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Cerebralbore101 on 27 December 2020
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Farsala said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

Well, don't get me wrong. Those exercises you listed off definitely require a high degree of strength in stabilizing muscles. The planche for example requires you to hold your body in mid air, after doing a pushup, supported by your back, abs, glutes, and hamstrings. But ultimately the arms are only moving the same amount of weight, which is your bodyweight. Yes, your back, abs, glutes, and hamstrings would all have to be pretty strong to perform the balancing act, but strength in those muscles doesn't translate into a strong bench press.

The reason why people prefer heavy barbell work over Calisthenics is because heavy barbell work promotes growth in the fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers grow quicker, from less work. They are also the "strong" muscle fibers, while slow twitch are the "endurance" muscle fibers. You can do 100 pushups and that isn't going to translate into a super strong bench press because you are recruiting, and training the weaker slow twitch fibers by doing that. Think of it as the Cheetah vs the Horse. In the same way that a horse will never be able to run at 60 MPH, the slow twitch fibers will never be able to generate enough pure force to put up better than an intermediate bench. And in the same way that a Cheetah is going to get gassed running for more than a little while, those fast twitch fibers also tend to get gassed easily. But not as easily as most people might think. When working at 1/3rd to 1/4th max capacity the fast twitch fibers can last a pretty long while, because not all of them are being recruited at once. So they kind of take turns like a relay race if you will. This is why people that can put up 100 pushups typically don't have the strength to bench at advanced levels, but people that can bench at advanced levels can still do 100 pushups.

But by all means if you want to give people advice on bodyweight exercises in this thread go for it. Anything is better than nothing.

I will be honest, I don't really like pushups, so I am not a strong advocate. If we are strictly talking bench press vs pushup, I mainly do bench presses. But.... the science says that both result in similar strength gains. Benchpress will make you better at benchpress of course, pushups will make you better at pushups, both will make you strong.

Sure if you want endurance, then you do 100 regular pushups at Bodyweight. But you have to remember pushups are a very complicated maneuver. You can add weight to pushups if you want, same as Bench Press. You can do 6-8 weighted pushups at max capacity just like Bench Press. You can do handstand pushups, you can do pike pushups, you can do one arm pushups, you can do archer pushups. You can change the lever of your body for a harder pushup. You can add rings to the fray.

People who can do 100 pushups can't bench at advanced levels typically, but people who can bench at an advanced levels can't do advanced pushups typically.

Well, if you add weight to pushups such as a weighted vest, then it's no longer a bodyweight exercise. The problem with doing pushup variations is that they are often harder because they work different muscles than a standard pushup. Handstand pushups work the shoulders instead of the chest. They are akin to a military press. Pike Pushups are more like an incline or decline bench than a standard bench. A one arm pushup is akin to doing a bench press with both hands in the dead center of the bar. Not a good position to put your wrists in, and it works your triceps almost exclusively. The wider your grip the more your chest is involved and the narrower your grip the more your triceps are involved. Rings are a great way to figure out how to get external shoulder rotation (bending the bar cue) but don't add more weight to the exercise. Archer pushups are like a pec fly, which is great, but definitely not something to make the main focus of your chest routine.

This is why people that can bench can't do advanced pushups. Advanced pushups work different muscles than the bench press.

I gotta get going to work, but I'll link to some scientific articles that show that low rep, high weight results in greater strength gains, compared to high rep low weight.