Monday, August 24, 2009

Started the 100 Push-ups Program

So I started the 100 push-ups program today. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to reach 100 push-ups in just 6 weeks, but I thought I'd give the program a try, as it would give some structure to my efforts to improve my fitness. Based on an initial test, the program tells you what number of "good-form" push-ups you should target over 5 sets a day, 3 days a week, 6 weeks total (ideally). If in any week you are not able to meet the program's targets, you repeat that week and then move on. I am going to have to change my first week's expectations :-(... "here's how it happened" (any Monk fans in the house?): in my initial test, I did 13 push-ups. That put me in the highest category for beginners... oh how I was promised only to be deceived! According to the program, I was supposed to do 10, 12, 7, 7 and (minimum) 9 push-ups in 5 sets on the first day of the first week of the program. All I could manage was :-(... 10, 8, 3, 1,1 (here's where I melt in shame). My chest strength has always been below-par for my weight category (except in 9th class, when I was comfortably increasing my push-up count by 5 every week—up to 45 in a single set—till I lost interest). My muscular strength improvements have always come very slowly (even though I was very good in sports in school and during bachelors). So obviously my initial test was some kind of a false positive. From the next day onwards, I going to follow the program as if I'd done 6-10 push-ups in my initial test—so 6, 8, 6, 6 and (minimum) 7 are going to be my target reps for each of the 5 sets of day 2, week 1. I think it will take me at least 8 weeks to reach 100 push-ups. Let's see... My fitness-improvement situation isn't completely hopeless though: I have dropped from 106 kgs (234 lbs) to 93 kgs (205 lbs) in nine months. Something is better than nothing, I keep telling myself...

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