Does a push-up do the same thing as a bench press?

Question

Like if I am at a certain wieght where my arms are pushing up 200 pounds, and I can bench 200 pounds, instead of doing bench presses, can I just do 20 pushups and have the same work being done on my body as if I were doing 20 bench presses at 200 pounds?

Which is better? Doing 20 push ups or 20 bench presses (at a weight i can do)?

Answer 1

Definitely, but they are slightly different due to gravity pulling on all the different parts of your body and due to hand positioning. but basically they are the same.

Answer 2

there were too many numbers in your paragraph, and im tired...so i will just answer your question. no, push-ups are not the same as bench pressing. if you do pushups with your elbows out, itll work the same muscles, but your only pushuping less than your own body weight (some of the weight is on your feet), so unless you weigh like 500 pounds, i dont think it will do the same as bench pressing. if you do pushups with your elbows in (so they go along your sides) this works your triceps, which is completely different then bench pressing.

Answer 3

No. Push ups are done facing towards the ground. Lay flat on the ground and use your arms to come up and back down while not letting your body touch the ground. Bench pressing is when you lay on a bench, etc and lift weights on a bar over your chest.

Answer 4

It works ALMOST the same muscles. Pushups works the shoulders a little more than bench press.

To increase strength or mass, bench press beats pushups hands down. Strength increases when you exert your muscle with near maximum effort for 8-12 sec. That amounts to 8-12 reps. With pushups, it is more about endurance, as you can do much more than 10-12 pushups (unless you put a plate on your back)

Answer 5

Push ups are a good solid way of exercising your pectoral muscles.

However, as most have pointed out, if you weigh 200 pounds your push ups are not concentrating all of your weight on your pecs.

Do this...I tried it when I was in high school. Put both of your arms on a scale and do your push ups on the scale. It will show you how much of your weight is concentrated on your arms / pecs when you are doing a push up on the floor. I weighed around 190 pounds and found that the weight on my arms was about 130 pounds. Give or take a few pounds if I remember.

Answer 6

No. You are not using all of your weight in push-ups and you use different muscles. It seems like a quick way out of weight benchs, but it doesn't work. If you are in a pinch and have a work-out shedule but can't maintain it, then doubling your push-ups to your lifting will substitute but just for a short term period. If you want to keep those muscles, your best bet is to stick to the bench.

Answer 7

If you clap on the upstroke of the push up it will do more than a bench press. I'm 220 at 44 and I can still do more than 40 proper push ups once a week, but I stopped clapping some years ago!

Answer 8

first off doing a push up yeah it does work the same muscles but when you do a push up you arent pushing up all your body weight bc you still have your feet on the ground, if you cant afford a weight bench have someone put stuff on your back while your doing the push ups

Answer 9

You can do pushups to sub for bench press, but you weighing 200lbs does not equal a 200lb bench press. The 200lb bench press is fully concentrated on your pectorals, whereas your body weight is distributed, so you're not really benching your "entire" body.

Answer 10

no because your not picking your legs up with you, even if you did ahandstand, gravity is working against you when you bench press. your pushing the weights farther away from the ground, and their pushing back at you, but on the ground your just pushing it, its not pushing back at you (well technically with newtons 3rd law, for every action theirs an equil and opposie reaction, but like dont count that here lol)