutting phase to slowly lose a few pounds by dropping the overall calories. After that you can increase the calories back up and slowly gain the pounds back -- after a few months you'll be back to present weight, but with more muscle and less fat than before. This will allow for faster progress than just keeping the weight constant.
The other option is to find way to eat more :) A banana or two as snacks throughout the day are pretty easy to pull off for anyone and will give you the extra calories to gain weight.
1239. Q:
Mike, I'm planning to run a 21 km race on may. I'm kind of thin, so I need to prepare myself the best way.. I guess that means a really good diet to support all the cardio I'm going to be doing since I don't want to loose that much mass.. what do you recomend? thanks.
A:
Eat a carbohydrate-rich diet -- at least 60% of calories coming from carbs. Try to especially 'carb-load' the night before the big run and the last meal before the run (unless that makes you queezy, of course). Also have a carb-rich meal after the run. Eat enough to not lose weight. Try to get used to drinking gatorade-type drinks and/or eating energy bar during the actual run. Always keep yourself hydrated. Good luck!
1240. Q:
MIke im the guy from 1234, can you help design me a workout that is just right? not as near to over training as you said it was. i can go to the gym 4-5 days a week and im currently on a bulking diet you and me worked out. On 1234 i forgot to tel you about shoulders. usually i do them on mondays and thursdays, and switch the back days aoruond with tues and fri. anyways, about this new workout plan, please help me. Im getting my rotator cuff healed, and my doctor said i can just bench the bar, for like 20-25 reps. for shoulders i just do light weight shrugs right now and maybe presses with the bar. anyways can you help me
A:
Well, like I said, there's nothing necessarily wrong with your existing program if you only go to failure on every fourth set. You can scale it down to 3 sets per exercise instead of 4 if you're worried about doing too much. Alternatively you can take up one of my sample programs from the Articles page: here's the 4-day program -- take out the shoulder exercises you can't do now. And be extra-careful when you go to failure on all exercises -- 'cheating' on form in even back and bicep exercises can hurt your shoulder, so always maintain perfect form, even at the expense of the last rep or two on to-failure sets.
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