How to increase the number of push-up?

[Lucy]

Wow! Must go hang out there for a while i guess

[Shokei Marcsui]

There shouldn't be any difference in muscle work out because the motion is the same between palm and seiken push-ups.

Difference between the palm and seiken push-up is that seiken obviously works the knuckles but also focuses stress on the wrist to make it stronger. I would bet that if you can do the same amount of seiken push-ups as palm push-ups with a little bit of practice. OSU!

[Lucy]

I wish you was right Marc! I can do about 50 palm push ups well. But i'd be lucky to get anywhere near that seiken! Im not even going to say how many

[vapor]

Originally Posted by Lucy

Wow! Must go hang out there for a while i guess

They are a force to be reckoned with!!

One mother/daughter combination, have the highest attendance nearly every month...something like 30-40 classes a month...(mother recently tested and was promoted to shodan)

Very inspirational!

That is saying something for being in Tokyo, were most employees tend to work more than 8 hours a day (I was regularly working 60 hour weeks at the ad agency I was at)

vapor

[Lucy]

Crikey! And i thought me doing 18 sessions a month was good lol! Amazing indeed!!

Back to push ups i think i really need to strengthen my upper body to be able to do push ups better. Im mean i can't even do dips or chin ups on them gym contraptions....sad very sad lol

[vapor]

You have a goal to work on now!

Break it down on how you are going to improve your upper body strength over the next 3 months!

vapor

[Shokei Marcsui]

I wish you was right Marc! I can do about 50 palm push ups well. But i'd be lucky to get anywhere near that seiken! Im not even going to say how many

I'm sure that you can Lucy. I refuse to believe that women cannot do seiken push-ups

Which muscle/body part are you finding the most struggle with when doing seiken versus palm push-ups? Could be wrist strength....

[Lucy]

Hang on i'll try a few now....

[Lucy]

Right...Triceps and chest mostly. Knuckles could do with some hardening

[Shokei Marcsui]

I'm sure that you know that push-ups work the triceps and chest muscles. Perhaps seiken push-ups magically focus more stress to the target areas which would explain the burn.

The only thing that I can think of that will change the stress is the width of your arms. For instance, triangle push-ups focus on heavy tricep and middle chest area whereas the further out you go, the focus is taken away from tricep and harder on outer chest area.

Give it a week and i'm sure that you'd be able to do just as many seiken push-ups as you can do palm.

[Lucy]

Note to self: Learn to love seiken push ups.

Its my own fault really im sure, i try and avoid them at all costs! Thanks for them pointers Marc i shall work on them

[vapor]

How about you video tape yourself doing them, upload to youtube, and we can all critique you !!

vapor

[Shokei Marcsui]

How about you video tape yourself doing them, upload to youtube, and we can all critique you !!

Do I smell a new post under the demonstration thread??

[Lucy]

Originally Posted by vapor

How about you video tape yourself doing them, upload to youtube, and we can all critique you !!

vapor

OMG now i could... Give everyone a good laugh im sure

[seienchin]

Osu Lucy - how did you get this far without being able to do seiken pushups? They were articulated as a specific grading requirement when I did my kyu grades and shodan. I think for shoan I had to do 100 seiken pushups and 20 fingertip pushup. There was a tradition of not requiringthe women to do seiken pushups, but really hated that because it just gave us all weak wrists.
The difference with seiken pushups is that they really work the triceps and biceps, not the pecs. IF you are really struggling with these start with your knees on the ground, just to work those isolated muscles. Then, graduate to feet wide apart, with knees off the ground.
And no, you don't need boy muscles. Just a strong kyokushin GRRRL attitude! (which I am pretty sure you have in abundance!).

[homer_simpson]

Wow! I left this forum for 1 day and ... boing! What great responses!

Anyhow, I agree that doing mini-sets (small reps but many sets) is detrimental. I know this for sure because I have tried that for several weeks, and I could barely get back to 50 after that.

About my obsession with push-up (quality vs quantity, etc.), I think the first reason is self-satisfaction. Being able to do certain number of push-ups helps to motivate me to keep going somehow. My second reason is that push-up is a convenient training tool when I don't have much time. It trains not only triceps, but some chest, abs and shoulder muscles as well. Lastly, I often feel good about myself after doing push-ups, and I can feel I have stronger punches as well.

I will try some of the tips here and see how it goes (including allowing the muscles to recuperate idea). I wonder whether supplementing push-ups with bench press and abs work (crunches/sit-ups) will help. Perhaps adding more weight will do. Has anyone had any experience with this?

[vietchau]

homer : do bench press (or any other type of weight lifting ) will help your push-up immensely ! Also try to do it faster might help. Another tip is if you really want to see your push-up number goes up, do it when you feel fresh / strongest , and once you do it , never let the number goes down .

I don't know how you guys do push-up but seiken push-up is so so different from palm push-up. i.e. you need to tense your wrist, go deeper , stretch your chest and arm more etc . In short, it is definitely harder and as a karateka we should only do seiken push up .

[Azimuth]

Try push ups with a partner having his legs or feet lying on your back
so he can do decline push ups .

Or just assume push up position and time how long you can stand like this.
You don't have to go down at all

[Billy no mates]

Originally Posted by Lucy

This is very useful BUT palm push ups are nothing like knuckle push ups and you use different muscles. I shall try it though seiken an see how it goes. I so can't do seiken push ups I can't do any upper body exercises very well! I think you need boy muscles to be good at them lol.

It depends on where you put your palms you could do similar push ups to the classic seiken one but youve hit on an important point different push ups hit different muscles i tend to do a variety of different types ranging from arms as wide as i can go with my kness drawn in and doing rapid dips as fast as i can to a long slow push up with one foot hooked over the other hands in a kanku position i feel better for me to do that rather than a huge quantity of a single type .
If your reaching a plateau try adding a different type of push up to your work out it may give it a new new impetus like finding a low wall and trying to explode of it from a 45 degree angle to a 90 degree from inclined to vertical,a change can be as good as a rest .
If your fixated on doing a set amount when you feel you cant do any more full press ups drop down to your knees or hips as necessary and complete your target figure that way then cut down on the amount of knee or hip press ups within your total replacing them one by one with full press ups it might not work for everyone but its worth a go .