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Pushups- Try Reading Here First- Merged Thread

Lazarus** said:
Hey everyone, its been a while since I posted on this thread.
I'm currently on week 5/6 of this here pushup program and in my last post I was complaining about wrist pain..well, thats gone.
It no longer bugs  me, but now I have a nother "problem".

When I do my pushups and go from the down position to up, I feel what I can only describe as a pulling sensation and just before I reach the full up position theres a small "pop". Goin back down I cant feel anything, and its only on the up motion that this occurs. I want to see what people here have to say about this before I go to the doctor.
A "pop" is usually a tendon running over a bone. Try changing your hand,/wrist position slightly. If it hurts at all go see a Dr. Either way it is not normal.
 
I have made my appointment and am going to see the doctor tomorrow morning bright and early.
I'll let you know how things go
 
Well, I got checked out by the doc yesterday and he believes that it could be the tendon slipping.
I have to go get X-rays today to make sure everything is okay. And in the meantime he wrote me a note saying that some exercises should be modified to minimise stress on said tendon.
That being said, I didnt get much sleep last night because I was thinking of the fact that
a) I havent done my CFAT yet
b) I've been working hard to be ready for my physical test

and if I show up the day of my CFAT with a doctors note saying that I cant do certain movements.....it looks bad on my part.
Making a lifetime commitment and on the first day showing up with a note saying something like "please excuse johnny from so and so class....."

Hopefully nothing is wrong and I can continue with no problems.
I'd hate to have the doors close on me before I got a chance to actually do anything.
 
Laz,

The CFAT (Canadian Forces Aptitude Test) and phyiscal fitness testing are two different things my friend.

CFAT testing is a multiple choice exam focused on verbal, spatial and mathematical abilities.  Fitness testing focuses on cardiovascular fitness, strength and power.
 
Well, I'm sure you know what I mean though.
Like showing up the first day of class in school and letting the teacher know you cant do any of the homework for so and so excuse.
 
Lazarus,

I wouldn't panic yet. The injury won't come up at the recruiting center until your medical (at the earliest). By that time you should have an idea of how long it will take to heal.

People get hurt all the time so I'm sure they know how to handle it. The worst that could happen is it will take longer to get in. Worry  about getting better versus how this is going to hurt your recruitment.
 
Yea, your right Albedo.
Im just gonna focus on preparing for my CFAT and wait to see what the good doctor has to say.
 
Spent my holiday leave doing this and a few other bits of work. Cranked out 60 regulation pushups yesterday. It actually worked alright though i tended to add a couple of reps to sets just to really push myself.
Ta
 
Just curious if this is normal but when i do push ups either with push up bar or not I have a sort of popping in my elbows.  Is this normal does anyone else experience this???

Also concerning push up bars - -I know in the test you do not use them but would you recomend using them for training or not ???

cheers

 
as far as i know any sort popping is not good. i can't garuntee you why it is but if you havn't been working out a lot your muscles could be weak in that area and the additional stress is popping it. also if you do sports like wrestling and overextend yourself with being pulled on it can stretch the muscles weakening them and causing the popping feeling, still not good.

im sure that increasing the strength in the area will stop the popping but i don't suggest over working the muscles.
 
I have always had popping in my elbows and knees and it never really went away with working out. It isn't painful so I don't worry about it but you should get it checked by a doctor because they are the professionals and you wouldn't want to make something worse.
 
If your body is doing strange things, you can see/call a doctor, physician's assistant, orthopedic surgeon, physiotherapist or other health care professional, research on a reputable medical website for causes of joint popping and self-evaluate, ignore it in the hopes it will go away or pursue a number of other options.

However, to base your well-being on the word of anonymous Internet posters is perhaps not your best course of action.  While there are medical professionals that post on this site, Army.ca is neither an accredited nor authoritative source of medical information.

As for your second question, there are several topics concerning physical training in general and push ups in particular.  A search will turn up a great deal of information and should serve to guide what is perhaps the overall principle for self-motivated PT training:

"Do what works for you, does not injure you and helps you achieve the results you seek."

Good luck in your search and let's limit the replies to those that offer some value.

The Milnet.ca Staff
 
CSA 105 said:
If your body is doing strange things, you can see/call a doctor, physician's assistant, orthopedic surgeon, physiotherapist or other health care professional, research on a reputable medical website for causes of joint popping and self-evaluate, ignore it in the hopes it will go away or pursue a number of other options.

However, to base your well-being on the word of anonymous Internet posters is perhaps not your best course of action.  While there are medical professionals that post on this site, Army.ca is neither an accredited nor authoritative source of medical information.

