Do Pushups Build Muscle?

Pushups are a fundamental exercise in any workout program. They are likely the first exercise you were ever officially taught sometime in elementary school.

People enjoy familiarity, thus pushups are an easy thing to implement into a training routine, especially with beginners. But there is a question in terms of the viability of pushups when it comes to building muscle.

There are many exercises that could build muscle but aren’t necessarily optimal. Generally speaking, building muscle is hard enough as it is, and there’s no reason to not take the best path in doing so.

Pushups will build muscle, but only to a limited degree. As a lifter becomes more advanced, pushups will not provide enough resistance to build additional muscle in the long run.

Muscle is primarily built through mechanical tension, which means to put the muscle under a significant load. Good form, full range of motion, and significant resistance are the keys to mechanical tension.

Pushups work for beginners since their muscles are primed for growth. Any sort of stimulus, even something as basic as bodyweight exercises, will build muscle when you are new to lifting. This is especially true if the beginner is overweight, since the resistance is greater than someone who is of normal weight or underweight.

As time passes, the body will adapt and pushups will not be as challenging as they once were. You could conceivably add more pushups to the routine, but load is now an issue. The load, or resistance, from pushups is not enough to build muscle for intermediate to advanced trainees.

The minimum effective dose in terms of load to build muscle is 30% of 1 rep max (1RM). For example, if your 1 rep max for the barbell bench press is 100lbs, you would have to lift 30lbs to hit that minimal threshold. Keep in mind that with such a light load, you would have to perform a significant number of reps to stimulate muscle growth.

In other words, you have to compensate for the lighter load by doing a lot more reps. But if it’s too light, there is no number of reps you could do to effectively stimulate muscle growth.

With pushups, there will come a point that you become so strong that you won’t be able to hit that 30% 1RM minimum. You could conceivably put weight on your back or use a weighted vest, but the more reasonable option is to graduate to a better exercise like bench press or dumbbell flyes.

At the intermediate to advanced level of training, doing hundreds of pushups would benefit muscular endurance far more than muscle growth itself.

Benefits of Pushups

Despite not being the best exercise to build massive amounts of muscle, pushups still have application within a normal workout routine.

We’re all guilty of skipping warm-ups and not getting our bodies properly primed for heavier lifts. This can lead to sub-optimal workouts, or worse yet, injury. The best warm-ups are applicable to the workout itself.

Pushups are a quick and easy way to warm up the front deltoids, chest, triceps, and even core muscles. For say, a chest workout, this is far more effective than a pre workout walk on the treadmill like many people do. It allows overall body temperature to increase and blood to flow to the muscles involved in the workout.

Objectively, pushups are a simple exercise to learn. As mentioned, there is a reason you probably did your first pushup in grade school. They are one of the safest exercises. For young clients who want to start working out but may not have the coordination to lift weights properly, I typically advise they start with pushups.

Another benefit of pushups is that they do not cause much muscle damage or soreness. You could do them multiple times per week, or even every day, without much issue.

 Some people who implement active recovery methods on off days from traditional resistance training workouts will use pushups as a tool to improve blood flow. Since you don’t have to worry about additional muscle damage, the pushups aid in the recovery process as opposed to augmenting the soreness.

Bodyweight exercises like pushups develop a unique type of strength that sometimes cannot be replicated with dumbbells and barbells. How often have you seen a muscle bound person struggle to do more than a few pull-ups?

If you are a person who lifts weights consistently, get on the ground and try to hold the pushup position for more than 30 seconds. Do your arms begin to tremble? It seems like an ostensibly easy task, especially for someone who lifts weights. The ability to balance one’s body in certain positions for long periods is something that can’t be developed by just tossing around heavy weights in the gym.

Even if your ultimate goal is to add as much muscle as possible, adding bodyweight exercises like pushups or planks into your routine will make you a more well-rounded athlete. This newfound bodyweight strength could potentially improve your performance in traditional lifts as well.

Can You Build a Large Chest with Pushups?

When it comes to muscle development, a large chest is one of the most sought after features in an individual’s ideal physique.

The standard exercises to attain this are the bench press, incline press, dumbbell fly, and cable crossover. Pushups are best thought of as an accessory to these main movements.

If you’ve lifted weights for a number of years, you know how hard it becomes to put on additional muscle. It takes way more than just pushups to develop a big chest. It’s hard enough to build muscle when you have a full gym at your disposal.

The one caveat would be a situation in which a person does not have access to a gym. In this instance you would have to rely on pushups since standard gym equipment is not an option. This is where variation would play a large role.

Pushup variations include incline pushups, decline pushups, spiderman pushups, wide grip, diamond, among many others. Variation among exercise in general is a good practice, and it becomes almost essential when you’re limited to bodyweight exercise at home.

Even if you’re limited to home workouts you can still invest in resistance bands or TRX bands to make the pushups more challenging. Equipment like this can be stuffed into a bag and placed in a closet, so if you’re low on space this is still a viable option.

If you don’t have access to a gym, it’s no reason to give up. Just because you don’t have the luxuries of heavy weights and machines doesn’t mean it’s not worth it to do your best. Due to these less than optimal circumstances, you may not develop a chest like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it’s important to work with what you have and not make excuses.

Pushups are ideal if your goal is to tone, rather than build a massive chest. You can still develop a good physique even when limited to bodyweight exercises. Coupled with the right diet, you can go far if you put in the consistent effort.