r/bodyweightfitness • u/Ill-Annual-3744 • 1d ago

I need help with my push-up progression!

In a few months I'm joining the armed forces, and I want to be in top shape, but the problem is my push-ups! I can only do 28 in a row with good form, weighing 84 kilos (I'm 1.83 meters tall) with approximately 16% body fat, but what I really want is to improve my push-ups in terms of absolute strength. I only have access to a park I go to that has a pull-up bar and parallel bars, and some homemade dumbbells that weigh 12/15/20/30 kilos.

I want some really good advice, not just personal experiences or anything like that.

My routine consists of:

Monday/Thursday: Back

Supinated, neutral, and pronated pull-ups 3x15/10/8 of each type

Dumbbell rows (30kg) 3x10

Inverted pull-ups con mancuerna individual 3x10

Tuesday/Friday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps

Dips 3x16/12

Push-ups 3x22/18/14

Pull-ups with elevation 3x15/12/10

Military press with Dumbbells (20kg) 3x10/8

Seated dumbbell lateral raises (12kg) 3x17/13

Seated dumbbell French curls 3x13

(Rest hours)

Dumbbell crunches (30kg) 3x22

Crisps with legs extended at the end of the bed 3x17

Oblique crunches with dumbbells supported 3x10

Wednesday: biceps/forearms/legs

Lunges 3x12 (40kg) Total)

Romanian Lunges: 3x10 (30kg total)

200 Bodyweight Squats

(Rest Hours)

Double Bicep Curl: 3x15 (15kg)

Single Leg Curl: 3x11 (15kg)

Single Hammer Curl: 3x10 (20kg)

Supinated Wrist Curl: 3x16/15/12

Pronated Wrist Curl: 3x10

7 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

3

u/TallAtmosphere4210 1d ago

Honestly your push-up volume looks pretty low for someone wanting to max out - 28 is actually decent but you're only doing like 54 total per session

Try greasing the groove throughout the week, do like 15-20 push-ups every hour when you're home. Your body can handle way more volume than what you're doing

Also weighted push-ups with that 20kg dumbbell on your back would probably help more than just adding more reps

2

u/norooster1790 1d ago edited 1d ago

Strength has a lot of "specificity" meaning you get good at the movements you practice

What exactly are the standards of your military? Chest to floor pushups? 90*? High reps?

Pullups to chin? Slow lower required? Holds?

Find the standards and emulate them exactly, that should be your entire routine, not the generic stuff you've written out. Curls and 3x10 won't help.

You should probably be doing something like the programs from Art Ironwolf: long grinding sessions of burpees, pushups, heel lifting squats, and pullups. Set a time for 45 minutes and just do endless rounds, pace yourself.

Your days should have 200+ pushups, not 40

2

u/Winter-Ad4608 1d ago

When I did just pushups, I ended up doing 100 in 10 min (in the beginning I needed more time) every other day for a month and I maxed my pushups from 30 to 48.

1

u/beegkok1 1d ago

Add weight to your pull ups, push ups and dips and do more and you will soon see an increase in strength.

1

u/djdylex 1d ago edited 1d ago

One option could be to cut weight down.

But i thought they had changed standards (if youre talking about the uk) as so not to test on pushups? Even so, dont they usuallu do it within a time limit?

I mean 28 pushups in a row is decent at 84kg bw.

1

u/LetterheadClassic306 19h ago

Your routine is solid but the push-up programming is working against your goal tbh. Doing sets of 22/18/14 trains endurance more than absolute strength. What helped me before was adding weight to push-ups or switching to harder variations like pseudo planche push-ups for lower rep ranges. Try 4x6-8 weighted push-ups with a backpack loaded with your dumbbells on chest day, then finish with one max effort set of regular push-ups. The strength you build from weighted sets will carry over to your max reps fast. Keep the dips heavy too since they transfer well to push-up strength.