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Thread: Opinions on weighted push ups

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Posts
    3

    Post Opinions on weighted push ups

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    Dear Mark,



    I´m Yannick, 30 years old Police officer from Germany.

    First, I would like to thank you, about what you have done for the fitness Industry. I (now i would say) practiced, instead of trained, for more than 12 years now.

    At the end of 2019, I started training with the starting strength method and it changed my life completely. I started to overthink everything I thought I knew about training.

    I practiced in so many different ways (from Body Building to Functional Fitness), but I was stucked on a power Level for years.

    I started at the end of 2019 with a body weight of 112kg (I´m 190cm tall) and my squat was 130kg. I did not deadlift for years, because I didnt know how to do it correctly and didnt know about the benefits.

    I had troubles with my shoulder, my knees hurt, and my muscles were often sore and tensed. I got a herniated disc 3 times in my lower back. I played American Football and felt very slow and weak on the field.

    Now my Body weight is at 126kg, I´m still 190cm tall. I do the 4-day-Texas-Method over a 3 day week (I got it from the YouTube Video of Paul Horn), after I finished the original Texas Method once.

    My Squat is at 215kg for 3x2
    My Deadlift is at 245kg for 3x1
    My Press is at 106kg for 3x2
    My barbell row is at 156kg for 3x2
    I do my chin ups with + 33kg for 3x2

    I have absolutely no problems with my shoulder, my back or knees at all. I´m qiuck an conditiond, although I´m not doing cardio at all.

    But there is one thing i keep doing in my training, I want to hear your opinion about.

    When I had a lot of trouble and pain in my shoulder back in the days, because I was excercising with wrong form and did a lot if shitty stuff, I started to do weighted push ups instead of bench press. Because I could excersise pain free.

    I hope, I can explain it the way you understand.

    I´m still using a barbell on a power rack and do the push ups, lying over the bar instead of under the bar with the normal bench press wide grip. My feet lie on a box and the barbell position is even to the box level or a few cm below. So my whole Body is in the air and only my hands and my toes are in contact with the ground (or box and barbell).

    I started to put weights on a lifting belt on my hips and started to do the normal LP, I do so with + 83kg now and the weights are still going up for 0,5 kg per workout.

    I would like to hear your opinion about this version of a bench press. My thoughts are, that there is more muscle mass involved over the same range of motion like in the normal bench press and still a good way to train the belly (trying to avoid the „C“ word (Core) 😉 )

    I hope the pictures will help in case you did not understand a single word 😉

    I would love to become a starting strength coach, I try to show other people in the gym the right way to train and do the lifts correctly. I´m not perfect at all, but i think better than the most people in the gym … is there any contact in Germany ?

    God bless you, your Family and Crew

    Yannick
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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    53,558

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    Weighted pushups were discussed in the book. The problem is that you reach the limit of your ability to plank before you reach the limit of your ability to add weight to the pressing motion, and that's the purpose of the exercise. You can't hang 175kg from your waist and do a set of 5 pushups, especially with lumbar disc problems. My advice is to stop doing these and use a closer grip on the bench press.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Posts
    3

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    Yes, I thougth about the problem beeing limited by the plank. I don´t know why, but I love this excercise. It may be, because it made me do some kind of press again without pain and it´s fun. I don´t have a bench at home, maybe there is a good one available in the near future or I have to wait until the gyms open up again. Thank you

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2020
    Location
    Fredericton, NB, Canada
    Posts
    111

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    Hey Yannick,

    Here is one solution that could help you get around the plank limitation problem:

    Quarantine Weighted Pushup.jpg

    This is what I started doing during the lockdown last March. You can get a weight vest and do pushups with books under your hands to let you get the full range of motion in. The weight vest is strapped to your chest, so your ability to plank is less of a limiting factor. I got my kids to sit on my back to add even more weight when the weight vest wasn't enough. The problem with kids is that they're squirmy.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    1,927

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by James Rodgers View Post
    Hey Yannick,

    Here is one solution that could help you get around the plank limitation problem:

    Quarantine Weighted Pushup.jpg

    This is what I started doing during the lockdown last March. You can get a weight vest and do pushups with books under your hands to let you get the full range of motion in. The weight vest is strapped to your chest, so your ability to plank is less of a limiting factor. I got my kids to sit on my back to add even more weight when the weight vest wasn't enough. The problem with kids is that they're squirmy.
    And the memories will last longer than the strength.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Posts
    3

    Default

    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by James Rodgers View Post
    Hey Yannick,

    Here is one solution that could help you get around the plank limitation problem:

    Quarantine Weighted Pushup.jpg

    This is what I started doing during the lockdown last March. You can get a weight vest and do pushups with books under your hands to let you get the full range of motion in. The weight vest is strapped to your chest, so your ability to plank is less of a limiting factor. I got my kids to sit on my back to add even more weight when the weight vest wasn't enough. The problem with kids is that they're squirmy.
    looks like a lot of fun for everybody. So do you have a meal plan for your kids so the weigth increase is about 2,5kg per workout?
    But I´m not only limited by the plank, I´m also limited by not having kids. I have to wait at least 9 months to do this workout.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
    Weighted pushups were discussed in the book. The problem is that you reach the limit of your ability to plank before you reach the limit of your ability to add weight to the pressing motion, and that's the purpose of the exercise. You can't hang 175kg from your waist and do a set of 5 pushups, especially with lumbar disc problems. My advice is to stop doing these and use a closer grip on the bench press.
    I don´t know why I needed your oppinion first to make the change, but I changed my programm and started to do the bench press. My shoulder is doing fine, I´m just waiting for a bench to be delivered. In the meantime I do the bench as good as I can on some pieces of wood I lay on.

    My question is now, what is the best way to train the bench press?
    Because I did not train the bench press for a while, it will make me a novice at the bench. So what is the best way to include a novice bench press programm to my 4-Day-Texas-Method-over-a-3-Day-Week?
    I started my bench press at 120kg. I added a 3x5 bench press workout to every day of my training with a total of 2,5 kg increase per workout. I may decrease the increase of weigth per workout to 1 kg total if this stops working. Do you think that this is the best way?

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