100 pushups by Christmas

[newGuy12]

Okay, I have a goal of being able to do 100 pushups by Christmas time. One sitting, BAM, 100 pushups. I have found a resource on the web that should help:

http://100pushups.info/

I also have made a copy in plain ascii text. If anyone wants to join me in this, you can PM me for the ascii copy if you wish.

No more "noodle-armed" Robert, no. We will hit the 3 significant digits of the base10 number system, that's right. Any martial arts student should be able to drop down and rip them out, so here we go.

 

[exile]

Okay, I have a goal of being able to do 100 pushups by Christmas time. One sitting, BAM, 100 pushups. I have found a resource on the web that should help:

http://100pushups.info/

I also have made a copy in plain ascii text. If anyone wants to join me in this, you can PM me for the ascii copy if you wish.

No more "noodle-armed" Robert, no. We will hit the 3 significant digits of the base10 number system, that's right. Any martial arts student should be able to drop down and rip them out, so here we go.

newGuy, this is how you can do it very simply. (NB: I said simply, not easily... read on...)

Get thee to a gym or rec center weight room which has a power rack. Move a bench into the power rack and set the pins so that you are able to start with a barbell on its holding posts at a height maybe three inches, no more, below the length of your fully extended arm. This will put the barbell well within your strongest leverage range for a bench press. Any lower, and you will reduce the weight you can lift, due to leverage factors. Stay in your strongest range, and instead of doing a one foot rep in time T, do four three-inch reps in time T.

What you will find is that you can almost certainly add around 100 lbs right off the bat to your full-range bench press weight. Give yourself plenty of recovery time: do a set of 20 or so benches under the conditions I've described, and then wait a full week to come back. Next time, add another 5 to 10 lbs., and give yourself another week. And then add another 5 lbs or so.

Doing this kind of routine, I was able in 2 years to go from around 180lb benches to a 405lb very, very short range benches. And after about four months on that routine, I could knock out in excess of 100 push ups easily—even with my feet on a bench, well above my head height in pushup position. I still can, and I'm more than 60 years old.

Develop a very strong, short-range bench in a power rack and pushups become a piece of cake. I started out as a pathetic ectomorphic hard-gainer; if I could do it, anyone can. Good luck!

 

[newGuy12]

Oh, my! No joke?

There is a gymnasium right down the street from me, and the people who run it don't make you sign a contract. You can even come in and pay for one single visit if you wish, and I think its $25 / month (or less / month if you do prepay for a longer time). Oh, this is something.

I can also use the pull-down pulley machine (I cannot do a single pull-up now, and this will be a "baby step" toward that goal). A Marine friend of mine told me that I should do pullups as well as pushups.

Also, I have a somewhat chronic knee condition that a friend who is a physical therapist told me could be helped by using the leg machines (very carefully, very slowly).

Man, thank you for the tip, exile! Whew! Tomorrow is Saturday, the perfect day for the "one day per week" power-rack exercise!




High Regards,

Robert

 

[Carol]

I'll join you for the 100 pushups by Christmas goal, Robert I dunno if I will get there....but there's only one way to find out

 

[Lynne]

Alright! This is the motivation I need to work on my pushups. I can only do a few full-range pushups. If I can add a few more, I'd be very happy.

I have tendonitis in one hand. Is it ok with you guys if I do them on my knuckles???

 

[exile]

Oh, my! No joke?

There is a gymnasium right down the street from me, and the people who run it don't make you sign a contract. You can even come in and pay for one single visit if you wish, and I think its $25 / month (or less / month if you do prepay for a longer time). Oh, this is something.

If you're interested in the theory behind this approach, it's contained in a series of books by Peter Sisco and John Little. The approach is called the Power Factor training system, because it makes use of a metric called the power factor—total weight moved divided by total time—as a measure of training effectiveness. Their fundamental premise is that full-range reps, which take you out of your optimal biomechanical range for any given excercise, do not recruit the maximum percentage of neuromuscular activation units available. According to the research they cite, that percentage is determined strictly by the demands imposed by a given resistence. In other words, 250lbs that you can lift relatively easily because it's at the very top of your optimal movement range still demands more neural activation to kick in than 150lbs that are much harder for you to lift because you're lowering the weight to the point where you're fighting bad leverage angles to move the weight—and muscle strength increases in proportion to the number of muscle activation groups required over a given period of time. The short story is, in spite of perceived difficulty, you activate more neuromuscular groups to lift a heavier weight than you do a lighter weight. There's actually a lot of very sophisticated sports physiology research in this area, and the evidence seems quite unequivocal.

It's not just the bench press. A simple application of the same principle involves biceps. You can start in a weak position and try to horse a short barbell up and down in a curl, but that barbell won't weigh nearly as much as your own body weight. But if you stand on a box or a bench high enough that you can easily pull yourself into your strongest position on a chinning bar with your palms facing inward, and do very short range chins on that bar, you will in effect be doing the same exercise as the barbell biceps curl, but using your full body weight (you'll be getting some support from your lats, so it's something of a compound exercise, always a good thing; but still most of the effort will come from your biceps). After a while, you can add 10lbs, then 15lbs and so on to a chain-belt around your waist. I can now do about 20 such chins with 50lbs wrapped around my waist, which is the equivalent of 20 230lb curls—something I would never be able to do starting with a 230lb barbell at an ordinary curling station in a gym trying to lift the barbell up to near my chin from its rest position. Similar considerations apply to seated shoulder presses and leg presses (much easier on your spine than squats, and if you do the same kind of short range presses you can load more than enough weight onto the leg press machine to compensate for the fact that the movement is at a 45º angle to the vertical) It's well worth experimenting with this general approach for a few months to see how quickly your strength increases. The crucial bit: you must allow sufficient recovery time! The more weight you horse into the air, the more time you need to allow a full recovery before the actual muscle growth can occur; if you overtrain on this kind of program, you're really overtraining and you won't get anywhere. High intensity programs (of which the Sisco-Little system is just one) pretty much demand that you allow plenty of time to recover. Don't listen to people who insist that you lift every other day; it doesn't work like that. Sisco and Little cite controlled muscle biopsy studies showing that even after a week, muscles implicated in a high-intensity training session are still recovering. And this is especially true for people who aren't taking anabolic substances, and whose late teens and early twenties are comfortably behind them....

I can also use the pull-down pulley machine (I cannot do a single pull-up now, and this will be a "baby step" toward that goal). A Marine friend of mine told me that I should do pullups as well as pushups.

He's dead right—it's a terrific exercise.

Also, I have a somewhat chronic knee condition that a friend who is a physical therapist told me could be helped by using the leg machines (very carefully, very slowly).

Yes, because you build up the muscle around the knee and help stabilize the patella. I had a condition called chondromalacia, a kind of erosion of the surface of the patella, for a number of years, and I found that the best treatment for it was a program that built up the lower quads around the knee joint. Increased muscle mass helps build up bone density, but it also serves to help proted the bone itself.

Man, thank you for the tip, exile! Whew! Tomorrow is Saturday, the perfect day for the "one day per week" power-rack exercise!

High Regards,

Robert

Excellent, Robert, give it a shot and see—start slowly, mind you, and go steadily. There is a big jump at the beginning because you're able to take advantage of that enormous advantage you get from working exclusively in the strongest leverage range of the lifts you're doing; once you've started, then a small but steady increase in weights each session—I aim at 5lbs above the weight I used last time on that particular exercise—will keep your gains coming steadily. Patience, and making sure you don't give in to the temptation to throw in another workout before you've fully recovered from the last one, are the keys....

 

[Big Don]

I'll join you for the 100 pushups by Christmas goal, Robert I dunno if I will get there....but there's only one way to find out

Count me in as well!

 

[Cruentus]

O.K....

If there is anything I'll admit to being a "master" at, it's pushups.

Last time I had someone else test me, I did 105 in 2 minutes TO MILITARY STANDARD. It's those last 3 words that make the difference, because I can do at least 250 (not in 2 minutes, but w/o stopping) but not nessicarily to military standard. Doing it to military standard with someone else (one of my military friends in my case, so that is how I know) counting and timing makes things much more difficult (btw, Rich Parson's can probably vouch for my integrity on this one).

So... how'd I do it?

I am sure that there are different ways of achieving the same goal, but I'll let you in on how I did it.

Start w/ doing as many as you can do to perfect standard. Focus on speed, touching the ground with your chest, and locking your arms all the way. Many people think that they are doing puchups with good form, but I find that they are often wrong. So don't cheat yourself.

So, let's say that you do 30 with good form, and your spent. Force out 10 more with questionable form, then stop. If ya drop, ya drop, but try not to.

Rest for 2-5 minutes or so. Then do another set the same; 30 good form plus 10 questionable. You will fatigue much faster on the second set, so you can go into a rest position. A rest position is where you stay up, but you can sag in the middle, or arch your back (I prefer arch) to rest, and you can alternate weight on either hand, but try not to completely lift your palms from the ground.

Then rest again, and do one last set the same as above.

Do this every other day. But, each time you do it, look to increase your "perfect form" pushups my one rep. So, in the said example, you would do 31 instead of 30 perfect form per set.

You will reach a point when your body will adapt to the exercise, and you will feel like you can increase by more then one rep. So, in a few days, you might be doing 35 reps perfect, feeling like you could do 5 more. Go ahead and do them. Then, next time, increase by 1 rep again from your previous increase (so, 41 reps perfect).

Keep doing this, and if you are relatively fit you should reach your goal long before Christmas.

2 things to remember; this is at least as much mental as it is physical. You will reach a point where you feel like you "can't" do 1 more rep then what you did last session. That's Bull. You can, it's just a mental barrier that you need to overcome. Last, don't neglect speed. Don't sacrifice form, but speed is what will enable you to reach your goal.

Cool. Have fun!

:cheers:

 

[Kennedy_Shogen_Ryu]

Count me in on the 100 pushup bandwagon!
​

 

[Ceicei]

Count me in. I need to do this anyway in preparing for my black belt.

- Ceicei

 

[newGuy12]

Okay, then! With the help of exile's trick, the Sisco-Little system, and Cruentus' tip, we are sure to reach the goal. We'll be busting them out like we are in the Regiment by Christmas time (or whatever other "winter solstice" event is applicable for any user).

When we gather with friends that we don't see often, and we swap stories, and catch up, and everyone wonders what we've been up to, we can demonstrate -- hehe, "Let me take just a second and bust out 100 pushups here, dudes!" Whew!

Also, the Sisco-Little discussion above makes me think of something that I saw on the youtube site the other day. It was a video of Bruce Lee. It showed him punch a man from only 2 inches. Though it was only two inches from the man, the man fell right down!

Haha -- later it showed Bruce Lee do a skipping side kick into a padded shield held up by a partner. The partner went flying. The guy said that when Bruce Lee kicked you in that way, it felt as if you had been hit by a car!

Okay, we have been given good insight, into good training methods, now all we have to do is hunker down and execute!



:shooter:

And regarding knuckle pushups, yes, of course. I will do the knuckle pushups as well. That way, I will have load-bearing on the arm similiar to a punch.

And yes, the Marine guys I know, they told me, to make the push-up correct, the stomach has to hit the ground. If you wish to impress the military friends, you have to do it that way.




Thanks,

Robert

 

[Zakonax]

Hello all!

One of my first posts here, and i'd like to also say, i'm going to jump on this bandwagon! will be good to keep each other updated with progress.

I haven't done the "test" yet, but I believe I can do about 25 full "military style" pushups in one go.

100 pushups on Christmas Day morning! that's a good target!!

 

[exile]

The Unofficial MartialTalk Pushup Club seems to be well and truly launched!

There's a neat payoff here: everyone who can do 100 good-form pushups on Christmas day can then set their New Year's resolution for 2008 to do 101 pushups. And when people ask you what your New Year's resolution is, you can really impress them by telling them that, and it will be the literal truth... and then you can add the extra pushup to the 100 you know you can do, on January 1st, and you'll be honorably done with it for the rest of the year! :lol:

 

[newGuy12]

Yes, we can put benchmarks in this thread as well, as we see fit to. I just did 9, but they were good form. I maxed out at 16 in class Thursday. Perhaps being new there is a great variance in how many I can do?

Nonetheless, its 9 good ones for me tonight, that's my starting point -- 9 good ones.

knuckles -- on the concrete driveway, "oldschool style"!!!



:viking3:

 

[still learning]

Hello, Great article....Thank-you for sharing this 100 push-ups excerise program.

It seems to make alot of sense.

Just wondering if we should full up and down style? or short burst style?

I would think army style of full up and down will be the most benifical?
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Every heard of the "Judo God" Masahiko Kimura? He was unbeatable in JUDO pre-world war 2, He use do 900 push-ups a day, everyday. If you can a chance please learn and read about him?

For myself.....may I join the band wagon too? ....we do push-ups in every class and we do add varietions of it too....

