I'm in IT, so generally when it comes to physical activity I'm pretty stagnant. Recently, I took it upon myself to start doing some running alongside a number of push ups and to slowly work my way up. But here's my problem: I've been reading that it's best to space out push ups so that your body gets some time to heal, since apparently it's valuable in order for the muscles to grow. So I've been doing them ever 2nd day, which has worked relatively okay so far. The first few weeks were grueling because I lacked a lot of the stamina to do them, and could only do about 5 at a time. Now I'm up to two sets of 25 push ups per day, but what worries me is this sensation that I'm plateauing. Once I reach 25, I have to stop, wait a few minutes, before I do the next 25, which is fine, but if I bother to push for a few more, let's say, 28 or 30 push ups per set, my arms literally give out.
The good thing is they don't feel sore, but it's like my arms just physically cannot go any further. Does anyone else have this problem? How did you get around it?
I'm most certain this is a mental thing, if I'm alone I usually don't do much because I get lazy but when I'm in Systema classes and you have someone there telling you to do 100 push ups you just do them. You need to start shutting up the voice in your head telling you you cant do it. If you say you're doing 25 push ups a day with no problem I can't see how you can't start adding at least 5 or 10 more, but who knows.
Thanks, yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what you're referring to, I have had those instances where I've had to "shut up" my voice, at least for the first few miles of building, but in most of those cases, it was generally because I was either out of breath or felt like my muscles were shaky, but in this case it's like my arms simply refuse to work at that limit, even if I were to hypothetically "push" myself, I basically just collapse. Sure, it isn't "fixed" to 25, I have variable instances where I have "reached" 30, but that goal quickly collapses the next day to let's say, 23 before my body "gives out" again without being able to push on. I know it may sound confusing, but meh, it could as you said, be mental, so I will keep trying anyways, maybe I'll figure out what's wrong.