How to develop endurance in arms and shoulders?

BunnyKnight · 07-13-2009, 10:07 AM

I'm thinking push ups here, mainly. When I read about stuff like the Guiness book of records, where people do many thousand push ups in one piece, I ask myself how. Squats I can do in high amounts (for example, I can do 260 lbs squats in a 5x5 style at 165 lbs of body weight, followed by 200 squats in one piece without any weights, and feel great afterwards, as I can probably do more than that).

However, leg muscles are much stronger so it's easy to do this when it comes to squats, but how do I do the same with push-ups? Push ups involve all muscles in the shoulders and arms so they're great to condition your arms, but what can I do to be able to do something like 200-300 push ups in one piece.

I have a few ideas where to start, but nothing specific. I could do push ups and attempt new records every week or so. Or I could do a lot of reps on the bench press, decline bench, or something similar, maybe even the standing military press.

But I'm lost after this, so I need additional advice on this.

Any ideas on what to do here?

Thanks in advance.

grrthetree · 07-13-2009, 10:20 AM

well if you want just endurance in your arms, and you're going to just do shit tons of push ups, you're only going to get way better at doing push ups. im pretty sure you will get little carry-over in anything else, like boxing, by doing a lot of push ups.

DrBdan · 07-13-2009, 10:32 AM

I've been told that this program works pretty well...

one hundred push ups

I haven't personally tried it but from looking it over it seems like it would work. It's basically, do a bunch of push-ups one week then next week do more push-ups and so on.

Why do you want to be able to do a lot of push-ups?

BunnyKnight · 07-13-2009, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrBdan

I've been told that this program works pretty well...

one hundred push ups

I haven't personally tried it but from looking it over it seems like it would work. It's basically, do a bunch of push-ups one week then then next week do more push-ups and so on.

Why do you want to be able to do a lot of push-ups?

Thanks a lot for the link, I'll try that

Why do I want it? Well, the thing is, at my muay thai class, we do a crap load of push ups for endurance, we sometimes do up to 200 when someone does something stupid lol. So I wanna be able to do it, since it's really hard.

Also, it may not have much carryover when it comes to punching and such, but when you're in round 5, and feel like your arms are about to fall off and you can't hold them up anymore, that's where the endurance could come in handy.

But the main reason is that I do a lot of training every day and I need to endure. I do weight lifting, cardio, lots of push ups at my muay thai club, I also do them at home sometimes. Sparring sessions etc.

Chesten_Hesten · 07-13-2009, 03:15 PM

last year I entered the Vegas to Reno Desert Race on a Motorcycle. Its a 500+ mile race from Las Vegas to Reno Nevada in one day.

I bought one of these things the year before:
Amazon.com: Kettler HKS Coach LS Rowing Machine: Sports & Outdoors

It uses a big ass magnet for resistance, and is very quiet and smooth. I would do 40 minute sessions at full resistance, either pushing or pulling with it, and that's what got me through to the end. It was a big help because I guess since we use our legs to carry us around all the time, the legs don't necessarily go into shock, but when the upper body starts getting out of shape its initally a bitch to whip in to into shape for long protracted put-out, so something like the over and over repition of a rowing machine is helpful to get the arms and what not beat into the same enduring shape.

It did work for me.

pliftkl · 07-13-2009, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grrthetree

well if you want just endurance in your arms, and you're going to just do shit tons of push ups, you're only going to get way better at doing push ups. im pretty sure you will get little carry-over in anything else, like boxing, by doing a lot of push ups.

This.

Your thread title is different from your thread question. In the title, you are asking about arm and shoulder endurance, and in the thread, you're asking about pushups. What's the underlying physical (athletic) activity that you are trying to get good at?

kenzo242 · 07-13-2009, 04:41 PM

For the pushup part do 10,9,8...1 and 1,2,3...10. Do your 10 stop rest like5 seconds do 9 etc.. If you follow this down and back up you'll have completed 110 pushups in a very short period of time.

Also for the arm and shoulder endurance you can take 5# db's and punch 30x (15/arm) with them, then go to 7.5 or 8#'s, and progree to the next db up to like 20#'s for 30 reps each. Do this non-stop and rest after your heaviest db's 1 minute and then go back down the rack.

These pyramids burn like hell and increase endurance. Have fun.

BunnyKnight · 07-14-2009, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pliftkl

This.

Your thread title is different from your thread question. In the title, you are asking about arm and shoulder endurance, and in the thread, you're asking about pushups. What's the underlying physical (athletic) activity that you are trying to get good at?

Indeed it's different, and the reason why I asked specifically for push ups is that they develop endurance in arms and shoulders, thus push ups. Plus, I kinda noticed my push ups got a little bit weaker then they were before, so I wanted to do them, and try to be able to do several hundred in one piece, it's just a small wish of mine.

But yes I do agree the thread title should have been worded differently.

Quote:

For the pushup part do 10,9,8...1 and 1,2,3...10. Do your 10 stop rest like5 seconds do 9 etc.. If you follow this down and back up you'll have completed 110 pushups in a very short period of time.

Also for the arm and shoulder endurance you can take 5# db's and punch 30x (15/arm) with them, then go to 7.5 or 8#'s, and progree to the next db up to like 20#'s for 30 reps each. Do this non-stop and rest after your heaviest db's 1 minute and then go back down the rack.

These pyramids burn like hell and increase endurance. Have fun.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion, I used to shadow box with weights, but stopped some time ago, and yeah it does burn like hell. I'll surely give it a try.

grapplingnub** · 07-14-2009, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenzo242

For the pushup part do 10,9,8...1 and 1,2,3...10. Do your 10 stop rest like5 seconds do 9 etc.. If you follow this down and back up you'll have completed 110 pushups in a very short period of time.

Also for the arm and shoulder endurance you can take 5# db's and punch 30x (15/arm) with them, then go to 7.5 or 8#'s, and progree to the next db up to like 20#'s for 30 reps each. Do this non-stop and rest after your heaviest db's 1 minute and then go back down the rack.

These pyramids burn like hell and increase endurance. Have fun.

dont you love it when random people pop in to give advice that doesnt seem to make much sense?

EVERYBODY knows that punching with weights fucking destroys your joints.

Ifight4Beer · 07-15-2009, 11:40 AM

For upper body muay thai endurance,,, push ups aside, we have a drill that seems to work better than pushups. Take a 100lbs grapiling bag, pick it up as high as you can on the bag, hold it, knee it and sprin and pull it like you would in a clinch, do this for 3 rounds a couple times a week and you will see your endurance in your upper body. oh and if you have to put it down pick it up as soon as you can.