I've read that doing too many pushups can lead to muscle imbalance and poor posture. Is this really true? If yes, why does the military allow this as a common form of exercise and regimentation? I've been doing reps of 50 every morning, as a early morning workout to get some blood flowing. Should I be concerned? Does anyone know of any complementary exercises should we do to complement this, to avoid muscle imbalance? (Preferably without the use of weights or equipment)
Too much of anything is going to be bad for you. If you are concentrating on push ups only, your legs are going to look skinny in comparison to your upper portion. You should do some thigh exercises as well as stomach exercises.
Anything too much is always bad. So too much of push-ups is bad for you. Too much amount of anything varies per person. The amount that is too much for me might not be the same amount of too much for you. When something bad turns out with your exertion, it means that you've reached your limit and that you've gone too much. This could be manifested by an injury, or any form of trauma physical and mental. All too much is bad; take everything in moderation.
"Too many" would vary from person to person. Some people can do 300 push-ups and more. Others can't go past 10. So "too many" would be determined by how much your body can take. You should know your limits and not push yourself beyond them. So yeah, if go beyond your limits, then it certainly will be bad for you.
I don't think that doing 50 push-ups in the morning is anything to worry about. However on the other hand I suppose that doing only push-ups and no other kind of exercise at all, after awhile would make the body look and feel off-balance. Like this huge top-half on top of little spaghetti legs. Or, on the flip side, it would be like going to the gym and only working on the leg machines, but ignoring the upper body all together. One would have huge, muscular legs but a tiny upper body that looks like a young child's upper torso. I would say that working both ends of the body is wise for best results.
When you're doing exercise, you never want to overexert yourself doing any of the activities. It's not just going too far beyond of the limit when it comes to push-ups that will have negative effects on your body. If you run too much, you might collapse. If you overwork your muscles, you might just strain and tare them. You have to be very careful. You can also try doing some soft yoga to try and relax your arms after doing the push-ups.
I can see how doing push-ups incorrectly would do some of the harmful things you mentioned and mess up your posture. But as everyone else said, "too much" is entirely subjective based on your own personal needs. Some people might be able to do 100 push-ups in one sitting while for another, 5 push-ups might be the correct number without hurting yourself. Be sure to have proper form and know how far you can push your own body's limitations.
Too much of anything is bad for you. If you over work your muscles and joints you can cause damage to them that you will feel the effects of eventually. Here is an article that talks about that. Log In
Just proceed at your own pace. Listen to your body. If you know you can do a hundred pushups without pushing yourself too much, then you're probably fine. But you wouldn't want to do pushups alone. Look up other body weight exercises and incorporate them into your daily routine. Or perhaps consider hitting the gym.
I don't think it's that bad for you as long as you're doing it fit. I recommend looking up some videos on YouTube on the proper ways to do push ups. You could possibly damage your body if you are going about it the wrong way but if you do it correctly then the risk is minimized significantly.
Only way that they could be bad would be if you had bad form with the push-ups, just make sure that you aren't putting too much strain on your wrists or shoulders when you do them as they're often areas which can be damaged through bad push-up form.
