Is It Safe to Do Push-Ups Every Day?

Very fit people can benefit from push-ups every day. Everyone else should build in longer rest periods.

A push up routine is one of the best natural exercises a person can do to for strength training, symmetry, balance, endurance, definition and to increase metabolism. Some of the strongest upper bodies in many gyms were built by doing push-ups as a primary exercise. Doing push ups every can be safe. However, a qualifier is in order here. It is safe to do some push-ups everyday. The regularity and intensity of push-ups are dependent on your fitness level.

Fitness level

Your level of fitness dictates how many and how often you should be doing push-ups. If you are just beginning a resistance exercise routine, then everyday push-ups would be held to a minimum.

On the other hand, if you are in the intermediate phase, and you are doing push-ups as a supplement to some other resistance exercise routine, then you would be served better on a routine of two to four days per week, or every other day with a moderate amount of push-ups.

Lets suppose you are using push-ups as a primary exercise and you are in the intermediate to advanced fitness level. Then you could do push-ups every day.

Finding your max

Safety is a factor when doing your push-up workout. Moderation and balance are goals in every endeavor. Generally about a quarter of your maximum can be done every day.

Find your max by doing one push-up set to failure. For example, if you max out at 25 reps, then you could safely do about six push-ups everyday.

Variations

Advanced exercisers can do 500 to 1,000 push-ups in a day by doing five sets of100 to 200 in a set. Navy Seals do fitness prep five days per week.

A primary routine

Push-ups can be a primary exercise. Also a push-up workout can enhance many crossfit programs. Fat loss can be enhanced by push-ups too.

As a primary exercise, you would be doing several sets a day. In that case your routine would be similar to a weight lifting schedule on the order of two to four times weekly or every other day.

A supplemental workout

Push-ups can also be used as a supplemental exercise. In a lot of situations, some athletes as well as those pursuing fitness just to maintain, do a minimal amount of push-ups daily or a near daily basis. For example, advanced athletes have the routine of doing 10 to 25 push-ups every day as a way to start or end their day. In such a scenario, it is safe to do them every day.

Augment your weightlifting, martial arts, running, bicycling, or other exercises with a minimal amount, like 10 to 20 push-ups every day or every other day.

References

• MuscleNet: Partial Push-ups, Half-Stroke Push-ups, Full-extension Push-ups
• Military.com: The Push-Up Push Workout

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish