100 pushups by Christmas

[lkblair]

If it makes anyone feel better, I'm at 0 good form ones. I'm coming off a dislocated shoulder injury, and it has set me back much further than I ever would've imagined! I've never been stellar at push-ups, but this is ridiculous! Nevertheless, I will be joining you. I need to get back up to speed before my 2nd level brown belt test in early spring.

Now, can I do a similar program for sit-ups? I've maxed out at 40 decent sit-ups and really have to push to get my last 10. I'd like to get to the point where the 50 is easy so I'm not worn out just from that.

Let the fun begin!

Lisa

 

[newGuy12]

Now, can I do a similar program for sit-ups? I've maxed out at 40 decent sit-ups and really have to push to get my last 10. I'd like to get to the point where the 50 is easy so I'm not worn out just from that.

Let the fun begin!

Lisa

Wh00-h00!

Sure 'Nuf! Count yourself IN! Those with injuries can substitute other motions. Besides, a well developed abdominal area will allow one to take a good punch there, won't it?

We are going to get some progress going, and success breeds success, does it not? We are going to nail this thing like my man Elvis Costello nails down music!

And remember, I am the weakest among you, so don't anyone feel badly about where they start. Its the journey, and, we are on it!




Thankful for this virtual group,

Robert

 

[Andy Moynihan]

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!

Military standard--Full up and down, feet at a 45 degree angle( forward, not sideways as in touching heels), thumbs along the hand.

Well that's how I'm gonna do 'em anyway.

 

[howard]

Hi,

I have a couple of questions:

What exactly is the physical conditioning goal of being able to do 100 proper pushups in one go?

Is it to improve endurance? To improve strength? Or something else?


With respect to the arts, will being able to do 100 pushups improve any particular aspect of your MA performance?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Hi,

I have a couple of questions:

What exactly is the physical conditioning goal of being able to do 100 proper pushups in one go?

Is it to improve endurance? To improve strength? Or something else?


With respect to the arts, will being able to do 100 pushups improve any particular aspect of your MA performance?

Thanks in advance.

In my case, it will help break me of my habit of not working out on a regular basis which has gone on far too long. If you aren't healthy, it won't matter *what* you train in, you won't use it to its best.

It will also bring back the muscular endurance to my arms, chest and torso which will aid my upper body techniques.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

Right. I suck. But that was to be expected. I've been out of this too long.

9/29/07--29 *correct* pushups( i could have gone one but form would have suffered).

If we're goin' byt the website chart thing it looks like I'm starting on that week 3 part.

(grumbles about how 10 years ago he used to do 2 sets of 50 back to back).

 

[MantisStyle21]

Alright count me in!! I'm fairly skinny armed and I'm tired of it! =]

 

[exile]

Alright count me in!! I'm fairly skinny armed and I'm tired of it! =]

For arms, MS21, I'm not sure you'll make major advances with pushups, though these will work your triceps to a small extent. But there are more effective, targetted biceps/triceps exercises you can work on.

 

[still learning]

Hello, The push-up routines are great.....you may want add this too it!

Instead of resting for one minute? ....use this time for squats....bend knees to level position, ( start like the push-up routines and add on).

Rotating between push-ups and squats....working the arms and legs.

This will improves your punches and kicks.

LETS ...not make these routines too hard....start slow and build up...

Aloha

 

[PictonMA]

The July 2006 edition of Black Belt magazine had Part 1 of feature on Masahiko Kimura - part of which outlined his work ethic and insane number of pushups (amongst other things) that he used to do.

This motivated me to see how quickly I could get to 100 consecutive pushups and how many consecutive days I could go of doing in excess of 100pushups.

Starting at 70pushup (elbows in against ribcage, full extension to chest briefly touching the ground) it took me a couple of weeks to get to 100 consecutive - I would do as many as I could initially (they had to be good / decent form) in a row and then allow as brief a rest period as possible before continuing to 100.

I managed to make it until just after Jan 2007 before starting to slackoff and not do this every day - I'm going to take it up again.

To answer the reason why do this - I will quote my teacher "Develop the musculature to suppor the movement." You want to punch someone - pushups are one way to develop that power, provided they are quality pushups and not wide grip lazy pushups that don't require full extension etc.

 

[newGuy12]

Okay, here we are. Tomorrow is the first day of October. I have heard that it takes about 28 days to make something into a habit. So, if we do this for every day of October, then it will become habitual. So, let the habit form for us...

Now, for those of you who care about military standards, I have found that there is an "authorized rest position" that you can assume while you are doing your pushups. This is demonstrated in the following video:

You will see that the man giving this instruction is a member of the armed forces, and very muscly looking, very tough looking, he should know what he is talking about.

