Breaking the push-up max ceiling

I have been training for over half a year now, and step by step my performance has been improving. Cumulated small gains, ended-up being big gains.
To illustrate my point, let's compare my current Personal Bests for a few workouts versus my first attempts (Oct/Nov 2013). In bracket I'm showing Alexander Villena's PB as benchmarks of top performance (I still have lots of work to do):

• Aphrodite: 30:49* → 18:59* (AV PB = 13:27*)
• Dione: 37:03* → 23:17* (AV PB = 19:51)
• Hades: 25:17 (no star) → 16:04* (AV PB = 13:43*)
• Pull-up MAX: 14* → 34* (AV PB = 59*)

Not surprisingly, enhanced physical activity has been leading to better results across the board. However, lately I have been growing disappointed with my (lack of) progress in push-ups. It that one specific exercise I felt like I had plateaued.
 
Below is a chart showing all my Push-ups max results since the beginning (PB are highlighted in blue).

While following the program, my PB went from 42 to 53. An improvement, but nothing spectacular. At first I didn't worry about it, thinking that I would probably get better results after completing my Cardio-Strength program simply by increasing the ratio of Strength-oriented workouts to my routine. In March-April I started making my own schedule, so I included a lot of Venus, Hades and Pushup MAX.

But nothing happened.

I once equaled my PB, but most of the time I was far below. Of course, often I had been performing the Pushup MAX toward the end of a session, when my arm muscles were already tired. So poor performance on any single day didn't mean much. But looking at the trend, it confirmed what my guts had been telling me: my performance stalled around 50.

By mid-May I was convinced that to progress further I needed a special training for push-ups. So I started looking for a method. The good news is that the Internet is full of advises on how to improve push-ups. The bad news is that there is no consensus: everyone makes different recommendations. Also, a lot of the suggested methods did not really fit with my schedule or my regular training. Many programs had very heavy training days followed by 48 hours of rest. I wanted to focus on push-ups, but not do only push-ups.

I wanted something that I could do in complement to my other Freeletics workouts. In the end, I took some ideas from 3 coaches' opinions on the matter and mixed them with a former Navy seal's 10 days program to come-up with a custom training plan. Using 50 reps as my baseline max, I setup the following rules:

• 10 consecutive of days push-ups training, followed by 48 hours of rest
• Total push-ups per day: 4 times my max (=200 push-ups per day).
• 25 repetitions per set (half my max).
• First 100 reps before breakfast, the last 100 in the evening with my regular training.
• I didn't want to risk injury from over-training, so if my evening workout already included push-ups, that would count toward my daily goal of 200.

Each set of 25 would be performed consecutively (no break) and recorded in the Freeletics app as a Push-up MAX. The idea was to keep track of my count, but also to force me to take breaks. Because a MAX lasts 1:40 and I only need half this time to do 25 push-ups, hence I would get ~1 minute of rest between each set.

I was wondering if that regimen would be too hard on my muscles. But 25 repetitions turned out to be a good number. It was exactly the number of reps that I could perform before getting into the grinding zone. The first few days my arms would be tired rapidly. In the first 2 sets I would do all the repetitions in 40-45 seconds. The 4th set was harder, my paced dropped to 55-60 seconds. After a 5-6 days my speed improved (35-40 seconds) and was constant during all 4 sets.

After a few days when I saw that my arms handled the effort well, for added difficulty, from time to time one of my kid would lay on my back while I performed the push-ups. The extra weight was respectively 15kg (33 lbs) or 11kg (24 lbs). It's cheaper than buying a weighted vest, but the downside is that for them it's like a merry-go-round ride. Once they try it, they want to get a ride every time...
 
After the 10 days of training and the 48 hours of rest, I took a new Push-up Max  to measure improvements. I ended-up doing 60 repetitions, largely breaking my 3 months-old PB. 


However, when completing this test, my shoulders still felt a bit stiff. I wasn't sure if I was in peak condition. I decided to do a second test after an additional 2 days of rest. Tonight I started my training with a Pushup MAX and completed 60 reps again. A few workouts later, I completed a second Pushup MAX ending at 55 reps.

The last 3 attempts have clearly been a notch above historical performance. So the special focus definitely paid-off. I will probably re-do a similar program in the future to keep driving improvements (may be pull-ups?). But this will remain occasional, in order to give my body enough rest.

Unexpectedly, I really enjoyed the quick push-ups session prior to breakfast. I'm thinking to do this more regularly. Total reps (100?), format (4 sets? 3 sets) and periodicity (daily? every 2 days?) are still to be determined. I will see in the next few weeks what routine feels the most natural.