Trying new pushup workout...

[LeftyGrove]

Hello, I'm a 16 year old kid and I'm beginning to do pushups every night. It's supposed to be good for your all-around body, I guess, and especially your pectoral muscles (I believe those are the ones to the left of your right arm? Upper body?).

Anyways, I'm trying this technique where I do pushups using a deck of cards. I choose a card, do as many pushups as the card tells me to (i.e. I pick a 5 of clubs, I do five pushups; I pick a face card, I do ten pushups.), then wait 10 seconds, and do it again.

But I notice when I swing a baseball bat, I feel the soreness in my pectoral muscles. I don't really care much about the pain, since I can play through that, but I don't want to do any damage if I go about this program for a month, and push through pain every other day.

Anybody have any advice? Will this be a long-term problem, and should I slow it down?

Thanks a ton.

 

[Paddlacus]

varied pushups

In my experience, it's pretty hard to hurt yourself doing pushups, especially regular ones. If you're not used to doing them, and you're now doing a lot, then yeah, it'll hurt. If you've never worked out before, you need to figure out the difference between soreness pain and injury pain. This comes from listening to your body. You'll want to push yourself, but don't be stupid about it.

That said, if your goal is to get in better shape, it would be a good idea to vary the pushups. There are tons of different kinds - regular, military, wide, diamond, and my personal favorite - hindu pushups (also called 'dands'). The card idea is great, so maybe pick four different types, then do one for each suit. Try the hindu pushups - they're much better than regulars as they incorporate many more muscles, including your back and abs (if you do them right). I learned a lot of exercises from Matt Furey. He's not the most popular guy, as he's extremely arrogant (getting moreso daily), but his exercises are hard to find anywhere else and they're amazing if you stick with them. There are other people that have similar programs as well. Look around the net and this forum. Vary a lot and keep going!