# FITNESS and NUTRITION FORUM > WORKOUT AND TRAINING >  Do Push-Ups Increase Bench Strength??

## BGIZZLE8629

The title says it all...... my cousin insists that push ups will help with your bench max but I dunno. He may be right. I was just wondering what you guys thought.

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## savax

They've helped mine, but you can only get so far with push ups. You'll eventaully plateau

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## Spartan_N_Training

From my experience, pushups are more like an exercise for people looking to get strong. It all comes from the concept, more reps, more muscle growth, but more weight more strength. It would make sense to me that pushups, if effective would only serve a purpose if one wanted their chest bigger

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## BGIZZLE8629

ok. thanks for the feeback. 

anybody else want to give their opinion/experiences?

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## nyjetsfan86

yea you will plateu with traditional pushups but just like everything else you need to have variety throw in different pushups useing weights, medicine balls, and even your hands in different positions every variation will help

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## Dude-Man

As far as bench max goes, i doubt it. Maybe if you're weak for your weight? You're only pushing like 50% of your body weight when you do a standard pushup. My best bench was 335 at 180 lbs.. which means i'd only be lifting 1/4 of my benchmax (roughly) for each pushup. Not a lot of weight.

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## Benches505

Diamond push ups will build your tri's and that will give you a bump in the bench.

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## BlackWidow

> Diamond push ups will build your tri's and that will give you a bump in the bench.


What's DIAMOND push ups ?!!

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## boostedevo8

ahh those things kill my shoulders...i hate those

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## xlxBigSexyxlx

> What's DIAMOND push ups ?!!



make a diamond or spade with your hands, and pull your feet shoulder width apart. Then do a pushup. Hits the tris really nice.

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## quarry206

diamond push ups do help your tri's which any big bencher knows tris are a big part.. as far as helping max your bench.. if you have less than 3 years of serious training or 5 years of half ass-ed training push ups might help... but once you start looking at max's 1.5 times your own body wieght then push ups are only a warm-up...

when doing a push up properly depending on how you are built you are lifting 60-80 percent of your body weight.. i'm 5'8'' 205lbs and when i do a push-up i'm only pushing 154lbs threw most of the movement..

i'm in the army and i actually notice a small drop in my max each year when i am training for me PT test (i do lots of push up during this time)

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## MuscleScience

No pushups themselves will not help increase the strength of the prime movers of the benching motion. What it will do is strengthen all the smaller co-contractors that are normally over shadowed by larger muscle groups. So in effect it may increase overall bench strenght.

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## HSFootball

Doing push ups is like repping the bar itself. If you really wanted to inrease your bench you should work out your triceps and shoulders in addition to the bench.

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## donovan303

Whoops I was trying to make a diamond or a spade with both hands in fact at one stage I had a diamond in one hand and a spade in the other and I thought these are no harder than normal pushups. Then I realised you have to put your hands together.

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## boostedevo8

> Whoops I was trying to make a diamond or a spade with both hands in fact at one stage I had a diamond in one hand and a spade in the other and I thought these are no harder than normal pushups. Then I realised you have to put your hands together.


 :1laugh:

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## scriptfactory

> Whoops I was trying to make a diamond or a spade with both hands in fact at one stage I had a diamond in one hand and a spade in the other and I thought these are no harder than normal pushups. Then I realised you have to put your hands together.


D'oh! :LOL:

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## fatrock

Push-ups will definetly help with your bench press. Not only do push-ups tone and build muscle but they help with your stamina and balance. You have to mix it up.

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## Mogamedogz

I find that Push ups are a great way to warm up. plus they seem to strenghten my core. I feel they have DEF made me stronger overall.

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## RoadToRecovery

All core exercises increase overall strength in your body as a whole so try some of those. Pushups on the other hand make you calisthenically stronger which will overall lead to a more controlled max. Not necessarily increasing it by weight.

In other words, If you have a 350lbs max and your struggling, adding pushups and core exercises will make you a more stable 350lbs max. Sounds farfetched but once I started boxing and doing core strength exercises and added push ups to my regimen, I noticed alot more stability in alot of my sets.

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## huey

I would agree with strengthing core or supporting muscles. As they say in football strength for endurance. Overall one rep max I dont think pushups would help or contribute a whole lot. But making you a stronger all round athleat absoulutly.

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## nalbano34

I think they are a great movement in the beginning phases of training, and if you TRY to keep making them more intense they can still do quite well for overall development. In the beginning, I would do dips and push-ups to failure and grew like mad. The key is to always try to make them hard..i.e. slower reps, legs elevated at different levels, wide and close hand spacing.....you get it.

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