Do High Rep Push-Ups Cause Real Muscle Growth, or Is It Just a Pump?

High-rep push-ups and volume training can make your muscles seem bigger, but is that just from the pump and inflammation of training or is it real muscle growth?

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[Bumiround]

Honestly my body feel and look better when i do high reps calisthenics, but the BS fitness industry feed us with too much theories nowadays

[Sergio-P-A]

Push ups are one of the best workouts… they build muscle fast ! I did 200 pushups every day for 3 months ! And I got jacked !!!! Pushups are a must for any routine

[oscarstenberg]

Inflammation really makes things pop. Heavy tree/chainsaw work for 2 months made my fingers thicc, but now they're small again. The pump is a gold digger, not loyal at all.

[bw]

Great question and information. Many thanks Matt for sharing your knowledge.

[meh]

Prisioners when someone tells them high reps dont build muscle: ☠️

[marceljones]

They give me a pump and they build muscle. For me, it's all about what works for you.

[gabrielvanzuita]

This week I started incorporating all rep ranges, doing 6 sets on compounds (push, pull, legs & posterior). The first 2 sets progressing if can do more than 8, the other 2 if more than 15, and the last 2 if more than 30. An idea to train strength and endurance on all workouts

[blackpurple]

How do I make sure I don't go bald doing extreme calisthenics

[wesleyangel]

Like everything, it is about whatever works. I've learned the numbers aren't actually as important as the feel. If I can get the same results quicker by making it more intense, then, I'm not wasting time. However, in competition, I totally understand the numbers. Of course, one might not be asking about putting on weight with muscle, if that was the case. Whatever makes one happy is good, though.

[ydiabO]

Okay this is getting really scary.. 😅
Everytime I have a question and go search it on youtube with your name next to it, I always find these videos which gets uploaded mins after.
You're a wizard Matt.

[jumpedintheriverwhatdidise]

Low reps high intensity, ie slow and hold at bottom have gave me best results.

[PAINLESS]

My rep max pushups is 333 does that mean i can do to many reps.

[Colt-iiqn]

Gyms want to sell memberships, I train at home with body weight and do just fine. No waiting for someone to get out of your way on machine or rack 😐

[cobra]

Less is better, I started following C Mass and dropped the 100s of pushups and saw immediate growth. I train twice maybe once a week and I've seen growth.

[OKOKOKOKOKOKOK-znfy]

If you go to failure, you are signaling for hypertrophy.
If you do 500 and don't hit the wall, you might want to do some heavy benching instead.

[jm]

Hey Matt
You once said focus on tension not repetition so can i basically train without weighted calisthenics and just focus on cooking the muscle?

[demonsteel]

I try to safely fatigue myself in 40-75 seconds using good form and controlled movements. I love not counting stupid, meaningless reps. I'm finally free...

Edit: 75 seconds usually isn't enough. Going to failure with drop sets (two drops for a total of three sets) is working better. Then do it again the day after you feel recovered.

[michaelkulman]

In the scientific literature
sets of about 60 have shown some hypertrophy and
anecdotally look at prioners, or Mike Tyson or Hershel Walker..

[citizengain]

I do 3 sets of Push Ups on parallette bars with a 2sec pause at the bottom of each rep & i can only manage 14 reps if i go to failure. I do 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps on barbell presses on a flat bench previous to this. Doing this twice a week is working well enough for me.

[Vicnte]

That's a lie, really for hypertrophy it's not the repetitions that matter so much but the time of the set, if you leave it at 35-50 seconds you'll be training strength and hypertrophy, on the other hand if you lengthen the set after the minute you'll be training endurance and not so much hypertrophy, this is why calisthenics reach a point where they cannot continue advancing in chest hypertrophy using push-ups since they lengthen the series too much and they are training endurance instead of hypertrophy and strength, the correct thing is to do The entire sets lasts 35-50 seconds, so you will have to do the repetitions very quickly. With this, you will advance in hypertrophy from 15 to 80-100 reps, the best in bench press in the 83 kg category. named Jesús Maria Varela trains that way and calls it the bilbo series