How many push ups a day should you do to achieve the results you are looking for?
Push-ups is undeniably one of the most popular and beloved classic exercises there is. Adding push-ups to your daily workout routine can help you achieve strength gains and weight loss simultaneously.
But how many should you be doing per day to achieve both, and is doing 100 push-ups a day necessary?
Join me as we discuss all of that and more down below.
Table of Contents
What Push-ups Do To Your Body
Push-ups is a great compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups in your body all at once, including your chest, shoulders, back, arms, legs, and abdominal muscles.
This bodyweight exercise is effective for endurance and strength training, where you can perform virtually anywhere at any time, given that it requires no equipment.
As a powerful full-body workout, push-ups can also be a great way to burn calories and lose fat.
Can You Get Bigger Muscles By Just Doing Push-ups?
Push-ups are considered to be the simplest and fastest way to effectively strengthen your body and promote muscle development in your body.
As with other forms of calisthenics exercise, push-ups heavily rely on body weight as resistance, where muscle strength is a key factor in performing a variety of movements.
While lifting weights is the conventional way of building muscle and strength, a 2015 study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research indicates that both push-ups and bench press provide similar effects of muscle gain in the body.
This means that push-ups, with enough variation and difficulty, can receive similar benefits to any weight lifting exercise when it comes to muscle development.
How Long Does It Take To See Results From Doing Push-ups?
Frankly, there’s a gray area when you’ll start seeing results from your workouts, specifically in push-ups. Several factors will contribute to the speed of when you’ll see actual results happening.
This includes your weight, diet, goal, fitness level, as well as the number of push-ups you do per day. And while it may seem to be a stretch to see results in just a week, a month of consistent exercise and diet is certainly possible to start seeing changes.
However, the question should not be about when you’ll start seeing results. It’s more about what you should do to get the results you are looking for.
How Many Push-ups Per Day To Build Muscle?
In doing push-ups, the number of reps or frequency is crucial to its effectiveness. However, beginners or people who carry a bit of extra weight might find difficulty doing this exercise right.
Generally, doing 3 sets of 12 reps per day is an ideal range for beginners. It can be enough to start seeing changes after 4-6 weeks.
However, our body’s muscles have memory. If you keep doing the same frequency and reps over an extensive period, your body will become accustomed to the workout, making your muscles plateau or stop growing.
Doing push-up variations as well as upgrading the number of push-ups you do in your routine can be a great way to prevent this from happening. Though, people who are in an advanced fitness level can and should amp up the frequency of their push-ups. So can 50 to 100 push-ups a day do anything?
Does Push-ups Reduce Belly Fat?
Doing daily push-ups can be a great weight loss solution and might be the answer to your belly-busting problems.
Any person who struggles with belly fat knows all too well how it is one of the most challenging areas to get rid of. Since the exercise heavily works the abdominal muscles, it can actively target hard to reach areas such as your visceral fat.
While this is also the case, keep in mind that a healthy, well-balanced diet is crucial for weight loss to work. Also, mixing a few more cardio exercises can help in cinching a few inches off your waist faster.
Will 100 Push-ups A Day Do Anything: Can It Make A Difference?
When you look at it at face value, 100 push-ups may be daunting to do. However, if you divide it into sets, it’s not a lot.
It’s undeniable how doing 100 push-ups every day can certainly do something to your body. It can make significant improvements in your strength, endurance, and muscle tone.
This exercise method hasn’t gone unheard of in the fitness world. Many training or fitness programs cater to doing the 100 push-up methods or challenge. There are a hundred push-ups training program, for example, a six-week training program designed to improve your body’s physical fitness and strength.
Some found the challenge of doing 100 push-ups a day was more of a mental challenge rather than a physical one. Sure, there’s bound to be some aches and pains along the way, but it requires a strong mental toughness to commit yourself to do it until the end.
When Is A Good Time For 100 Push-ups?
A good time for doing 100 push-ups is when you are both physically and mentally prepared to take up the task of doing it consistently.
However, beginners can also take up the challenge if they are mentally prepared to do so. Like every exercise or workout program, sheer willpower can make significant leaps and bounds for your progress.
You can customize the reps and sets so that it can fit and won’t interfere with your daily schedule. A doctor from Harvard Medical School also indicated how you could do push-ups to improve your body’s strength virtually anywhere. Any time is a good time since all you need is your body weight and a few minutes.
How Can I Get 100 Push-ups In One Day?
As we have previously mentioned, the thought of doing 100 push-ups in a single day for 4 to 6 weeks straight can be daunting. However, you can easily divide it into sets to ease your way.
You don’t have to do a hundred all in one go. You can do a workout split so that your body won’t experience a bad strain that would leave you incapable of doing it again the next day.
Take it easy, and progress will follow.
How Many Calories Do 100 Push-ups Burn?
Similar to how effective pull-ups or other types of body workouts, its ability to burn calories depends on several factors. Including your weight, height, diet, fitness level, etc.
However, generally speaking, doing push-ups has the capacity to burn up to 7 calories or more per minute. And you can do the math of how many calories burned to do 100 push-ups a day can do for you.
