Why is it better to do 30 pushups in a row, than to do 1 pushup per minute for 30 minutes, and so on?

Question

Why is it better to do 30 pushups in a row, than to do 1 pushup per minute for 30 minutes, and so on?

In: 45

Answer 1

You have different types of muscle fibers that work in different ways. Some are weaker but don’t tire very easily while some are the other way around. When you use your muscles you don’t use all fibers at once, you typically recruit more when needed.

Muscle growth and adaptation happens when muscles are put through stress they can’t handle, which is why so many training methods stress the importance of going to near failure and progressively increasing the amount of weight lifted so you don’t stay in a comfort zone, instead you should aim to always overload your muscles when you work out.

Only doing a single pushup and allowing yourself time to rest in between wouldn’t stimulate your muscles enough because it’s such an easy load, no further adaptation is needed.