When it comes to fitness, I’m increasingly in the philosophical camp of trying what you think may work to see if works for you. While we all have a common biology, it appears there is still enough variation, perhaps subtle, that works for one person may not work for another.

Along those lines, I have noticed fitness experts I respect can come to different conclusions about the same thing. I believe these are good faith disagreements. I think some of these disagreements also get accentuated by other people, particularly whomever is in charge of the experts SEO and video tagging.

Let’s take a straightforward example of the phenomenon. Should you do 100 push ups per day? It’s straightforward, appears to be a testable, and should yield a definitive answer. Let’s see what The Bioneer and AthleanX have to say about it.

If you read just the title of The Bioneer video, you would think the answer is an unequivocal yes. But the video presents a more nuanced answer. The Bioneer answers yes but that’s provided you are training other parts of your body, so you are working your entire body as part of your routine. That’s not much of a qualifier but perhaps needs to be said out loud so the underinformed don’t believe exclusively doing push-ups is sufficient.

There are lots of variations on the push up including doing them very slowly and quite quickly. High reps maintain a high time under tension. Blood pools in the area. That creates metabolites in the affected area which leads to hypertrophy. Your body responds by increasing blood flow to the area. This becomes a “permanent” change if you continue to do high reps for that body part.

Where it really gets interesting is you build that increased blood flow leads to greater vascular capacity, increased capillaries, and increased mitochondria. This allows a greater ability to perform work over lengthier periods of time. In other words, you build endurance and performance. You can go longer and harder (Hi Q!).

If you read just the title of the AthleanX video, you think the answer is an unequivocal no. But the video provides a more nuanced answer. High repetitions of push-ups are great, but you must pay attention to unwanted repercussions like elbow or shoulder pain from high rep count sets.

So, you shouldn’t do all those push-ups, right? Wrong. Break them into sets where you stop about 5 reps short of failure. Also, after each set do a set of Superman Press Outs. These are needed to exercise your back. This prevents an imbalance between your anterior and posterior chain.

Insisting on 100 push ups per day may not match your ability level. If you can’t do that many then you can work up to it but be sure to maintain proper form to avoid injury. If you can do it easily, then while you will increase your volume, that increased volume may not be terribly effective. To make it effective, find a push up variation that challenges you.

This week’s music.