Quest for 100 Pushups

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 20th, 2007, 1:51 am

All this talk of pushups has got me interested in a long time goal I had but have never achieved, Cracking 100 Pushups. Before I became an erger, I was a runner. I also used to do a lot of bodyweight excercises in the evenings. Pushups, Pullups, Dips, Body Weight Squats, etc. Once I started erging, I did not have the energy in the evenings to do my bodyweight excercises. Maybe this is due to the upper body component or the fact that rowing is power endurance not just endurance the way that running is.

Anyway, I would like to make a serious crack at my goal of 100 pushups again and I think that posting my progress will help motivate me. With any goal, I think you have to have a date to shoot for so I am going to Shoot for February 1. If anyone else is interested in increasing their pushups, post here

Rich

Snail Space · Post by **Snail Space** » October 20th, 2007, 6:14 am

I think I could manage about 10!

Cheers
Dave

peteyddotcom · Post by **peteyddotcom** » October 21st, 2007, 9:21 am

Here you go!

http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library ... ushups.pdf

Don't feel bad. When I started, I could only eke out 10 girl pushups!

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 22nd, 2007, 12:01 pm

peteyddotcom wrote:Here you go!

http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library ... ushups.pdf

Don't feel bad. When I started, I could only eke out 10 girl pushups!

Peteyddotcom,

Thanks for the link. OK so now I have something to shoot for after reaching 100 proper pushups!!

Rich

DavidA · Post by **DavidA** » October 22nd, 2007, 3:05 pm

I decided to what I could do last night - 25 push-ups, barely, before my arms gave up.

David

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 23rd, 2007, 1:31 am

Well second session so far and regressed from 42 pushups to 37 but after reading the crossfit link, I realized while my form is good and I am going all the way down and all the way up, I am doing them to fast to be considered "Honest Pushups" To be considered Honest Pushups they need to be slow and controlled. I think that is the reason for the regression.

After 37 Honest Pushups (HP's) I immediately went to knees and did 15 knee pushups before my pecs failed completely then I immediately rose to a Pushup Position (plank) and continued counting at the same cadence I was doing the pushups at till I reached 75 and my triceps failed leaving me lying on the floor nose down for several seconds.

Rich

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 24th, 2007, 11:56 pm

38 Honest Pushups, 22 Knee Pushups, 20 second plank = 80

dszil · Post by **dszil** » October 25th, 2007, 4:05 pm

Just keep progressing each session Rich...even if it's just one more second on the plank...and you'll find the HP's getting easier and easier! You can do this!!!

I'll be keeping my eye on the thread (as I'm sure others will)...keep posting your progress! It's always motivational to see someone making progress toward their goal!!!

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 25th, 2007, 7:19 pm

dszil,

Thanks for the inspiration and motivation! I will make this goal or die trying!

Now what do you know about pullups? Always had a goal of 20 Marine style pushups (no kipping, no body swing) but never got past 17.

Rich

dszil · Post by **dszil** » October 26th, 2007, 9:05 am

Unfortunately, I don't know a whole heck of a lot about 'em.

. I've done all sorts of body-weight training, but for some reason chins were hardly ever included. This...of course...is assuming you're talking about chins (underhand grip) vs pullups (overhand grip). It was always my impression that "Marine Style" was chins...but I could be wrong. If you are actually talking about overhand grip...you may want to be careful. From what I understand...shoulder issues quite frequently spawn out of them!

Since your goal is such a small number (compared to the pushups)...I would think you're still in the realm of needing raw strength gains to get there as opposed to conditioning. Weighted sets would probably help (thread a chain/rope through the hole in a plate and up to a belt around your waist...or "hold" a dumbbell between your ankles). As would dropping the body weight itself if you're carrying any extra (not implying anything here...just don't have any idea what sort of body comp you've got!). Weight training targeted at the lats and biceps too obviously. But really...I'm just shooting in the dark here as I've never been down that road! Good luck with both challenges though!

tbartman · Post by **tbartman** » October 26th, 2007, 12:50 pm

From what I've read (in Men's Health Magazine), pullups (palms towards you), will allow you significant use of the biceps, and will generally be much easier to perform than chinups (palms away) which will largely take the biceps out and emphasize more the triceps, shoulders, and lats. Their polls indicate that many men who consider themselves relatively fit can do 1 chinup.

One suggestion they have for working towards chinups if you can't even do 1 (besides the chinup station at the gym which gives a certain number of pounds of assistance), is to use a chair to get yourself to the up position, and then to step off the chair and lower yourself as slowly as you can. Do reps/sets like this, and eventually you may actually be able to counteract gravity and go up instead of down.

dszil · Post by **dszil** » October 26th, 2007, 3:00 pm

tbart,

Not to split hairs over names...but I do believe you have them switched. Chin-ups are done with either a semi-supinated (palms facing each other) or supinated grip (palms facing you grip). Pull-ups, on the other hand are chin-ups done with a pronated grip (palms down grip). I did a quick check in google and found this confirmed on a variety of major exerise websites (though I'm sure one could probably find a few that have them the other way around too!).

Names really don't matter much though as I think we all know what both are...regardless of what we call them!:)!

Regardless of what we call either though...or which the OP is trying to make gains in...I believe your suggestion is a great one and shouldn't be limited to people who can't even get one. Even if you can do several...I think "negatives" are similar to dropping to your knees in pushups. After you've done as many chin-ups/pull-ups as you can do...use the chair to allow yourself to do a few more reps...just from the top lowering down. You'll find you can still get a few more in this way...and what better time to get a little extra abuse of the muscles than after a set of the traditional exercise!:)!

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 27th, 2007, 1:09 am

39 HP's, 27 KP's, 12 second plank = 88

20 Triceps Dips

Next week I am going to add a second set of pushups. Trying to ease in and avoid massive Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. At this rate of improvement it will take me 4 months to get to 100 if I can at least attain one additional PU each session.

Rich

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » October 29th, 2007, 12:57 am

40 HP's, 16 KP's, 23 second Plank = 79

20 Triceps Dips.

PaulH · Post by **PaulH** » October 29th, 2007, 5:55 am

I'm generally very weak, but particularly so in my shoulders and chest - I haven't tried recently, but if I could hit 5 push-ups I'd be quite proud. For organizational reasons I recently put 100lbs on my barbell, even though I couldn't actually bench press that, and have been working on partial presses to build up to full ones.

A few days ago I bought a punch bag, and yesterday did a brief bag session before trying the bench press, and found that I could do 3 full presses. That's not many, but it's 3 more than I could do before

All that's a long way of saying that you might want to try a light warmup first and see what difference it makes.