How many pushups would you need to have the same gains as bench/curl/shouler bress?

Pushups can't replicate gains from the bench/press/curl no matter how many you do, your not pushing nearly as much weight and pushups are only one exercise, although their are variations. You can still gain and maintain some strength though i'd recommend adding pull ups, mixing up pushup variations, and add in some oblique and lower core work, if your only doing calisthenics for now.

As for volume do what feels comfortable and slowly build up and since your only using body weight is say 3 days per week.

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deaddo what lifter wrote:
Pushups can't replicate gains from the bench/press/curl no matter how many you do, your not pushing nearly as much weight and pushups are only one exercise, although their are variations. You can still gain and maintain some strength though i'd recommend adding pull ups, mixing up pushup variations, and add in some oblique and lower core work, if your only doing calisthenics for now.

As for volume do what feels comfortable and slowly build up and since your only using body weight is say 3 days per week.

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Greg wrote:

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deaddo what lifter wrote:
Pushups can't replicate gains from the bench/press/curl no matter how many you do, your not pushing nearly as much weight and pushups are only one exercise, although their are variations. You can still gain and maintain some strength though i'd recommend adding pull ups, mixing up pushup variations, and add in some oblique and lower core work, if your only doing calisthenics for now.

As for volume do what feels comfortable and slowly build up and since your only using body weight is say 3 days per week.

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Mike Tyson did only pushups, situps and dips (in addition to his boxing training) and no weights during his prime years. It's possible to become very strong simply through pushups and situps, I believe. Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson are other examples.

I wonder if I got up to 500 or 1000 push/situps a day if I'd feel as strong as going to the gym twice a week to do bench/curl/shoulder press.

I used to do 250 pushups and 500 situps/day for a short while, so I know it is possible if I build up to it.

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Greg wrote:

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deaddo what lifter wrote:
Pushups can't replicate gains from the bench/press/curl no matter how many you do, your not pushing nearly as much weight and pushups are only one exercise, although their are variations. You can still gain and maintain some strength though i'd recommend adding pull ups, mixing up pushup variations, and add in some oblique and lower core work, if your only doing calisthenics for now.

As for volume do what feels comfortable and slowly build up and since your only using body weight is say 3 days per week.

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Mike Tyson did only pushups, situps and dips (in addition to his boxing training) and no weights during his prime years. It's possible to become very strong simply through pushups and situps, I believe. Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson are other examples.

I wonder if I got up to 500 or 1000 push/situps a day if I'd feel as strong as going to the gym twice a week to do bench/curl/shoulder press.

I used to do 250 pushups and 500 situps/day for a short while, so I know it is possible if I build up to it.

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Look up progressive calisthenics.

Convict conditioning is an example, but there is a lot out there.

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Timetocomeback wrote:
That’s completely untrue, he did train with weights.

Worth bearing in mind along with weights he also did extensive work on the heavy bag - this will quickly build your shoulders / chest and arms!

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Greg wrote:

I've read that he did absolutely no weights until after prison. I can believe it.

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Lots of pushups will start feeling like work. Just be warned.

They are completely different workouts. Both hit chest, sure, but one can be done via body weight and endurance, the other is more overall strength. You can be 200 pounds, do 50 push ups straight, but not be able to bench 200 pounds.

It’s better than nothing but it’s no substitute

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Dope Hardstrong wrote:
Lots of pushups will start feeling like work. Just be warned.

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I got a 40lbs weight vest.

I hit a few sets of 40 at a time with that on. Feel like it's way more functional than bench press.

There is no relational equivalence. In one array you are building endurance by maximizing quantities to exhaustion. In another, you place unaccustomed mass distributed over cells, forcing them to defer to density to sustain the downward force. These two aspects are entirely different.

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Greg wrote:

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Dope Hardstrong wrote:
Lots of pushups will start feeling like work. Just be warned.

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What is your point

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Dope Hardstrong wrote:

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Greg wrote:

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Dope Hardstrong wrote:
Lots of pushups will start feeling like work. Just be warned.

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What is your point

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You'll have trouble doing them for long.

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Having had a bodybuilding past, I will say that I can easily spot the difference between superior prison muscle and superior gym muscle. The hardest is so much more pronounced in the former. Though the latter may have greater surface area.

In regard to your question, curling a hockey stick 1,000 times will produce no comparable results to curling half your body mass 10 times at 4 sets.

Try using a pyramid system as per SEAL's. Eg
pull-ups, dips x2, situps x5
start at level 1 so do 1 pull-up, 2 dips, 5 situps without rest, and without rest proceed to do level 2 i.e.
2 pull-ups, 4 dips, 10 situps then level 3
3 pull-ups, 6 dips, 15 situps and so on until one exercise stops you proceeding in good form, then work back down to 1.

You end up doing a relatively huge volume of reps in a compact time-frame and get strong without excess mass. Eg if you hit say level 9, that's 81 pull-ups, 162 parallel bar dips, 405 situps.

Alternate workouts so next time say pull-ups palms facing you, push-ups x2, leg raises x5, elevated/ bench dips x2.

Work from 1 and back down to 1, the warm up/ cool down prevents injury and don't strain the top set. This way you avoid DOMS and if you do these workouts frequently you will get stronger/ grow. I limit the top set as the upper body muscle makes running harder and the workout starts getting exponentially longer with each level and I spent too much time in gym when I was younger so prefer to do enough to be functional as opposed to anything else.

I went to the gym this morning after 2 weeks away.

I benched 8x135, 6x155, 6x155, 2x175

Feel better now,.

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Greg wrote:

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Dope Hardstrong wrote:

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Greg wrote:

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Dope Hardstrong wrote:
Lots of pushups will start feeling like work. Just be warned.

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What is your point

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You'll have trouble doing them for long.

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you must be referring to yourself

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The Edmonton citizen will never run sub 3.
He did as good as he could when he was 40 but that was when Paul Martin was still running the country. It was all downhill from there.

I am glad you asked.