Exercise can offer health benefits but you may consider different routines. Find out whether doing 25 pushups a day is enough and what results you can expect.
Pushups are generally done to grow and strengthen chest, tricep, and shoulder muscles since they are a resistance training exercise for these areas.
With that in mind, 25 pushups per workout can be challenging enough for many people to see some muscle growth and strength progress.
If you are barely able to do 5 sets of 5 pushups up to 2 sets of 13/12 pushups, you are likely in this category for now.
At the same time, as you get stronger with a certain strength training routine, you need to increase the challenge (weight, repetitions per week, etc.) to keep seeing results.
Additionally, it is typically recommended to have a rest day for the muscles you worked after a resistance training workout. That means you likely don’t want to do 25 pushups every single day.
In short, workouts with 25 pushups could be enough for you to see muscle growth and strength progress. However, you likely don’t want to do exercise sessions like this every single day.
Besides that, you likely need to increase the challenge over time to keep seeing progress.
Is it challenging enough to build muscle?
One of the first questions many people have about doing 25 pushups a day is whether it is actually enough to see results. This amount will only take you around 80 seconds (1.3 minutes) with potentially extra rest time in between.
While this movement does get your heart beating a bit faster too, the main goals of pushups are growing and strengthening the chest, tricep, and front shoulder muscles.
To make these things happen, you have the challenge the muscles with enough pressure, do the right number of repetitions, give your body enough nutrients, and rest enough.
What counts as enough depends on your current strength level in the muscles above. For one person 25 bodyweight pushups in one workout will be enough to see results. For others not.
The best way to find out in what category of people you are is actually implementing this exercise routine and seeing what the results are.
That being said, there are also ways to make predictions in shorter amounts of time.
If you can barely do the 25 pushups in somewhere between 2 sets of 13/12 pushups and 5 sets of 5 pushups, this amount can likely help you grow and strengthen your muscles to at least a small extent.
People who are not strong enough to do these amounts of pushups per set likely want to start with easier pushup progressions to see progress.
On the flip side, as you get stronger and the ranges above become too easy, you have to make changes to keep seeing results.
Should you do 25 pushups every single day?
As briefly mentioned above, another important part of growing and strengthening muscles is giving your body enough rest.
This is because resistance training exercises like pushups damage your muscles during the workout itself.
That may sound like a bad thing but it actually starts a variety of internal processes that repair the muscles and make them stronger to be better able to deal with similar efforts in the future.
24 hours of rest will be enough for some people to recover from 25 pushups.
That being said, it is generally recommended to give your chest, tricep, and shoulder muscles a day of extra rest in between workouts. This will help you play it safe and stay farther away from overtraining.
Additionally, rest days for the chest, tricep, and shoulder muscles can be a good opportunity to do other workouts. For example, to train other muscles and avoid muscle imbalances.
Besides giving your body enough rest, you also want to make sure you eat enough protein, vitamins, and minerals
Ways to get more results from a pushup routine
Workouts with 25 pushups approached the right way could be enough for you to build some extra muscle mass. However, as you get stronger, the same workout will stop being challenging enough to see results in this area.
Additionally, in many cases, changing the bodyweight pushup routine before this point can speed up progress.
First of all, while 25 repetitions in a workout is already typically more effective than something like 10 pushups a day, increasing the number of pushups you do per session will often increase your results.
This will apply for a decent amount of time as long as you really push your muscles to failure.
At the same time, you can also get more out of the same number of repetitions by doing pushups with weights.
There is a way to overdo it with this too but if you can do 5 sets with 5 weighted pushups you should be about good. Slightly higher amounts of repetitions (8 to 12 per set) tend to be better for muscle growth.
In short, if doing workouts with 25 bodyweight pushups stops being enough to see muscle growth and strength results, you can start doing more repetitions and/or making the existing repetitions more challenging with pushup equipment.
Will 25 pushups a day do anything else?
So far the main effects discussed were muscle growth and strength progress because pushups are a bodyweight resistance training movement.
At the same time, like most forms of exercise, there are also other benefits you can get by moving your body more.
One important thing you do want to keep in mind about the things below is that they will only take place to a small extent.
Doing 25 pushups will only take around 80 seconds (1.3 minutes) + rest time which is definitely not enough to hit any quality exercise guidelines for optimal health.
How many calories do 25 pushups burn?
The calorie-burning effects of pushups during the workouts are not the most impressive but it is an easy way to put the intensity of an exercise session into an estimation number.
Here are some rough estimations about how many calories 25 pushups burn for people of different body weights:
- 125 pounds (56 kg) body weight: 8 calories
- 155 pounds (70 kg) body weight: 10 calories
- 185 pounds (83 kg) body weight: 12 calories
- 215 pounds (97 kg) body weight: 14 calories
It should not be too surprising that these amounts are so low because of how fast you can do 25 pushups. Even if you consider the secondary calorie-burning effects from any extra muscle mass or afterburn.
Luckily, it is also possible to lose weight without exercise. Other lifestyle habits like nutrition generally play a big role in whether and to what extent you lose weight.
Similarly, you could have a very intense workout program and not lose weight if your habits in these other lifestyle areas are suboptimal.
Better muscle endurance
If you get to a point where you can do 25 pushups a day, you will generally also be able to see muscle endurance muscle improvements on top of any muscle growth or strength progress.
Better muscle endurance in your chest, triceps, and shoulders is not as relevant as in your leg muscles but it can still make certain daily tasks easier.
More general exercise benefits to a tiny extent
Again, 80 seconds (1.3 minutes) of pushups is definitely not the most intense workout routine and not enough by far to hit any quality exercise guidelines for general health.
That being said, doing 25 pushups a day instead of nothing will offer you certain exercise benefits like better bone density, mood, and sleep to a tiny (potentially unnoticeable) extent.
How to work up to 25 pushups in a row
There are also many people who can’t do 25 pushups in a row or in a single workout (with a reasonable time limit).
Something to know first about this situation is that it is typically not permanent. Human bodies are great at adapting if you approach it right.
With that in mind, the first way you can work up to 25 repetitions in a workout is by starting with modified pushups where you lean on your knees instead of your feet.
This leads to less pressure on your upper body muscles and in turn, could allow you to hit repetition ranges where you can start to see muscle growth and strength progress.
From there, you can increase the number of repetitions you do and/or with how much weight you do them until you hit your pushup goals.
Secondly, you can do other exercises that work similar muscles like chest presses and bench presses. Similarly, you want to increase the challenge to keep getting stronger.
Once you are at a point where you can do regular pushups in nice amounts of repetitions, it is a question of slowly increasing repetitions, sets, and or weight until you can do 25 pushups in a row.
If you are implementing a good workout routine but not seeing results, you want to take a look at things like your diet, amount of rest, and sleep.
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