Can I gain muscle by doing only push ups? If not, what else can I do, just at home?
Of course you canPush ups directly activate your Deltoids (shoulders), triceps (the back of your arms), and your pectorals (chest). Secondarily they affect your abdominal muscles, lower back, upper back, gluteals, and all over your legs. Your secondary muscles are used to maintain the plank position that you hold throughout the push up motion.Even though you might be using your back to stabilize, I wouldn’t ever claim that you will be building muscle mass on your back by doing push ups.Push ups are weight lifting.Something many people assume is that unless you have a plate or external load that you’re not actually weight lifting.They’re willing to give a pass to pull-ups sometimes because you’re lifting more of your body weight. Push ups only use about 60% of your body weight, depending on the push up style and a few other factors.[1]Of course, these people dismiss or handwave the fact that you can change the push up style or add external weight.More over, because of the way that your whole body is engaged, push ups can be more effective at building strength that you will use in every day life.[2]But muscle mass?You don’t have to overload a muscle with a heavy load to overload a muscle. You can do reps to failure, an increasing amount of reps in order to overload them.[3]To hammer this point home, many old school boxers would train through body weight exercises alone under the misconception that lifting weights would slow your punches. Guys like Mike Tyson and Herschel Walker would build their bodies using body weight exercises. They’d do hundreds of push ups daily, along with hundreds of squats and pulls. They’re pretty muscular.Mike Tyson[4]Herschel Walker[5]Yes, push ups can stimulate your body to build muscle.Caveat 1: you must properly fuel your body to grow any muscle. It won’t happen magically. Get lots of protein, carbs, and rest.Caveat 2: you will only increase the muscle you work. To encourage balance you should work your back and legs as well.Footnotes[1] Bart Loews's answer to How much body weight is used on a push up?[2] Bart Loews's answer to Are weighted push-up as effective as bench-press for beginners to build muscle?[3] Bart Loews's answer to Can you build muscle with light weights?[4] Bart Loews's answer to What was Mike Tyson’s training regime?[5] Bart Loews's answer to With Herschel Walker in mind, is it safe to perform 750 push-ups and sit-ups daily to build a healthy body?
How can I reduce triceps pain from lifting arms ahead?
It may seem strange but the triceps may not be the problem.Lifting something overhead requires stabilisation of the shoulder joint and if you don’t have a strong platform you will experience pain while doing any exercise overhead. If he works at a desk all day I can almost guaranty that his shoulders naturally roll forward which is not a strong position.This is caused by tight front delts and chest and weak under developed rear delts. Luckily there is an easy to fix.. First a face pull is is a great exercise for the rear delt and will quickly add mass. The second is rear delt fly's same thing they will make your rear delts bigger and strong which will pull your shoulders back in line.This is all pointless if you don’t streach your apposition muscle (CHest and front delt) because these are the muscles that are accualy causeing the problem. The image above is the best way to streach these muscles.If you do these corrective exersises you should see and feel a natasible differance in strenght aswell as a reduction of discounfot.
What do I do if the bench press is stuck on me?
I assume you mean that when benching the barbell you reached failure and the bar is now resting on your chest, correct?If your abs aren’t developed enough to support the weight you shouldn’t lift alone. You should use a spotter.I have lifted alone for most of my life. I have always had my own equipment. I have rolled my max down my abs to my thighs a few times. From there it is a more or less a simple deadlift.A word of caution and pay attention. Never ever do decline bench press work alone. That bar can find it’s resting place on your throat. People have died when doing decline bench presses alone. You can Bing or Google that.My gunrack has a nice set of safeties that can prevent the bar from pinning someone to the bench if they are unable to get the last rep. If you have a set up like that and you really get into lifting consider a cambered bar to prevent any loss of range of motion but be advised that a cambered bar will increase the range about 4″. It takes a bit to get used to using a cambered bar. Start with a lighter weight than you normally use for benching. The cambered bar is also good for bent over rows. It will give you a little more range of motion. I also have a Jones Smith Machine with it’s own safeties. The safeties are there for your protection. Use them if you don’t have a competent spotter. Interesting YouTube vid where a guy is using the thumb less grip and the bar, weighing 315 lbs. bounces off his chest as his spotter watches.Some answers are calling collars clips or locks. I would suggest that you always use collars. Using collars helps you to maintain control. I have seen people fail to maintain the bar in a level plane when they are still in the learning curve and your question places you in that category.