Also, I will also be doing the Yoga poses in the morning time beginning tomorrow to "beam up". You see, I have a bad habit -- I smoke cigarettes. That's right, and I want to kick. Now, it is too much for me, but, that's okay, I know a secret -- the "Power Tool". That's the yoga poses. I have a book by a guru. He said, "Just do the poses, don't pay any attention to the abstinences (avoidances) or dietary concerns. As you become aware of your body, with these poses, the bad habits will fall away."

So, I will be doing the yoga in the morning, mindfully, paying good attention to what I do, in the present moment, aware.

It is safe for me to do this, because I do not care for psychic powers or paranormal experiences, I only wish for a better life.

Wish me luck as tomorrow morning comes. ---- OH, poor Robert does not wish to get out of bed to do the poses, oh, poor thing, oh...

Well, too bad. That's just too bad, because if I wish to reap the benefits, then I must rise up 30 minutes earlier and to the poses, period.

---------------------------------------------
Oh, and, the open hand and the fist -- the Warrior & the Scholar. Hmm... also, it means "Hatha" -- the Sun & the Moon. Hmmm!!!

Namaste, Fellow Travelers, and may Goodness be in your Path all day long today!!!



Robert

 

[masherdong]

Someone issued me a challenge to do 85 pushups in 2 minutes. I think I am almost there. I can do about 45-50 in a minute so, I am getting there! Next, will be to do 120 in 2 minutes!!

 

[Laurentkd]

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!

Makes sense sir!
But then what do you think about doing pushups during the week? Will this allow enough recovery or should it be either pushups during the week or your bench press?

edit: by the way, I am in on you guys with this one. I have always felt pushup were my biggest weak point, I am excited to get on the train!

 

[benj13bowlin]

In basic training we had several people that couldn't pass the PT test (42+ pushups in 2 minutes to pass) and we made them drop every hour on the hour and do 5-10 pushups. One guy couldn't even do 10 straight when we started him on it and in less than a month he was able to pass the PT test easily.

I managed just under 50 last night, so I will jump on the wagon with you guys. Surely we can hit 100 in 12 weeks.

 

[DAP]

I can do about 30-40 push ups as of today. I am in for training to be able to do a 100 by Christmas!

 

[exile]

Makes sense sir!
But then what do you think about doing pushups during the week? Will this allow enough recovery or should it be either pushups during the week or your bench press?

edit: by the way, I am in on you guys with this one. I have always felt pushup were my biggest weak point, I am excited to get on the train!

Hi Lauren—well, the thing about pushups is, they don't really stress your resources all that much because, if you think about it, it's kind of like doing a bench press with your own body weight. So even going full range reps, for me a pushup would be nothing more than a 180lb bench press, which isn't going to be taxing enough to require much recovery time. The thing is, though, that if you do a large number of benches every day, you will tire yourself out, but since you're restricted in the resistence you use to your own bodyweight, you aren't forcing your body to generate new muscle tissue; what you're doing is increasing muscle endurance, not explosive strength (which is where the real gain in muscle tissue comes from). Increasing muscle endurance has been shown repeatedly to not entail muscle growth; instead, you in effect train your muscle biochemistry to handle lactic acid buildup more effectively (tolerate higher concentrations and eliminate lactic acid concentrations more quickly, so you don't feel a burn nearly as much from a give number of reps at a given weight). To increase muscle strength (and size, i.e., change your body composition to a greater % of muscle wrt total body weight), you need to activate the maximal number of motor units available and keep them occupied for enough time that the body registers an amount of discomfort sufficient to trigger new muscle growth (in much the same way that continued irritation of your skin will result in the formation of a callous). Since, these days, because of the time I lost recovering from a fairly bad weightlifting accident a couple of years ago, my maximum bench press weight is just under 300lbs, no amount of lifting 180lbs is going to put enough strain on my neuromotor pool to call for new muscle growth, even if I train pushups with my feet resting on a bench, hence higher than my head in starting position, which is more demanding than if they rest on the floor.

One thing you can do, if you have a small child available, is get them to sit on your back while you do pushups; this will definitely add some serious extra strength demands to your workout. I used to do this with my son back in the days when I couldn't get to a gym with a power rack; the problem is, when they get to a certain size, they weigh enough that having them sitting on your back is definitely not good for your spine. But think of it this way: if you can do 50 pushups in good form with a 30lb child sitting on your back, you'll have no problems knocking out 100 in one go when there's not extra weight!

One other note: someone, I think it was on another thread somewhere, was advocating lifting as a substitute for aerobic activity to burn fat, on the grounds that muscle fibers are always vibrating slightly and therefore over the course of a day burn enough calories to eliminate significant body fat. I just wanted to mention, because it's been bothering me ever since I saw that post, that it's unfortunately not true: a lb. of lean muscle tissue burns around 10–13 calories per day. The chap here does the math for you:

Consider a man, 175 pounds and 10% body fat. This man has 157.5 pounds of lean body mass, and he has a resting metabolic rate of 2178 calories a day. Now, suppose this man wishes to lose one pound of body fat. Let’s compare how he does it using the two methods described above.

