What Would Happen if I Did 300 Pushups?
Pushups are one of the best body weight exercises for strengthening your upper-body and core muscles. Many professional athletes and fitness gurus, such as Herschel Walker and Jack Lalalanne, have sworn by doing hundreds and even thousands of pushups routinely to stay in shape.
Pushups are one of the best body weight exercises for strengthening your upper-body and core muscles. Many professional athletes and fitness gurus, such as Herschel Walker and Jack Lalalanne, have sworn by doing hundreds and even thousands of pushups routinely to stay in shape. Not everyone should jump right into doing this many pushups, however. Doing 300 pushups one time on a whim will do nothing more than make your chest sore and leave you without any lasting results. On the other hand, working your way up to being able to do 300 pushups routinely can yield positive results.
Increased Anaerobic Endurance
Anaerobic endurance is a term that relates to how long you can keep up a given anaerobic activity. In simpler terms, it's the opposite of cardiovascular endurance. Since pushups are a resistance exercise, doing high repetitions of them will increase the anaerobic endurance of your arms, chest and shoulders.
Larger Chest
Pushups are a strength building exercise that primarily works your pecs, so doing them on any kind of regular basis will increase the size of your chest over time. Executing 300 pushups a few times per week will make your chest significantly larger. When you perform a moderate to low-intensity exercise at a high volume of repetitions, your body will pump more fluid into your muscles. This type of increase in size is known as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
Stronger Core
It's no secret that pushups are great for strengthening your upper-body but they also strengthen your abs and glutes. If you perform a high volume of pushups on a regular basis, you will develop a strong, solid core. Focus on engaging your abs while doing your pushups to maximize the effect. Raising one leg while doing pushups and then alternating during sets will also increase the tension on your core.
Possible Injury
It takes a long time to work your way up to doing 300 pushups in one workout. You can seriously injure yourself if you attempt that many pushups before you are ready. You need to gradually increase the number of pushups you do each workout until you eventually reach your goal of 300, starting with what you can currently handle. It should not take you longer than 60 minutes to do all 300. If it does, then you are not ready. You must also make sure you are allowing yourself enough time to recover between workouts. Attempting to do more pushups than you are physically capable of, doing the same exercise for more than one hour, or repeating a workout while your muscles are still sore and recovering can lead to overtraining and injuries, such as tendonitis.