quick question

**tarzan103** · 08-24-2005, 04:40 AM

i have herd many stories of people who just do push ups and situps everyday....such as bo jackson. he was said to do at least 300 pushups a day and that was the main reason for his mass....jsut wondering what one could expect from this kind of routine..thanks

**S.P.G** · 08-24-2005, 04:59 AM

I think that It would depend on your genetics, some may do well but others, like myself would be wasting there time, you would be working mainly fast twitch muscle fibbers, they are responsible for the speed of muscular contraction.
they contain very large amounts of myoglobin and mitochondria and very many blood capillaries, this alows you to Perform the lager number of reps during the push-ups so if you have more fast, than slow fibbers this could benefit you to a point... just M/O

**tarzan103** · 08-24-2005, 06:02 AM

thanks for ur opinion...anything helps

**Flexor** · 08-24-2005, 09:17 AM

SPG, you've got it completely the wrong way around...

its actually the slow twitch fibres that contain more mitochondria and myoglobin than the fast twitch fibres, hence fast twitch is white in appearance and slow twitch is red or pink.

if you can only manage a small number of pressups then you will actually be getting a good fast twitch fibre work out, but the more pressups you are capable of, the less fast twitch fibres are recruited because the pressups become an aerobic exercise that requries stamina, which slow twitch provides due to increased capillarisation and better oxygen exchange.

the speed of contraction is quite high so there will be some fast twitch fibres activated in the first pressups you do, but as you get tired they get tired and slow twitch fibres preferentially activate.

fast twitch fibres are recruited at high force (IIa then IIb and finally IIc of which there is hardly any in the body), but they tire easily and these are not the fibres worked during pressups.

because of this, little mass can be gained over a long period of doing pressups because slow twitch fibres have less capability of increasing the numbers of myofibrils and therefore muscle size.

however, if you have a lot of slow twitch fibres, then by doing high reps and working them you are probably going to gain more mass than doing low reps because the fast twitch fibres are fewer in number.

an athlete could have huge amazing fast twitch muscles that are huge but could only do 30 pressups whereas another athlete could have more slow twitch fibres and do hundreds at a time. GENETICS would largely dictate the performance, although fibres can be trained to reps specific training, which is why it is always good to mix up training reps to get the most out of the muscle and FORCE it to adapt every few weeks

i started off with pressups before benchpresses until they got too easy. now i do them at the end of a session for a burnout as i found i stopped growing. good for cardio pressups are, bit like sprinting for the upper body

hope this helps answer your question. i'd say if you like pressups do em, but at the end of a session after lower rep higher intensity activity

**S.P.G** · 08-24-2005, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by Flexor

SPG, you've got it completely the wrong way around...

its actually the slow twitch fibres that contain more mitochondria and myoglobin than the fast twitch fibres, hence fast twitch is white in appearance and slow twitch is red or pink.

if you can only manage a small number of pressups then you will actually be getting a good fast twitch fibre work out, but the more pressups you are capable of, the less fast twitch fibres are recruited because the pressups become an aerobic exercise that requries stamina, which slow twitch provides due to increased capillarisation and better oxygen exchange.

the speed of contraction is quite high so there will be some fast twitch fibres activated in the first pressups you do, but as you get tired they get tired and slow twitch fibres preferentially activate.

fast twitch fibres are recruited at high force (IIa then IIb and finally IIc of which there is hardly any in the body), but they tire easily and these are not the fibres worked during pressups.

because of this, little mass can be gained over a long period of doing pressups because slow twitch fibres have less capability of increasing the numbers of myofibrils and therefore muscle size.

however, if you have a lot of slow twitch fibres, then by doing high reps and working them you are probably going to gain more mass than doing low reps because the fast twitch fibres are fewer in number.

an athlete could have huge amazing fast twitch muscles that are huge but could only do 30 pressups whereas another athlete could have more slow twitch fibres and do hundreds at a time. GENETICS would largely dictate the performance, although fibres can be trained to reps specific training, which is why it is always good to mix up training reps to get the most out of the muscle and FORCE it to adapt every few weeks

i started off with pressups before benchpresses until they got too easy. now i do them at the end of a session for a burnout as i found i stopped growing. good for cardio pressups are, bit like sprinting for the upper body

hope this helps answer your question. i'd say if you like pressups do em, but at the end of a session after lower rep higher intensity activity

yes thanks for that bro, i new it was one or the other lol we cant be right all of the time

it was a long time ago now i did all that crap at uni,....good post to

**Papi93** · 08-24-2005, 12:50 PM

If you're interested in bodyweight training, check Matt Furey's website. He only uses bodyweight exercises in his training programs. I'm currently using bodyweight-only exercises and I have went from 169lbs. to 210lbs. So it is possible to build a good amount of muscle mass while using bodweight exercises. All you have to do is do more work (reps, set in less time, etc) and you will become stronger and as a result, have more functional muscle mass.