Cold hands, sore arms

It’s the end of week one of the hundred push-up challenge and time for an update. The good news is that I completed everything I was supposed to, so currently on track with it. 

If you’re not aware, the hundred push-up challenge is a six week incremental training programme, which should prepare you to complete the challenge at the end of it. There are three workouts each week, and each workout consists of five sets. The format is typically the second set is higher than the first; the third and fourth sets are the same lower number; the fifth set is pretty much do as many as you can.

So how has the week gone? First of all, I managed a total of 174 push ups this week over the three days. That seems a great start. On day one I felt my form was a little off at the beginning so made sure I was concentrating on doing push-ups correctly, rather than semi-formed ones that could end up causing me problems in the longer challenge. 

On Wednesday, my day two, I found my pectorals were still a bit sore from the Monday workout but I managed to complete the five sets, and by today, day three, I was feeling good again. The last workout was challenging but doable and I made the mistake of looking at the numbers for week two when I’d finished. Looks like the challenge is going to be a bit of a steep curve up to the hundred!

For anyone else following the challenge I’d love to hear how you’ve been getting on and also hear your thoughts going into the next week(s) too.

(Not) Being pushy, an update

I wrote on Friday about the hundred push-up challenge I’d decided to start. Today was day one of the challenge for me so I wanted to give a quick update for the others who have also said they’d take this on with me.

The challenge has three workouts each week, my plan is to do these every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ll then post an update of how I got on for the week after the last session on the Friday and anyone who is taking part can post progress in the comments too (should you want to).

Spoiler alert, the first workout today went well. There’s no backing out of the challenge for me just yet!

Being pushy again

Push-ups or press-ups? I’d call them press-ups, but overall I think I’m in a massive minority worldwide. Let’s call them push-ups for now and not fret too much over the old potato-potato argument. 

Why are we talking push-ups? Many years ago I became aware of the hundred push-ups challenge, a program spanning six weeks that builds you up to completing one hundred push-ups in one go. For whatever reason, my brain decided to remember that fact this week and I’ve been reminding myself of what’s involved to get there. 

The hundredpushups.com website shows the steps and how the weeks break down. First, get your current level of push-up-ness through the initial test: do as many as you can before you collapse in a heap. I managed about twenty-five, but then re-read the instructions and they’re supposed to be “good form” push-ups. After watching a youtube video on how to do a push-up properly, I need to go back and do this again. Apparently you’re supposed to get reasonably near the floor, not just hover about in the top position and wobble up and down a bit. 

Over the course of six weeks the program takes you through three workouts a week, with five sets of push-ups, incrementally increasing over time. There’s a second exhaustion test halfway through where you can check on your progress and see how you’re improving, or not. The beauty of how the program works is that if you find it’s getting too tough then you can just repeat a week to build up strength and confidence.

This looks like a great challenge to take on and a good method to get to the hundred push-up goal. So the question is: has anyone completed this challenge before and if so, was it worth it? And secondly – does anyone want to join me in this challenge and see if we can do it together? If you’re in, first push-up workout is on Monday!