Maybe I’m just a big guy, or maybe it’s the pushups.
While I’ve mostly done vanilla pushups over the years occasionally I vary the movement.
Sometimes the reps follow a path more analogous to an incline press or a triceps extension than a bench.
Maybe you work on handstand pushups with a partial range of motion building the range top to bottom, or rep out on one arm pushups since you have the ability and it’s euphoric as it loosens the spins.
You could do Hindu pushups as you do them so infrequently that you still find them a challenge. Dive bombers the same but pushing back through, not just raising the ass. Pikes for a bit more shoulder.
Side to side is an option a floor based emulation of what the internet calls ghetto pullups.
I’ve done Superman pushups in the past.
Folks I’ve done so many pushups over the years that my torso, particularly the chest is too big.
I’ve allowed pushups to become an obsession, an addiction, it’s been nearly 3 years of them daily without a miss, my record so far is almost 4. I intend to keep going at least to 5 years.
High reps will build strength.
You can do low reps focusing on it like it was a heavy ass bench press, visualizing a bench with many wheels, and get a max strength effect.
I’ve been exploring pushups for over a decade.
I’ve leaned out on them, I’ve gotten big with em, I’ve even done them to the exclusion of all other physical activity.
The pushup will bring you far.
I know more about pushups than most ever will, and I’ve not milked them out yet.
You wouldn’t believe some of the stories :
Dropping onto my forearm with a hurt hand before I’d found the ability to one arm.
Dropping down for 50ish in class backpack on to prove a point to a trash talker.
That time at camp backpack on.
Public bathroom as punishment.
Sensei’s Latin American accented voice announcing “pooshups”.
The time some asphalt embedded into my hand, a week later hearing a plink in the shower, it had worked it’s way out.
500-1000 rep workouts.
The year of 1000+ weekly, split 100+ weekdays, 250+ Sat & Sun.
The over 1000 set (somewhere I’ve said the exact number).
Partial range of motion, full range, a million variations. I’ve not yet maxed em out.
I’ve seen a feat : a friend’s dad did reps with his wife, me, my buddy, and his sister all laying on his back.
(Mind you 8yo boy, 7yo boy, 6yo girl, but still 360+ in added live weight, on top of a guy 200lbs max. My memory is 8-12 reps chest to floor. It’s the strongest thing I’ve ever witnessed. He may have been drunk while doing it, a former boxer he did rounds of pushups, situps, shadow boxing, and calf raises daily.)
As I said I’ve not yet maxed em out, weighted pushups are as of yet still unexplored. I’ve put maybe a 100lb kid on my back and a 100lb plate on the few occasions.
Pushups are simple. They’ll bring you as far as you’re willing to take them. It’s been mostly vanilla reps for over a decade of…
Persistence,
J