Too much progression w/ 100 Push-up program?

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zyxst
zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
http://hundredpushups.com/ That's the program I'm talking about. I'm doing the first column numbers. I've been doing it for 6 weeks, had to repeat week 5, and today I added up how many push-ups I did (minimum) - 120. I get that the program wants me to progress, get stronger, do more, but why call it 100 push-ups when it's telling me to do a lot more than that (week 6 end is 170 minimum)? It's difficult for me to understand because the lowest level is extremely challenging for me. I feel, is 'cheated' the right word?, now that I know I've been doing more than is required, yet I'm expected to do more.

Eh, maybe I'm not the sort of person who can deal with this type of program. I'm happy about the strength gains from it and I'll continue the week 5 numbers.

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  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
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    I thought the point of this program was to get to a point where you could do 100 pushups without stopping? I'm pretty damn happy being able to do 10 in a row with good form...
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
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    Right, the idea is to get to the point where you can do 100 in a row. If one week is too difficult it's a good idea to repeat the previous one until you can manage the next one, nothing wrong with that.
  • Espressocycle
    Espressocycle Posts: 2,245 Member
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    You beat the game, you saved the princess. Now it's time to do something else harder.
    maxresdefault.jpg
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    extra_medium wrote: »
    Right, the idea is to get to the point where you can do 100 in a row. If one week is too difficult it's a good idea to repeat the previous one until you can manage the next one, nothing wrong with that.

    I've mostly gotten over my frustration with needing to repeat a week. I just don't understand why it is telling me to do 120+ push-ups when it's about 100. Unless the creator believes doing 70 more push-ups with breaks will get me to do 100 without breaks, which makes not a lot of sense to me.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    Espressocycle wrote: »
    You beat the game, you saved the princess. Now it's time to do something else harder.
    maxresdefault.jpg

    I have 1 more week to go.
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  • thesupremeforce
    thesupremeforce Posts: 1,207 Member
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    That's how progression works. The system got me to 100 push-ups in one go. You're not going to be able to do a lot of reps at something at once without doing a lot of reps.
    It's the same reason why I'm pumping out 50+ pull-ups during trips to the gym in an attempt to hit 20 at once.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    thesupremeforce wrote: »
    That's how progression works. The system got me to 100 push-ups in one go. You're not going to be able to do a lot of reps at something at once without doing a lot of reps.
    It's the same reason why I'm pumping out 50+ pull-ups during trips to the gym in an attempt to hit 20 at once.

    You're saying I need to do 170+ push-ups in order to be able to to 100, right? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would I do 70 more when I did the goal of 100? That's not "I did 100, so let me keep adding to that" but "I need to to 170 before I can do 100". The latter is what I don't understand. Progression, yes, that I get, but not doing more than necessary in order to get to the goal.
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
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    If the goal is 100 at one time, you need to build endurance somehow. In this case, the program has you do more than 100 pushups split across multiple sets with the goal of increasing how many pushups you can do in one set. You *could* just keep adding on a pushup or two each time until you do 100, but that will take a lot longer than increasing your pushup volume overall. I'd liken it to someone doing a walk/run program for 2 miles until they can run the first mile - they will probably get to a point where they can run a full mile faster than if they just kept trying to run 15 seconds longer each time and stopped when they couldn't run anymore.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    zyxst wrote: »
    thesupremeforce wrote: »
    That's how progression works. The system got me to 100 push-ups in one go. You're not going to be able to do a lot of reps at something at once without doing a lot of reps.
    It's the same reason why I'm pumping out 50+ pull-ups during trips to the gym in an attempt to hit 20 at once.

    You're saying I need to do 170+ push-ups in order to be able to to 100, right? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would I do 70 more when I did the goal of 100? That's not "I did 100, so let me keep adding to that" but "I need to to 170 before I can do 100". The latter is what I don't understand. Progression, yes, that I get, but not doing more than necessary in order to get to the goal.

    The program is using volume to give you progression - rather than overload.
    The volume of the multitude of sets gives you strength endurance too.