As for your second question, there are several topics concerning physical training in general and push ups in particular.  A search will turn up a great deal of information and should serve to guide what is perhaps the overall principle for self-motivated PT training:

"Do what works for you, does not injure you and helps you achieve the results you seek."

Good luck in your search and let's limit the replies to those that offer some value.

The Milnet.ca Staff

Maybe we should put this in the rules and must read? (unless its already there)
 
Thanks for the advice I was thinking of goig to a clininc and check up on it.
It does not hurt or stop me from doing my push ups that is the major reason I have not seen anyone as of yet.

Cheers
 
coreymclean said:
Just curious if this is normal but when i do push ups either with push up bar or not I have a sort of popping in my elbows.  Is this normal does anyone else experience this???
No it is not normal. It is usually cause by tendons moving across bone. If it hurts, see a doctor.


Also concerning push up bars - -I know in the test you do not use them but would you recomend using them for training or not ???

If you got them use them. The most effective way to train for pushups is by doing pushups. What the push up bars will allow you to do is to press down more to get a fuller push up. Just remember not to leave them in one position for successive reps. The hazard is that the popping noise you hear could have been cause by those bars as they force your arms into an unnatural motion.
 
You also want to raise your time in between sets and reps. The higher amount of reps you do the longer your rest should be.

Say 40x3 :  40x1= 2 minute rest, next set 40x1 2 min:30 sec rest, next set 40x1 2 min:30 sec | 120 push ups with a total amount of rest time.  Higher reps, longer rest. 

Remember when doing push ups, don't just do push ups. You want to increase strength through out your whole body With different variations of body weight exercises, if you do not have weights. (Handstand-pushups, Dips, Pull-ups, Chin-ups, negatives, body weight squats) etcetera  You can also perform these exercises with amounts of weight to make it difficult. With push ups you can use a backpack with 2 liter pop bottles in it, or wrap chains around one self. Think of ways to make these simple exercises difficult.  Challenge your self, don't just stick with your body weight.

Push up tips: Clench your abs and your but cheeks. A stronger core will also help when doing push-ups by stabilizing your body. 
 
The thing about reaching 50 push ups is that after you can do 20-30, you are strong enough to do 50, you just need more endurance. You can get to 20-30  by just doing push ups, as muscle memory is key. From there, it's just a matter of doing a lot of push ups and making gradual steps up over time, resulting in 50 push ups.

However, to reach 100 push ups, a new approach is needed. Iron Dungeon offers a good method, but weight training to build up the muscles involved by using high reps with medium weight with compound exercises mixed with some isolation work is effective in increasing numbers.
 
First, bms thanks for the post, good system!

Just gotta say this, cause I think its why this training works so well:

People are always looking for ways to do something, by doing something else (usually something easier.)  Unfortunately it just dose not work that way most of the time.  When I worked at the YMCA on weekends people would sometimes ask things like "I want to get better at pushups, what exercises should I do?"  And every time I would just say to them "do pushups, as many as you can."  I really do believe the only way to get good at something specific is to just do it, over and over again until its easy, no shortcuts.

Thats why this routine works so good, it just makes you do lots of pushups until its easy.  Not rocket science, but effective.

Similarly, when I was working on getting my numbers up, I would just drop myself onto what ever flat surface I was standing on every hour or so and do as many as I could.  And believe, me after surgery and rehab, that number was only about 3 in the beginning.  ;)

Cheers! Kyle

 
This idea is also very well documented in "The Naked Warrior"(which I just recently read), and is called greasing the grove(GTG). It's where you make serious progress by doing a fraction of your maximum, but you do it very frequently. I mean, if you do 10 push ups everytime you enter your bedroom, or 5 chin ups, or whatever, over time you will make a lot of progress.

Infact, I'm going to experiment on it this summer and post my findings. Basically, I'm thinking that since I will have a platoon of about 30 people under my command with approximately 15-20 males, I will try GTG to see if I can get all the males to the point of 50 continuous push ups over 6 weeks. I'm thinking of starting with 5 push ups everytime we have to go to the barracks, about 5-8 times a day. Then increase this by 5 each week, ending with sets of 30, with a total of about 25-40 a day in the beginning and 150-240 a day at the end.

I mean, this says a lot if it works. But, I'll keep it posted.
 
Theres a lot to be said about endurance. Once upon a time I could do 90 pushups in a row, now I can only do 50...yet I am much stronger than I used to be. Obviously it's not all about brute strength however I have to agree that you can easily increase to 70+ pushups by just doing pushups, sure you might want to suppliment them with some additional excercises that target the tris, chest and shoulders but when it comes down to it; it's all about the push up. In my opinion.  :p
 
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