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?
Maybe try to make your push-ups slower on the descent so every rep is more demanding for your muscles. After about 15 reps for any exercise it's very hard to condition your muscles. I don't know how recently you've been training, but if it's less than a couples months since you've been doing only 5, I think you're probably doing push-ups in a fast pace, almost like an aerobic exercise. Take your time for every rep, and try not to focus on the quantity of push-ups, but on their quality, you'll be conditioning your muscles with much more intensity.
Second thing, I think you're spacing well your exercises, but remember your muscles can take up to 72 hours to fully rest and recover, depending on the intensity of your exercises. Even if you feel just a bit sore it's probably not good to train yet, and you can take the opportunity to focus on other muscles, such as your legs.
Another thing I can suggest so you can condition your muscles in a more intense manner through push-ups is by doing declined (not inclined) push-ups, where your legs are in a greater height than your upper body. This greatly increases the intensity of your push-ups.
Nowadays on my chest/triceps day, I usually start with declined push-ups for about 3 series, then normal push-ups, and finally inclined push-ups. Basically begin with a more intense exercise and work your way through the easier ones. I greatly improved the conditioning of my upper body through this routine.
Yeah, generally if I feel soreness, it's a hard avoid for me, even a little bit, since in the past I've caused some strain by doing that which left me not doing them for weeks. Thanks for all of this, I will try and adapt accordingly, or at the very least try this out, especially in regards to taking my time rather than trying to achieve a quantity.