push-ups...
 

i've heard from various people that puch ups are the best excercise for chest strength

can anyone back this up or discredit this?

post your thoughts please


p.s. sorry if this has been brought up before, i havent searched for it

If when you mean best, you are talking about gaining strength and mass, then you heard wrong.

is it better for one or the other then?

or are pushups just a waste of time altogether?

Pushups are not necessarily a waste of time, for instance, if you are just starting off working on your chest or dont have access to any weights. Eventually, since you will be only using your own body weight for resistance, you will want to move to weights in order for you to get stronger. Pushups are considered a chest exercise for building endurance as opposed to strength. Will you ever build a muscular cut up chest from doing pushups? No :)

excellent response answered everyhting i wanted to know....thanks alot

pushups are great for overall strength and builds muscular endurance, but as for pure strength, nothing works better than bench press for me.

I find that it's great to do explosive pushups and really slow pushups in combination. The explosive pushups really have an effect on the same muscles used for punching and, as a practitioner of Tae Kwon Do, I find them incredibly beneficial. Doing pushups extremely slow also really helps make the pushup much more beneficial.

i feel that push-ups work the tri's WAY more than the chest as u cant really stretch your chest unless your armspan is huge

dumbbell bench press is a great transition, by the way, if you've been doing regular bench for a while and are stagnating. I made the switch, and am really enjoying the results.

Dumbells are great. A lot of very experienced bodybuilders prefer dumbell chest work over bench because it puts less strain on your shoulders.

Incline Press with dumbells. YUM for yer Chest..

Do them on the rubber ball to. Even better!

people,
Mix up your push-ups. Just by changing where your hands are positioned completely changes the workout. Tonight i killed my forearms doing 'diamonds', where you kindd of make a diamond shape with both your hands while doing pushups.

I wish I could do one push-up!

You just gotta start off easy mate

i am big fan of pushups, wether they're good for muscle building or whatever, i am not sure, but i mainly uise them to help warm up for basketball games i get my "touch" for shooting after 50 or so pushups.
Also you dn't need anything for them, just a flat surface and yourself :)

i also find pushups work the triceps quite a bit as well. Although it all depends on your arm spacing/position and also hand position, like i do both open handed (palm) and then clenched fisted pushups.

As for regular chest excericse i normally use dumbells, although i don't have a bench or anything, its quite effective just to lay on the ground and do them, its worked well for me.

i <3 pushups. It's a great way to start the day because it gets the blood flowing. I also find its fun to try and do pushups with a 10 year old on your back. That extra 40 lbs makes it difficult :)

the bench press would be the best for your chest... but if you don't have access to a weight bench then you could try doing pushups from different angles... like try putting your feet up on a chair for straight up and down or lifting them higher for the incline effect

Pushups allow you to rely heavily on your joints, which, obviously, don't work any muscle groups.

I agree, this is the best way.
I have another dumbbell exersize for you. Lay down flat on the floor with your arms above your head and ofcourse in your hands a dubbell (aprox 8 kilo to start with). Then move your arms over your head and stop when you reached your chest. Then repeat.
I hope you understand what I mean.