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Is greasing the groove really the best way to increase pushups?

JimIII

Member
I have a PRT coming up in a few weeks and I feel comfortable with the run and plank (good medium) but the pushups are a bit worrying to me. Right now I can do around 40 pushups (+/- depending on how I am feeling that day) but I need to be able to do 47 for my age. I was talking to one of my friends and he said the best way to increase your pushup count is to grease the groove everyday with taking 1 rest day a week. Basically do around half of your max reps throughout the day. He said he went from 40 pushups to 80 pushups with good form in a few weeks.

Is this really the best pushup program? I've heard differing opinions depending on where I look. Some say that you're not really working our your muscles and you need a dedicated time to do pushups so that you are sweating and your arms are beat by the end.

I mean I only really need around 10 more pushups but ideally I'd like to really increase my pushup count to the good medium or even good high range. Anyone have any insight?
 

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
the best way to increase your pushup count is to grease the groove everyday with taking 1 rest day a week. Basically do around half of your max reps throughout the day. He said he went from 40 pushups to 80 pushups with good form in a few weeks.
The only thing that would improve that workout is to have Gunnery Sergeant USMC yelling at you the whole time.

AOCS was basically a 12 week "grease the groove" of dropping and giving someone 20/40/50 every time they looked at you funny. I could do 100 in a single set, in a mud puddle, at the end of it.
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
The only thing that would improve that workout is to have Gunnery Sergeant USMC yelling at you the whole time.

AOCS was basically a 12 week "grease the groove" of dropping and giving someone 20/40/50 every time they looked at you funny. I could do 100 in a single set, in a mud puddle, at the end of it.
So, you were looking at people funny a lot then?
 

Farva01

BKR
pilot
I have a PRT coming up in a few weeks and I feel comfortable with the run and plank (good medium) but the pushups are a bit worrying to me. Right now I can do around 40 pushups (+/- depending on how I am feeling that day) but I need to be able to do 47 for my age. I was talking to one of my friends and he said the best way to increase your pushup count is to grease the groove everyday with taking 1 rest day a week. Basically do around half of your max reps throughout the day. He said he went from 40 pushups to 80 pushups with good form in a few weeks.

Is this really the best pushup program? I've heard differing opinions depending on where I look. Some say that you're not really working our your muscles and you need a dedicated time to do pushups so that you are sweating and your arms are beat by the end.

I mean I only really need around 10 more pushups but ideally I'd like to really increase my pushup count to the good medium or even good high range. Anyone have any insight?
Best way to get better at push-ups is...more push-ups.
Greasing the groove is a method to build volume without overtraining. But you still need to max effort a couple of times a week as well.
 

HuggyU2

Well-Known Member
None
Greasing the groove is a method to build volume without overtraining. But you still need to max effort a couple of times a week as well.
I don't know shit, but based on what Maj Posey, USMC came up with for her pull up program, I'd say the 2nd half of your statement is incorrect. "Volume" is paramount. Max efforts should not be accomplished that frequently... I believe she states it is about once per month (not positive). She did the research, and the Marine Corps has seemed to pay attention to what she came up with.

I've found her program to be very effective, even at my age.

Here's a link to an article. At the bottom of the article are 4 more links to more specifics.

 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
I've maxed push-ups every time. I do 168 push-ups a year; everything else is a weight lifting routine. You also have to ensure you have the core strength to last 2 minutes in the up position to actively rest between, which with the change to planks is interesting because now you'll need to do two 2-minute planks.

There's also a technique to actually maxing pushups over two minutes - you start out and bang out like 50-60 as quickly as possible, about 30-45 seconds. Then you start doing 'sets' of 5-10 and a few seconds of active rest inbetween until you hit max or two minutes.

Situps was an opposite technique - you want to pace yourself such that you target exactly 1/8 of max reps every 15 seconds, or essentially 1 situp per second.

Increasing volume is all well and good, but you don't efficiently build strength unless you increase the workload. Once you increase strength, it becomes easier to do more reps when you take the weight away. The same concept helps with increasing pull-ups - do them weighted and keep increasing the weight rather than trying to squeak out more reps every time.
 
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