With Method A, the man begins his muscle-building program and manages to gain one pound of fat-free bodyweight in one week, increasing his lean body mass by one pound of extra muscle. He continues this for a total of 10 weeks, and he gains a total of 10 pounds of muscle. His body now burns about 130 additional calories a day. At this point, if this man does not increase his initial daily maintenance calorie intake by 130 calories, he will lose 910 calories from body fat in a week. At this rate of body fat loss, it will take him about 27 days to lose a pound of body fat. So, the grand total for the amount of time it takes him to lose one pound of body fat is 10 weeks plus 27 days, which equals about 3.5 months! And, this assumes he didn’t gain any extra body fat while gaining muscle.

With Method B, this man could lose the same amount of body fat in a few days simply by reducing his daily maintenance calorie intake by 500 calories, and increasing his daily calorie expenditures by 500 calories.​

It's actually fairly optimistic to think one can add a lb of lean muscle in a week; if it were that easy, people would be able to add 52 lbs of pure muscle tissue in a year of conscientious exercise, whereas for most chemically unenhanced folk, a gain of 10 lbs of lean muscle mass in a year is a major victory. So the case is even worse than the writer assumes for using mucle growth as a substitute for aerobic excercise, especially high intensity aerobic exercise based on interval training. The ideal combination is a high intensity weight traning program combined with a high intensity, interval-based aerobic program: both are vastly more efficient ways to reach your muscle increase/fat loss goals than conventional programs. Their disadvantage is that high-intensity programs are not very pleasant, and therefore they're pretty hard on morale, and that gets worse the longer you do them, not easier. You have to focus on the results you want to achieve and keep telling yourself, it'll all be over in twenty minutes or whatever....

 

[newGuy12]

Their disadvantage is that high-intensity programs are not very pleasant

Unless, of course, it is the Martial Arts!

 

[Carol]

Well...I had a very sucky weekend due to some stupid RL stuff. But, I did start talking about the 100 pushups idea with a colleague of mine. We played off the idea and decided to do a friendly challenge amongst ourselves with the pushups and other areas of working out (we aren't competitive at all....oh no...LOL!)

I dusted off my unused blog and started to take a log of everything.

All I can say is...that 100 pushups guy knows what he's talking about, that's for sure.

 

[meth18au]

Hi Lauren—well, the thing about pushups is, they don't really stress your resources all that much because, if you think about it, it's kind of like doing a bench press with your own body weight. So even going full range reps, for me a pushup would be nothing more than a 180lb bench press, which isn't going to be taxing enough to require much recovery time. The thing is, though, that if you do a large number of benches every day, you will tire yourself out, but since you're restricted in the resistence you use to your own bodyweight, you aren't forcing your body to generate new muscle tissue; what you're doing is increasing muscle endurance, not explosive strength (which is where the real gain in muscle tissue comes from).

Just to veer slightly off topic- a question for exile. So do push ups not totally obliterate the pectorals in the way a chest workout (with weights) would? It took me a very long time to do push ups properly during class. I would avoid putting too much strain on the pecs during them- and I did this all on purpose!!! I was always worried about over training the pectorals, and preferred to focus on it's development through my chest workout about halfway through the week. Then at the tail end of the week (after the chest workout) I would avoid putting any strain at all on the pecs during pushups, for fear of undoing my hard work with the weights.


I am not so bad now, but I always feel like I shouldn't be doing so many pushups in addition to to a chest workout each week!!! But I just give them all I have now, and love them!!!


As for the 100 pushups by XMas. Very possible! Although I've never counted my max. I know I can do 60 in a row. I accept the challenge to add 40 more!!!

 

[Laurentkd]

Hi Lauren—well, the thing about pushups is, they don't really stress your resources all that much because, if you think about it, it's kind of like doing a bench press with your own body weight. So even going full range reps, for me a pushup would be nothing more than a 180lb bench press, which isn't going to be taxing enough to require much recovery time. The thing is, though, that if you do a large number of benches every day, you will tire yourself out, but since you're restricted in the resistence you use to your own bodyweight, you aren't forcing your body to generate new muscle tissue; what you're doing is increasing muscle endurance, not explosive strength (which is where the real gain in muscle tissue comes from). Increasing muscle endurance has been shown repeatedly to not entail muscle growth; instead, you in effect train your muscle biochemistry to handle lactic acid buildup more effectively (tolerate higher concentrations and eliminate lactic acid concentrations more quickly, so you don't feel a burn nearly as much from a give number of reps at a given weight). To increase muscle strength (and size, i.e., change your body composition to a ....

Ahhh riiiight! I tell you what, I have only been out of college for going on three years and already I know I am losing some of these concepts. I am glad you are here sir to keep me refreshed!