Hundred Pushups Challenge for 2009! (January)

cp005e

Nice going, everybody! :drinker: And MM - that is awesome that you are still at 50 after a few weeks off. You'd better hang on to the shirt - I am thinking that you will right back where you were in no time!

Marla64

Hey gang-- way to go, Melissa-- you're incredible-- !!!!!!

I did level one, Week four tonight-- pant pant !!

12
14
11
10
16

My arms are spaghetti-- but I did it, by jove!!

DelTonious_Max

Great job guys in pushing out those push-ups.

Now for those who are a little intimidated by the thought of many a push-up. I saw the invite/challenge and thought, oh yeah I'm in on this one. I can do 5 (or at least 3). Initial Test; I get on the floor, body nice and straight, whooo whooo, down and puuuussshhh---uuuu...... ok, wait..... again, puuuuusshhhh-uuu..... ok, wait...... on the knee's. There we go - much better. Cheating? Well I'm still feeling tightening in the lower abs so they must work as well on the knee's. Week 1 day 2 (on the knee's) and will do this for a couple weeks and try the full form push-up again. As the belly goes away.

Morale of my story; be encouraged my fellow 3 or 4er's. Doing a few is better than none and we will get to a hundred. :bigsmile:

Hannah_Banana

I started this mid Dec but never posted. :blushing: I've been on and off since then, so I am only on Week 2 Level 2. :ohwell: However, I can already feel a difference in my strength! When I started I had a hard time doing 6, now I can do 11 no problem. :bigsmile: And... my muscles hurt so good!:drinker:

RunningRachel

Thanks... I will *try* it. My only problem is that my wrist is weak (childhood injury) and it hinders me from doing many . Hopefully this training will help strengthen everything (including my wrist) :happy:

I had surgery on my wrist from an injury about 2 years ago... I still have issues with it but you might try a repositioning of your hand... it wont be "by the book" but I am up to 50 push ups before I start to feel that I need to stop. At one point it was 5

Thanks for your tips. I actually (day2) used my DHs push up bars... they are amazing. My wrist did not hurt at all... however my core and pecks were still sore from day 1!! :ohwell:

Wynnie

I made it through week one, using column 3.

Question - when it says MAX for the last set, do you do more than the "at least" number they give you? I'm finding that I only do maybe 1 or 2 more. Does that mean I should repeat week one?

Oh - and PS - what are the DH pushup bars??

Marla64

Great job guys in pushing out those push-ups.

Now for those who are a little intimidated by the thought of many a push-up. I saw the invite/challenge and thought, oh yeah I'm in on this one. I can do 5 (or at least 3). Initial Test; I get on the floor, body nice and straight, whooo whooo, down and puuuussshhh---uuuu...... ok, wait..... again, puuuuusshhhh-uuu..... ok, wait...... on the knee's. There we go - much better. Cheating? Well I'm still feeling tightening in the lower abs so they must work as well on the knee's. Week 1 day 2 (on the knee's) and will do this for a couple weeks and try the full form push-up again. As the belly goes away.

Morale of my story; be encouraged my fellow 3 or 4er's. Doing a few is better than none and we will get to a hundred. :bigsmile:

Okay-- this post made me giggle-- "Ok, wait-- " hee-- excellent moral to your story-- keep going!!!

cp005e

Wynnie - if you can do the minimum on that last set, you are fine. You are just trying to do as many as possible at that point - which is usually tough considering you just finished all those other sets!

I did Week 6, day 3 on level 3 last night:

1&2:26
3&4: 32
5&6: 26
7&8: 22
9: (min 60) Again, I start losing count on these long sets, and I count by tens, so... I either did 84 or 74. :embarassed: I think I am getting the higher number, but then I'm like 'wait, did I count the 60s?'

Great job, everyone! :bigsmile:

keiko

Godd Morning to all the Challengers! I hope no one is to sore today! I have to say that the first week was the worse for soreness after. Now on week three, I'm sore but nothing like that first week. This is just the kind that makes it feel good because you know you did something. Not the kind that makes you want to never do it again!

So today was week 3, day 2, level 1
10
12
8
8
at least 12, I did 15 YEAH!! it feels good that I could do a couple extra!

Hope you all have a great day!

Forpar

Just got on the site this morning and found this post. Y'all are an inspirational bunch. Hope you don't mind if I join. Thanks cp005e for starting this.

