Make your Pushups EVEN More Effective

Rest pause sets pair wonderfully with pushups. Do a set to failure, rest 15-20 seconds, do another set to failure, whimper about how fatigued your chest and triceps feel. Rest a couple minutes and do it all again.

If that didn't make sense, let me explain again, slightly differently: do a normal set of pushups with great form. When you can't maintain form and complete another rep, stop the set. But only rest for 15-20 seconds. Then do as many reps as you can again (you'll probably get only half as many – or even less – reps from the main set).

Then rest 2 minutes and repeat. I like doing 3-4 sets of pushups with this rest pause format. 

I suspect the similar – but slightly different – myo reps would also work well. If trying myo reps with pushups, do 20 reps, rest 15-20 seconds, do a set of 5, and repeat that short rest followed by 5 reps until you fail to get 5 reps. Myo reps are basically rest pause sets, except instead of going to failure after the 15-20 second rest, you do just 5 reps. And instead of doing just one of these rest pause sets, when doing myo reps, you repeat multiple rest pause sets of 5 reps (and only 5 reps) until you can no longer do 5 reps.

Here's another important note with myo reps: you don't do multiple standard sets with myo reps. Using the regular rest pause technique we can do 2, 3, or even 4 sets followed by a brief rest and 1 rest pause "mini set" after each traditional set. 

With myo reps, you do 1 set and that "1 set" is the extended, myo rep set, which is 20 reps, rest pause and do 5 rep mini sets until you can't do 5 reps anymore. You also must be able to do 20 solid reps of pushups (or whatever exercise you choose) if doing myo reps. But it doesn't matter if you do 20 reps and only get 1 rest pause set of 5 reps – followed by failing to get 5 reps on the second rest pause set – or 42 rest pause sets of 5 before failing to get 5 reps on the 43rd rest pause set. Go until you can't do another mini-set/rest pause set of 5 reps.

I'll try myo rep pushups next “Push” session and keep you posted. But, for now, I find the standard rest pause sets work awesome with pushups. Here's how today's pushup session went:

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(Using my beloved "perfect pushup" handles for all sets)

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Set 1: 20 pushups; rest 15-20 seconds and did 10 more pushups

Set 2: 17 pushups; rest 15-20 seconds and did 7 more pushups

Set 3: 15 pushups; rest 15-20 sounds and did 6 more pushups

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Below is a video of my rest pause mini set 15-20 seconds after I finished set 2. You can see that the 7th rep is pretty slow and grindy.

https://youtube.com/shorts/VlqZLtpQvc4?si=HLqnK7gS2ei5r2JZ

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I did pushups today after 4 sets of pike pushups (a regression of handstand pushups). I did these pike pushups, seriously, as a working exercise for the first time. Woah! What a humbling and intense shoulder exercise. I'll write more about those another time, but generally I do some sort of overhead press variation before my horizontal press variation (in this case – and mostly lately – that horizontal press was pushups). I do overhead pressing first because I want to prioritize shoulder training and because I find overhead variations to be more technically demanding and fatiguing than horizontal push variations.

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Do the basics. Basic bodyweight exercises plus basic kettlebell and/or dumbbell exercises are elite! You just have to commit and work hard, consistently at these basic exercises to get awesome strength, muscle, health, and body composition results.

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If you're good at pushups but don't have a good way of increasing the resistance during pushups (for example, you don't have a weighted vest), rest pause and myo reps are an excellent option for taking your pushup training – along with your chest, shoulder, and tricep development – to the next level!