How Many Times a Day Can You Do Push-Ups? (with Video)

Pushups are a staple bodyweight exercise for building muscle in the triceps and other upper body muscle groups. Some people like to do push ups once a week or many times a day to improve their fitness level and lose weight. However, doing a great number of push-ups every day can be harmful to the body if you overdo it. Here are some guidelines on building upper body strength by doing push ups without overdoing it.

How to do a push up?

Before we get into how many pushups you should be doing, let’s talk about good form.The standard push up is pretty straight forward. Get into starting position by getting into plank position, hands shoulder width apart with your back in a straight line with your legs. Engage your back muscles, arms, and glutes to lower yourself to the ground until your arms at a 90 degree angle, then push yourself back up. Maintain this form through your reps to get the full benefits of push ups and reduce injury risk.

How many times can you do push ups a day?

You can do push-ups several times a day if you don't work out to fatigue your upper body.For example, doing 100 push-ups is good cardio and can build muscle while encouraging weight loss but it’s best to steer clear of any more push-ups in your workout routine. Muscles respond differently to repeated exercise than to an intense workout. You build strength with frequent, repeated exercise that challenges your muscles but does not lead to fatigue. When you perform high repetitions and work to the point of fatigue, your muscles undergo injury and need time to heal before your next workout. This type of muscle injury and healing builds mass, which is good for strength training. But overdoing it can do more harm than good.

Choose Your Objective

If bodybuilding to increase muscle size is your goal, perform push-ups on non-consecutive days, doing as many push-ups during one session as you can without losing proper form. However, if you want to build strength, do no more than half of your maximum number of repetitions during any one session. Do these low-repetition sets of push ups as many times a day as you desire, as long as you maintain proper form with each push-up. Remember to consult a physical therapist or personal trainer before beginning any HIIT training program.