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It’s the second day of the Get Fit Slowly one hundred pushup challenge. I suspect that today’s session will be even more challenging for me than Monday’s. For one thing, I’m sore, not just from the first day of pushups, but also from my subsequent upper-body weight lifting session. But I’m going to do my best to succeed.
Here’s the schedule:
Remember that you should rest at least ninety seconds between each set. It’s fine to rest longer if needed. Though I’m posting this now as a prompt to others, I won’t actually do my own pushup test until mid-morning. I’ll post the results then.
Read about this project at One Hundred Pushups.
Mac
35 responses so far ↓
1 Ross Goodman // Jun 18, 2008 at 12:40 am
I’m travelling today and my hotel room did not have enough floor space do do pushups. i’m big, but I’m not THAT big, it was a tiny room!
I’ll do mine late tonight when I get home.
Ross
2 Danny Garant // Jun 18, 2008 at 3:35 am
I just finish my day 2 this morning. Still progressing. I’m going to stretch and go to work.
3 Neil // Jun 18, 2008 at 3:46 am
This is one of the most useful things you’ve posted on here - I started on Monday and I couldn’t wait until today to keep going. 100 pushups seems like so much and it’ll be amazing if I can get there.
4 Stefan // Jun 18, 2008 at 3:46 am
I did mine already :-). It actually went a little better than monday, mostly because I did expect it to be pretty hard. Well, it still was hard, I needed some extra rest, and I couldn’t do level 4 on the first try, but I’m quite happy since I seem to make some small progress already :-).
I got a technical question for everyone… At the end of the second week there’s an exhaustion test coming up. When are you planning to take this? When doing the pushups on m, w, & f it seems to be a good idea to have some rest period after the last and before the next training… maybe doing the exhaustion test on saturday and continuing the training on tuesday might be appropriate? I’m looking forward to hearing your opinion.
Stefan
5 COD // Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 am
I started last night with Day 1. Got through it and I’m a little sore this morning.
6 Peter // Jun 18, 2008 at 6:22 am
OK - I think I’ve realized my problem. I chose the wrong track to start with. (Middle level) Yes, I could do between 5-10 pushups for the test, but I cannot do the “at least” value for the final set no matter how much rest I seem to get. I think I’ll be dropping back to track #1 and ramp up from there. Doesn’t help that I’m pushing up more than I should be to start with, but I only have myself to blame for that.
Thanks for the reminders and keeping us going.
7 Al // Jun 18, 2008 at 8:30 am
Brutal.
I made it through third column, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it Friday. I’ll give it my best, but I won’t feel too bad if I have to move to column two next week.
8 tratch // Jun 18, 2008 at 8:36 am
I did the middle column of Day 2 this morning and I am really feeling it. As sore as I am though, I’m actually looking forward to Friday and seeing how things go then.
Stefan:
I was going to do the exhaustion test after Week 2 on that Sunday to give myself a day’s rest like usual and then move Week 3 to a Tues, Thurs, Sat schedule instead of the usual MWF.
That’s my plan at least, we’ll see how it goes.
9 The Vegan // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:02 am
I finished day 2, column 2 after waiting about an hour and a half after breakfast.
Remember that your endurance fluctuates throughout the day - you may be strong enough to complete all the push ups in a set, but your body might not have enough fuel available to do so.
Looking forward to Friday!
10 Tom McNicholas // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:10 am
I’m doing this right with you, as is a friend of mine. I’m going down the middle column. I initially found day two to be very hard, but I was able to squeeze out quite a bit of pushups on the max-out set. Keep us posted!!
11 Gooniette // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:39 am
My fiance and I started this on Saturday. Tonight will be Day 3 for us.
It’s fun because I’m in the first column and could barely do two to start, but I maxed out on Monday with 6 pushups! Real ones!
My fiance, in the third column maxed out at 16. I’m looking forward to tonight. I feel stronger already.
12 J.D. // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:49 am
I’m about to start my pushups, and I thought you all might be interested in this online stopwatch I’ve been using to time my rests…
13 macdaddy // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:50 am
12, 12, 10, 10, 14 today. Those last 4 were HARD!
14 Steve // Jun 18, 2008 at 10:04 am
Well done everyone!
I did mine last night (see http://www.runbulldogrun.com for details) and managed 12, 12, 10, 10 and 13
macdaddy - i’m with you, the last 3 were HARD!
J.D. - Thanks for reminding everyone about the plan and congrats on your run - pleased for you
Stefan - will do my exhaustion test mid-day Saturday which will give me enough time to recover for Day 1 on Monday.
–Steve
15 drifting // Jun 18, 2008 at 10:27 am
w1d2: 12, 12, 10 ,10 ,10 - Thought I was going to get a few more than the minimum in the last set, but no. Maybe next time.
16 Elaine // Jun 18, 2008 at 11:13 am
I surprised myself and completed the second column on Monday and I’m both looking forward to and dreading completing the second set tonight after work since my arms and shoulders are really sore. I really want to stick with the second column for this week but I may have to repeat it again next week, depending. Working on this challenge is oddly satisfying in a way I really wasn’t expecting. Its fun
17 Laura Gjovaag // Jun 18, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Did Day 1 Column 1 today (thanks for directing me to the site!). I think my form is still really bad, but I feel like I can at least put the effort into it, and just keep working on my form as I go. I’ll be repeating weeks for sure. This challenge is just what I needed.