Keep up the good work!

keiko

Hey Forpar, the more the merrier! I hope you enjoy not just the push up challenge but all of MFP. Oh and there's a sit up challenge to if your interested!

supermom1114

So I did Week 1 Day 2 Level 2 today
6
8
6
6
Max(at least 7) 20!!!

I can really see already how this helps, I can actually go down all the way and keep my form, I cant wait to be doing 100!!

mechanicmom

Okay, a little more out of shape than I thought. lol
Week 5 day 2 level 2, was pushing it. I managed but I didn't get that low on the last set and that was after a two minute break. I will be repeating this week and maybe this level. My wrists are hurting too so I must have built them up before. I will get there again!
Now off to sit ups. I'm still sore from Monday! But I'm moving up a level anyway!
MM

Marla64

Okay, a little more out of shape than I thought. lol
Week 5 day 2 level 2, was pushing it. I managed but I didn't get that low on the last set and that was after a two minute break. I will be repeating this week and maybe this level. My wrists are hurting too so I must have built them up before. I will get there again!
Now off to sit ups. I'm still sore from Monday! But I'm moving up a level anyway!
MM

Just take it slow, woman-- you're doing great.

Forpar

Hey Forpar, the more the merrier! I hope you enjoy not just the push up challenge but all of MFP. Oh and there's a sit up challenge to if your interested!

Hey keiko:
Thanks for the welcome.
I'm trying for the time being to stay away from 6-packs, so I'll pass on the sit up challenge for now.
I did 35 pushups this morning, which I think puts me in the neighborhood of level 58 ... or am I thinking about my age?

cp005e

Welcome, Forpar! You did 35 pushups already? :noway: That's awesome. I think you might get to jump ahead to week 3 to start.

I'd love to do the sit-up program but I'm going to have to come back to it - I've got just enough on my plate right now. Kudos to all of you who are doing both.

You are all doing great. It's so cool to see people joining up and starting to see progress after just a week or two. Keep it up! :drinker:

cp005e

I thought some of you might find this newsletter I got from Jillian Michaels' website this morning interesting - it's all about pushups! I thought the last point about how foot distance affects the difficulty - maybe I should put my feet farther apart.

Don't Get Too Comfortable

Remember when you started working out, how you couldn't do 5 consecutive push-ups without collapsing? Now that you've been training for a while, you can do sets of 10 without even breaking a sweat. Feels good, right? Well, maybe it feels a little too good. It might be time to push yourself a little — by doing some push-up variations to further train the chest, triceps, and shoulders.

Here are two advanced push-ups to add to your repertoire:

Plyo Push-up
Start in your usual push-up position. Slowly lower yourself to the floor. With an explosive burst, exhale and push yourself up, bringing your hands off the floor and clapping them together. Land in the push-up position and repeat. The plyometric push-up increases muscle power by adding some additional difficulty to the regular push-up.

Close-Grip Push-up
Start in a push-up position but keep your hands directly under your shoulders instead of outside your chest. Your legs should be extended straight out behind you, your feet slightly apart, so you are balancing on your palms and the balls of your feet. Keep your elbows pressed firmly against your torso as you slowly lower yourself down. Exhale, press back up to the starting position, and repeat. This close-grip push-up places more emphasis on your anterior shoulders and triceps as well as your chest.

JILLIAN'S TIP OF THE DAY
Challenging Yourself From Your Feet on Up
Another factor to consider when you vary your intensity level is your "base." This refers to the way in which you plant your feet on the floor. A wide base — placing your feet wide apart — helps stabilize your body. Working through an exercise with a wide base makes it easier to maintain form throughout reps. A narrow base, on the other hand — placing the feet together — makes any exercise more difficult, because your core and other muscle groups have to work harder to maintain a neutral body position.

Marla64

hey-- did my week four, level one, day two before bed last night--

14
16
12
12
14-- couldn't get to 18-- pant pant.

:yawn:

keiko

Good Morning!
Today was week 3, day 3, level 1
11
13
9
9
at least 13 and I made it 15. YEAH ME! I'm happy I did another week

Hope you all have a nice Friday and weekend:flowerforyou:

Forpar

Great job everybody.
Today was day 1 for me - starting with the week 3 workout:
14
18
14
14
and finally 17 - couldn't do 20.
Maybe I should have done the pushups BEFORE doing the Biggest Loser cardio workout(?)