But, then again, the results would also heavily lean on your diet. Having a proper diet and calorie deficit are both essential factors for successful weight loss.
Is 100 Push-ups A Day Good For You?
Is it a big stretch if you do 100 a day? As simple as the mechanics go in terms of executing the exercise, push-ups can be an incredibly challenging task.
Getting the right position and maintaining the correct form may also be one of the things people may find difficulty in, so it would practically work your muscles hard in the right way. However, while you may see improvements in your body’s strength in the first 4 to 6 weeks, you might experience muscle plateau afterward.
That’s why doing exercise variations is essential. We will discuss more of that later, as well as the types of push-up variations you can implement to your workout routine. For now, we will tackle down below the benefits of doing 100 push-ups a day:
100 Push-ups A Day Benefits
- Improves Muscle Strength – Any bodyweight exercise or resistance training has the capability of giving your body significant improvements in strength gains and muscle tone. Push-ups are a great exercise that is both simple and challenging enough to work your body’s muscles. Doing 100 a day can certainly improve your upper body strength and performance.
- Increases Body’s Endurance – Your body’s capacity to handle stress during exercises is important. Push-ups can be a great way of enhancing your body’s endurance to strenuous activities, which also speaks volumes on how beneficial it can be to improve your body’s capability to perform a wide range of activities consistently.
- Increases Metabolism: Any form of exercise can help increase your body’s metabolism one way or another, and push-ups are no exception to this. Doing 100 push-ups a day trains your muscles. The more defined and toned your muscles are, the better your body will be at burning fat.
- Improves Cardiovascular Health – Did you know that a person’s capability of doing push-ups can be an indicator of their cardiovascular health? A study back in February 2019 found that men who can achieve 40 push-ups for 30 seconds had a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular problems, heart failure, or heart attack compared to men who were only able to complete 10. Therefore, push-ups do have an association with a person’s cardiovascular fitness.
Is 1000 Push-ups A Day Possible?
If you think 100 or 200 push-ups is already a stretch, can you even imagine what 1000 push-ups a day can do? Now, going beyond this number is already classified as too much. Even if you are already a fit individual, and it isn’t necessary.
See, not only would doing 1000 push-ups a day work your body to exhaustion, but it can also pose some degree of risks if you don’t do it properly. While some might take up the challenge, it isn’t an ideal exercise to do for an extensive period.
At this point, we can conclude that it doesn’t matter how great the number of push-ups is. But instead, it is the manner that you do the exercise in the first place.
Here are different push-up variations you can do:
Types of Push-up Variations
With these push-up variations, you can effectively tailor a workout program that you can commit yourself to do every day. It’s up to you to decide the number of sets of push-ups you want to do.
Military Push-ups: This is an excellent upper body exercise that targets the core, chest, arms, back, and shoulders.
How to do it:
- Prop yourself in a plank position, feet 12 inches apart. Keep your back straight.
- Breathe in before bending your elbows. Have them tracking back alongside your body and lower your chest slightly below the level of your bent elbow.
- Slowly breathe out while pushing back up to your initial position.
- Repeat.
Incline Push-ups: This is an excellent push-up variation for beginners.
How to Do It:
- Prop yourself in front of a bench or box to elevate your body.
- Bend down and put both of your hands on either side of the elevated surface with your fingers pointing forward—hands, a shoulder-width apart.
- Step your legs back into a plank position. Keep your body straight as you do so.
- Proceed to bend your arms slowly, chest towards the box.
- Then carefully straighten your arms until you’re back up to your initial position.
- Repeat.
Wide Hands Push-up – This variation works your core, chest and does a great job at targeting your arm muscles.
How to Do It:
- Prop your body in a standard push-up position with your hands wide apart. Around 2 to 3 feet from each other.
- Slowly lower yourself down and keep your core and pecs, and forearms engaged before carefully returning up to your initial position.
- Repeat.
Cross Body Push-up: This push-up variation works not only your upper body but your hips and leg muscles as well.
How to Do It:
- Prop your body into a plank position. Hands a shoulder’s width apart.
- Simultaneously cross one leg beneath your body as you lower yourself to the ground.
- Proceed to reverse the movement to your initial position before repeating on the other side.
- Repeat.
Tips to Keep In Mind
Push-ups will lose their effectiveness if you don’t use the proper technique in doing the exercise. That’s why maintaining the correct form is important to prevent risks of back pain or wrist injury.
It would be best if you also took note of having a well-balanced diet to help power you through your workout routines. A healthy body isn’t achievable only with exercise. Getting the right nutrients will help you do your workouts more effectively and meet your fitness goals faster.
You also don’t have to do 100 push-ups right away. If you’re a beginner, do what your body can handle, and you’ll see significant improvements in strength from there. While doing 100 push-ups may serve its benefits, you can take it easy and work your way through it.
The Bottom Line
Doing push-ups every day is undoubtedly the best way to strengthen your body and lose weight without the need for equipment.
Whether you do 50, 100, or 200 push-ups a day, it all goes down to how you work your body up to the challenge and remain consistent in your diet and workout. Your success in a healthier lifestyle lies in how you’ll commit yourself to the challenge of changing yourself for the better.
