I try to do 4 sets of press ups to make sure that I’m stretching my muscles but after doing it 2 days I lose my strength and no longer have the strength to even do one set no matter how hard I try ( my arms shake like crazy and I lose my balance)

I suppose it worked then 🙂

the Video you did is very useful and insightful, so thanks for that!

but the end, it took me 10 minutes just to sit back into my chair, and another 10 just to type this comment.

Kudos to your moderator!

What you probably refers to soreness, which is actually a good sign – it shows the muscle is being rebuild.

You shouldn’t do strength exercises on the muscles where you feel the soreness until it is gone, but swimming and tennis are quite alright. Both are a good form of cardio! 🙂

Dear Evil, thank you for sharing your experience and thank you for guidance, very helpful tips and instructions with videos. what do you usually do when you when you feel muscle pain. not actually pain but it feels good when you feel it. i guess exercises working and influencing muscles. as i understood beginners do many mistakes when they exercise. what to do to avoid mistakes and do correctly. every other day that i don’t go to gym i go to the swimming pool or play tennis, is it too much sport. thank you in advance. regards.

alright, thanks! 😀

Without seeing how you do them, Zen, I’d say it might be due to a weaker shoulder muscle. You can try to give them a bit of extra work so they catch up:

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/DeltoidAnterior/DBShoulderPress.html

If the pain persists or gets worse, stop the program and see a doctor, to find out if there is something else wrong.

Heah Ayman,

I’d say we try something completely different: Limit your reps on set 1 to 12. That way you have more reserves for set 2 and 3.

BTW, “Mr. Evil” makes me sound like a villain from a James Bond movie 😀

I have been encountering difficulty in performing pushups at higher reps with subsequent sets.. On Set 1 I could do 20 pushups (dropped to knee pushups after 12rep), but on Set 2 I was only able to do 7 full pushups and 2 knee pushups since the burning began setting in. I decided to give it a slightly longer rest to about 2 min + 5 to 10 secs, and still I only manage to do at best 6 full pushups and 2 knee pushups.

Should I stick to this routine, or should I backtrack to knee pushups completely to increase my reps, OR is it Ok for me to split my pushups sets in the day in order to increase my reps? Your guidance is very much appreciated. 🙂