    Just beware that under recovery can be an issue with this type of challenge, it aggravated my old joint injuries and I had to reduce the weekly volume and space out the workouts more when I did it.
  • questionfear
    questionfear Posts: 527 Member
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    What's your end goal with the program? Is it to get stronger, do the 100 pushups, or something else? Just curious.
  • RollTideTri
    RollTideTri Posts: 116 Member
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    zyxst wrote: »
    thesupremeforce wrote: »
    That's how progression works. The system got me to 100 push-ups in one go. You're not going to be able to do a lot of reps at something at once without doing a lot of reps.
    It's the same reason why I'm pumping out 50+ pull-ups during trips to the gym in an attempt to hit 20 at once.

    You're saying I need to do 170+ push-ups in order to be able to to 100, right? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would I do 70 more when I did the goal of 100? That's not "I did 100, so let me keep adding to that" but "I need to to 170 before I can do 100". The latter is what I don't understand. Progression, yes, that I get, but not doing more than necessary in order to get to the goal.

    The idea is to build up to 100 in a row without stopping. That's very different than 170 broken up into sets. Think about it, I could do 200 pushups right now, no problem, without even training. I'll just do 20 per hour for the next 10 hours. ;)

    The smaller sets get longer and longer until you can do 100 at once. If you aren't interested in that goal, you can move on to some other training program. If you are, trust the program. This set method has been proven to work over many decades with all kinds of strength training.
  • wonko221
    wonko221 Posts: 292 Member
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    zyxst wrote: »
    thesupremeforce wrote: »
    That's how progression works. The system got me to 100 push-ups in one go. You're not going to be able to do a lot of reps at something at once without doing a lot of reps.
    It's the same reason why I'm pumping out 50+ pull-ups during trips to the gym in an attempt to hit 20 at once.

    You're saying I need to do 170+ push-ups in order to be able to to 100, right? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would I do 70 more when I did the goal of 100? That's not "I did 100, so let me keep adding to that" but "I need to to 170 before I can do 100". The latter is what I don't understand. Progression, yes, that I get, but not doing more than necessary in order to get to the goal.

    The goal is to be able to do 100 push-ups in a single step. If i understand correctly, you're able to do 170 push-ups in a work-out, but you're not doing them in the same step. I wanted to run a 5k. I could easily claim that all my steps from home to work, or moving about the office, etc., count toward training. But is "achieving enough steps for a 5k throughout the day" the same as "running a 5k?"

    My suggestion to you:
    1. get your goal clear in your mind. Did you start this program to do 100 push-ups in a single set? Or to do 100 during a workout?

    2. If you want to do 100 in a single set, then do it. if you fall short, i'd recommend sticking to the program, incrementally building up to where you can do 100 in a single set, even though that means doing several smaller sets during each workout which, cumulatively, means you're doing more than 100 during a workout.
  • jessef593
    jessef593 Posts: 2,272 Member
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    It's all about building up the amount of push-ups you can do in each set, are you doing full push-ups or only half ones? If it becomes too easy for you, count to 3 on your way up, then 3 on your way down. Nice and slow, I can promise it'll cut the number you can do in half. Are you doing any other exercises besides doing push-ups?
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    zyxst wrote: »
    thesupremeforce wrote: »
    That's how progression works. The system got me to 100 push-ups in one go. You're not going to be able to do a lot of reps at something at once without doing a lot of reps.
    It's the same reason why I'm pumping out 50+ pull-ups during trips to the gym in an attempt to hit 20 at once.

    You're saying I need to do 170+ push-ups in order to be able to to 100, right? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would I do 70 more when I did the goal of 100? That's not "I did 100, so let me keep adding to that" but "I need to to 170 before I can do 100". The latter is what I don't understand. Progression, yes, that I get, but not doing more than necessary in order to get to the goal.

    Sorry you aren't understanding it, but that's how it works. You would probably never reach 100 consecutive pushups, if your total volume was only 100 push ups. Unless you were doing other strength work that directly translated into improving your pushups.
  • 12by311
    12by311 Posts: 1,719 Member
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    Thumbs up for this thread.

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