Push-ups vs Bench press

Hi

I am not sure if I can put up this kind of post on this board 'cause it is my personal question.

I've been working out for the last few years but I feel like I am still a total beginner as I don't think I am doing it right.

The thing is, push-ups work for me whereas bench press doesn't seem to.

I was living abroad for one year and during that time I couldn't afford to go to a gym, so I simply did push-ups (40~50x5) once every other day. Now that I am back home, people and my family say I look definitely bigger and muscly than before. Before going abroad, I had been working out harder in the gym and for some reason hardly seen any progress. Now I go to the gym and try bench press again, but I can't still feel that pumped-up feeling on chest muscles to the same degree as when I do push-ups, even though I think I lift up heavy enough, in quite a correct position.

What do you think is the problem? Any advice would be appreciated.

It is hard to give advice without seeing what you are doing in the gym. From experience I have never been able to build a lot of muscle from push ups alone. You would need more resistance as in someone on your back to add weight. My best gains have all come from a good free weight bench press routine, in fact, my recent best progress came after a year of solid dumbell bench pressing once a week....I did shoulders on a nother day.....but only weighted dips and side, rear raises with some other odds and ends. Heavy bench and dips will build a lot of size in my experience but high rep sets of pushups, not so much in my experience. If you don't have a history of lifting weights, pushups will show results...once you progress to intermediate and advanced, you will need more in the way of resistance.

It is hard to give advice without seeing what you are doing in the gym.

^This

If you don't have a history of lifting weights, pushups will show results...once you progress to intermediate and advanced, you will need more in the way of resistance.

Yep, the thing about push-ups is that you're always applying the same weight on your muscles.. its a good way starting out, but once you hit a certain point, you wanna do higher intensity bench pressing at the gym if you're gonna get any bigger.