Ever heard claims of someone doing 100 push ups in a row?
Sure, we all have it. Furthermore, I’m sure there are people who actually can.
However, whenever I’ve witnessed (or indeed attempted) such a challenge the almost inevitable result is a dramatic increase in the speed of push ups being performed.
Like a jack-in-the-box rebounding up and down. It looks horrible!
It is MUCH easier to accumulate higher rep totals of ANY exercise using a high rep speed and lots of momentum.
This does not make it a productive use of your time.
By slowing down the speed at which you perform a push up (or any other resistance exercise) you protect your joints from large fluctuations in force, cut out momentum, safely fatigue more muscle fibers and greatly reduce the risk of injury.
So slow push ups or fast push ups?
Unless you are trying to impress your office colleagues with the highest possible rep total… it’s slow every time! There is no other benefit to fast push ups that I can think of.