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Do pushups/pullups make muscles bigger or just strengthen?

  • 23-02-2005 11:29am
    #1
    Rossonero
    Closed Accounts Posts: 396 ✭✭


    Doing pushups and pullups, will it increase my muscles in my arms or does it just strengthen what's there?

    Do they have any effect on your chest muscles?

    I really need to increase muscles on my chest, but I don't go to gyms. Is there any exercises I can do at home to increase them?

    I take part in athletics (1500m - 5000m)
    Cycling (road racing)


Comments

  • #2
    irlirishkev
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭irlirishkev


    It's like any weights excercise. It depends on a few things.

    1) The weight you're pushing/pulling.
    2) The speed you perform your reps at.
    3) Your diet.

    If you find push ups easy to do, try doing them with one foot over the other, or with your feet on a chair. High Reps will tone, low reps will build muscle, but you need to have the resistance there aswell ie, you need to feel it.

    Same with pullups, try weighting yourself down if you find them too easy to do..

    K.


  • #3
    dudara
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 33,518 ✭✭✭✭dudara


    By changing the position of your hands while doing pushups you will switch the emphasis from biceps to triceps to shoulder muscles. I'll have a look aroud for sites when I get a chance. And the great thing is you have your whole body weight, for free, to lift.


  • #4
    pwd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,284 ✭✭✭pwd


    I did pushups with weights on my back in a backpack for a few months because I had no money to use a gym. Then I started going to the gym and found myself using 100kg to do sets of bench press. The last time I'd have gone before that I reckon I was using 60 kg or so, so doing pushups in this way was definitely effective.


  • #5
    uum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 183 ✭✭uum


    pwd wrote:
    I did pushups with weights on my back in a backpack for a few months because I had no money to use a gym. Then I started going to the gym and found myself using 100kg to do sets of bench press. The last time I'd have gone before that I reckon I was using 60 kg or so, so doing pushups in this way was definitely effective.
    Basically your first time benching you lifted 100kg bar some stuff ages before?

    Good on ya mate but sounds kinda far fetched. Benching is as much about technique as about strength. Friends od mine would murder me but id bench much more than them cas i have the breathing and grip and all sorted.


  • #6
    pwd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,284 ✭✭✭pwd


    I had been doing pushups with weights on my back to develop the muscle. Not far-fetched. The resistance I was using doing this would have bveen equivalent.


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  • #7
    OFDM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,399 ✭✭✭OFDM


    pwd wrote:
    I had been doing pushups with weights on my back to develop the muscle. Not far-fetched. The resistance I was using doing this would have bveen equivalent.
    Bench press machine or free weights?


  • #8
    pwd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,284 ✭✭✭pwd


    When I went to the gym I was doing sets of 2 X 7 X 103kg on a machine. I did not improve significantly on this while I went to the gym over the next couple of months. I since found out that free weights are more effective for training muscles than machines, so this could be why I got better results from improvising in my room with a couple of dumbells and a backpack than from going to the gym at that time. That and the fact that I was inhibited about exerting myself in public to the extent that I did while training in my room.
    On that note, one of the benefits of this particular form of exercise (pushups with weights on my back) was that (with the weights I was using) I was able to push myself to failure without having a spotter since the weights did not hurt me (they were wrapped in pillows in a bag) when I lay with them on toip of mye, and I was able to roll on my side I think to get them off anyways.
    I improvised in a similar manner with a bag for squatting. I also did a lot of cycling at the time. When I went to the gym I was able to use all the weights for sets on the leg press machine, which I think was 200kg. I don't know what that is equivalent to for squatting, certainly considerably less.
    I think that during this period I was supplementing with creatine and zma, as well as velvet antler, which may or may not be effective for weight-training. Conflicting studies have shown it to considerably increase muscle gains, growth hormone, and testosterone levels/to not increase muscle gains or growth hormoe levels but increase testosterone levels five or six times/ to have no effect relevant to strength training whatsoever. Also American sources and some Candian sources of the substance should be avoided, since they are likely to be from animals infected with BSE. (It is made from deer and elk antlers).


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