Aloha and thank-you for sharing!

 

[newGuy12]

I would think army style of full up and down will be the most benifical?

Full up and down, no cheating. They will be proper style. That is my choice, anyway. And, of course, once we get power doing that we can vary the style to exercise the arms in different ways!

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Right! That's just the motivation I needed then.

Count me in.

HOOah!

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

O.K....

If there is anything I'll admit to being a "master" at, it's pushups.

Last time I had someone else test me, I did 105 in 2 minutes TO MILITARY STANDARD. It's those last 3 words that make the difference, because I can do at least 250 (not in 2 minutes, but w/o stopping) but not nessicarily to military standard. Doing it to military standard with someone else (one of my military friends in my case, so that is how I know) counting and timing makes things much more difficult (btw, Rich Parson's can probably vouch for my integrity on this one).

So... how'd I do it?

I am sure that there are different ways of achieving the same goal, but I'll let you in on how I did it.

Start w/ doing as many as you can do to perfect standard. Focus on speed, touching the ground with your chest, and locking your arms all the way. Many people think that they are doing puchups with good form, but I find that they are often wrong. So don't cheat yourself.

So, let's say that you do 30 with good form, and your spent. Force out 10 more with questionable form, then stop. If ya drop, ya drop, but try not to.

Rest for 2-5 minutes or so. Then do another set the same; 30 good form plus 10 questionable. You will fatigue much faster on the second set, so you can go into a rest position. A rest position is where you stay up, but you can sag in the middle, or arch your back (I prefer arch) to rest, and you can alternate weight on either hand, but try not to completely lift your palms from the ground.

Then rest again, and do one last set the same as above.

Do this every other day. But, each time you do it, look to increase your "perfect form" pushups my one rep. So, in the said example, you would do 31 instead of 30 perfect form per set.

You will reach a point when your body will adapt to the exercise, and you will feel like you can increase by more then one rep. So, in a few days, you might be doing 35 reps perfect, feeling like you could do 5 more. Go ahead and do them. Then, next time, increase by 1 rep again from your previous increase (so, 41 reps perfect).

Keep doing this, and if you are relatively fit you should reach your goal long before Christmas.

2 things to remember; this is at least as much mental as it is physical. You will reach a point where you feel like you "can't" do 1 more rep then what you did last session. That's Bull. You can, it's just a mental barrier that you need to overcome. Last, don't neglect speed. Don't sacrifice form, but speed is what will enable you to reach your goal.

Cool. Have fun!

:cheers:

Like Paul I do Push Ups all the time. Cruentus advice above is good and sound. Really it is just a matter of getting down and doing them and attempting to add 5 to 10 more each week. (depending on your conditioning) Also multiple sets are a definite plus and will make you progress easier. Mental strength as always is important!!!

 

[Kacey]

Any martial arts student should be able to drop down and rip them out, so here we go.

I wish you all luck - a lumbar sprain and push-ups don't really go together, at least not until it heals some more, so I won't be joining you in this - although I do think it's a great goal - but I have to ask why you think any MA student should be able to make this particular goal? I mean, I can see uses for it - but we've never done more than 50, and only rarely more than 25 in class, so I'm not sure where you're getting this from.

 

[newGuy12]

I wish you all luck - a lumbar sprain and push-ups don't really go together, at least not until it heals some more, so I won't be joining you in this - although I do think it's a great goal - but I have to ask why you think any MA student should be able to make this particular goal? I mean, I can see uses for it - but we've never done more than 50, and only rarely more than 25 in class, so I'm not sure where you're getting this from.

I hope your back feels better soon, Kacey, and, to tell you the truth, I have no idea where I get the idea that 100 pushups is such a good number, it just seems like a good goal, even if it is a little big.

Nonetheless, here we go. We've plotted our course, and now we set sail! With a crew like this, we cannot be beaten. As we get to the high seas, there may be troubles. We may see "pirates" of laziness, discouragement, distractions, and so on come up to greet us, but we won't be stopped.

We will fill the sails with air, bring the vessel around to flank the pirate ship, and then...

BAM!!! --> Right in the bow!!!

We will look to Legendary Judoka Masahiko Kimura, who even defeated the great Helio Gracie. He would not be deterred.

Like Brian R. VanCise said, we will exercise the MIND as well as the body with this, pushing ourselves to progress!

I will keep logs here:
pushup_log
and
here:
weight_log





:xwing: