Is it possible to build pec muscles with just push-ups?

I'm sure you can. You would probably need to go slow and hold longer under tension and change your angles so you develop the whole chest.

I would also imagine that you would build the muscles much slower than using a dumbbell or barbell and would be limited on how much muscle you could add.

I've never researched this so it's all speculation on my part.

Push-ups and pull-ups are great volume exercises. You can easily work-up to knocking out a couple hundred push-ups and pull-ups a day in sets of 20 or 5 or whatever every hour. I did that a couple years back and got maybe my best looking physique but was super weird knocking those out in an office.

This thread is actually making me consider starting it back up now that I’m working from home. Start slow as it’s a lot on the elbow early on, but they get used to the volume eventually.

Try and do the 10k push-up challenge in a month and see what kind of results you get

For most people, more strength = more muscle. On push-ups, you can build a big chest doing them. Old school jailhouse body.

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stressor is going to decrease since its a set weight basically you are utilizing

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Yeah that definitely makes sense. And I guess it's why people add weighted vests.

Herschel Walker famously denied ever lifting weights through HS and college. He would do 1,000+ push-ups per day (along with sit-ups and other body-weight exercises). Assuming that’s true, then my answer is yes, you most definitely can build pecs with push-ups (and the luck of fantastic genetics).

Great thoughts as well. If I give this a try, I'll consider that. I'm definitely going to go buy a weight vest if I plan out something.

Over a 2 year period I worked my way to 900 push-ups every three days. To avoid the plateau, I’d adjust rest intervals. My favorite, 40 rest 1min., 30 rest 40 seconds, 20 rest 2 minutes…great chest routine!

Wouldn't it be awesome if fapping could get you the same results

You'd know what was up with anyone who looked like Kerry

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You have a regimen I can look at? I might try just to see what it does. Change things up a bit.

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Can’t remember where I found it (actually could’ve been on here somewhere), but it was basically an every hour type of program where you start off at I think it was 10 push-ups and basically every hour that you’re awake, you knockout a set of 10 push-ups. You do those every single day M-F and then the next week you add 5 more reps per set.

As it got higher I was adding 2 reps per set or doing a set every 1.5 hours. You’d be surprised how much volume you can get on body weight exercises if you build your body up to it. There were days where I’d get 1,000+ push-ups in a day. Doing that 5x a week had me getting 5K push-ups in a week towards the end.

I think there’s a plateau on how much pure strength you can gain as at some point it becomes almost a cardio, core, and mobility exercise, but I tell you what, I have NEVER looked better. You will look like a Greek god. It’s basically a perfect beach body workout. Your pecs, triceps, and shoulders will be shredded.