18 Andrew is getting fit // Jun 18, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I did mine and only managed to do the minimum on the max. I suspect that come the exhaustion test I’ll be relegated to column 2.
19 BK // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I was at work this morning and I could really feel the soreness/stiffness in my shoulders from Monday. I just did day 2 and it was tough and I am only doing column one!
20 Flexo // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Finished my wk 1 day 2 set (third column) about an hour ago or so. looking forward, I can hardly imagine getting to the point where I can do so many.
21 KMFPL // Jun 18, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Just did Day 2, column 2 (9, 8, 6, 5, and 15!) Took longer than 90 seconds in between because I kept forgetting to restart the timer! I’m wimping out by being on my knees, but I think the broken foot is a half-decent excuse…
Glad to have company in this! There should be a contest for blogs to see who can have the most on their team get to 100!
22 KMFPL // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Amanda (wife) did column 2, and finished with 17.
Rachel (age 11) column 2, finished with 20!
23 Jake // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:19 pm
W1D2: 9,8,6,5,8
24 Pplukas // Jun 18, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I have finished my week 1 day 2 session. But something strange happened. I was trying the column 2, but for the first set I was able to do only 5!! But now what stopped me were my abs!!
But for my second set I was able to perform 6, and for the third I could do 9!! For the fourth set I did 8, and for the last set I did 8 as well. Only on the first rest I took 90 seconds, for the remaining I took longer. The last break lasted about 3 minutes or so…
I must say for warm up I walked around the block, and afterwards I did some circles with arms and some stretching. My guess is that I need to duplicate at least the warmup time, in order to be able to perform the first set as indicated.
The good thing is that I did not feel my arms so tired as with day one. The bad thing is I realized my abs are worse than I thought.
Regarding Stefan question, I think I will do it sunday morning (I normally exercise on evenings, so from friday evening to sunday morning I will have enough recovery time before the test. Also I will have enough recovery time from sunday noon till Monday evening).
25 Nedsferatu // Jun 19, 2008 at 5:00 am
I started a day behind you guys so I did my day two today. I did the third column the first day cause I did 14 on the initial. The first day I did 14, 10, 8, 6, 8. I was sore this morning for day 2 and the first level was painful! After that I felt a bit more warmed up and did 8, 9, 8, 5, 7. Maybe the middle column is actually right for me.
26 bmis // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:39 am
Long time lurker on GRS, this is a cool idea! I’ve printed the plan out from 100pushups.com, and I’m 1 day behind you guys, will do day 2 tonight in the RH column.
The 6 weeks times out just when I go on a beach vacation, so lots of shirtless time (male, easy guys)!
27 Katy // Jun 19, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Better late than never — didn’t get to my day 2 yesterday. Did the minimum for level 1 today — 4,3,2,2,4. I suspect I’ll be repeating week 1.
This is hitting me in the abs, more than in the arms, which I didn’t expect.
28 Steve // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:31 pm
If anyone needs a pdf of the complete six week program (including the initial test breakdown), here’s the link:
http://www.hundredpushups.com/complete_program.pdf
I’ll add a link to the hundred push ups site as time permits, but thought this could be useful for some of you….
Keep up the good work!
–Steve
–www.hundredpushups.com
29 BillinDetroit // Jun 19, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Um JD … did I read Steve’s chart wrong? I thought that you were to use just the column for your age … not try to do all three columns.
30 Jason // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I wonder if this would work for other exercises (i.e. situps)?
31 Don // Jun 20, 2008 at 6:15 am
Jason,
I just started on the pushups yesterday and decided to do the same thing with squats this morning. So will do squats on the off days of pushups. If people haven’t been exercising, I think they’ll be surprised @ what the body weight squats will do.
I’m one of those people that seems to stick with a plan better if something needs to be done every day. It seems if there’s a day off then the next thing I know I’ve skipped 2 or more days or end up completely quitting.
This ought to be fun for six weeks and even in the end if some of us can’t get our 100 pushups @ a time, we’re going to be in a lot better shape than we are now!
Don
32 The Vegan // Jun 20, 2008 at 6:45 am
Steve - Thanks for the PDF - that’ll really helps!
Jason - I was thinking the same thing. After completing this program it’d be great to start another.
33 Jason // Jun 20, 2008 at 6:52 am
I was thinking about working most of the major muscle groups this way (calf raises, squats, situps, chin-ups/curls, etc) all with my own body weight (except for curls). Think I may start that this next week in addition to the pushups.
34 Kym // Jun 20, 2008 at 9:25 am
How low are you guys going on your pushups? I can only lower myself maybe halfway down - any lower and I just collapse. I feel like it’s way too easy the way I am doing it but I just can’t go any lower. Just curious as to how others are getting on in this regard.
35 Debbie M // Jul 7, 2008 at 9:41 am
@Kym,
When I took the test, I could do only 1/2 of 1 push-up (I can get down, but I can’t get up!). This technically puts me in the 0-5 group. However, I don’t know how I could suddenly magically do 2 push ups! So I re-took the test with my knees on the ground and I could do 12 of those. So those are the kinds of push-ups I’m doing. I figure that after the six weeks, I can start over with full push-ups.
The problem with lowering yourself only halfway is that you are using your muscles in a smaller range. Still, they are getting stronger in that range. After your six weeks, you could also try starting over going a lot further down.
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