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We’re heading into the home stretch of the Get Fit Slowly one hundred pushup challenge. Some of you will begin week five today. Others will be on week four. (And some, like me, will be starting or repeating week three!) After week six, I’ll only post weekend updates, and those only until I meet my goal of 100 consecutive pushups.
But for today, here’s your schedule if you’re doing week five. (Please note that you may be doing a new column based on the result of your weekend exhaustion test.)
If you’re doing week four, follow this schedule:
And here are links to the schedules for past weeks:
Update: Here’s a curious thing. I tried to do my pushups this morning, but failed miserably. I did 15, 8 (out of 12), 12, 8 (out of 10), 8 (out of 15). “How on earth did I go backwards?” I wondered. I was about to post my results when I decided to conduct an experiment. I waited.
At 3:30 this afternoon, I did the routine again. This time, I powered through. I did 15, 12, 12, 10, and 16-1/2 (for the max set), all with no problem. This was despite having already worked my arms earlier in the day! I don’t have any idea what this means other than I’m going to move my pushup regimen to the afternoons from here on out…
Read about this project at One Hundred Pushups.
Mac
12 responses so far ↓
1 Pete @ quicktofit // Jul 14, 2008 at 6:50 am
I did week three last week - and failed on that last set - so I’m re-doing week three this week as well! Good luck everyone!
2 The Vegan // Jul 14, 2008 at 9:38 am
I’m redoing week 3 as well. I’m not satisfied with my performance on the final set last week.
3 Andrew is getting fit // Jul 14, 2008 at 11:17 am
I’m in week 03 as well. Having said that I can do more pushups now than I’ve ever been able to do in my life so even though progress is slow it is still fantastic.
4 Katy // Jul 14, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I missed a couple of days last week, so I will be doing my exhaustion test tomorrow, and moving on to week #3 again, hopefully at a higher level. If not, I will repeat week #2 again at level 2.
5 Sean // Jul 14, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I guess it was unrealistic for my stubborn upper body muscles to conform to a timeline.
But I have enjoyed the routine this month, looking forward to doing it again. Maybe by then the slope of progress will carry over to the 5th set. Right now, I feel like my capability on the 1st set could triple, before I make real progress vs. the 5th set minimums.
6 P // Jul 14, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Remember, the rest times are a minimum. I always rest 3-4 mins before the exhaustion set and that’s kept me going in column 3. Started Week 4 this morning and feeling proud of myself for the improvements.
7 kazari // Jul 14, 2008 at 3:34 pm
well, in my exhaustion test on the weekend, i managed 34 pushups! so i’m moving on to week 5, column 1. I have to tell you, the first day was really, really difficult, so i’m not sure if i’ll survive the week. i think this will end up being the first week I repeat.
8 Steven Rigney // Jul 14, 2008 at 4:48 pm
w5d1. I failed, miserably. After so much success last week I was hoping I would accomplish today. But the jump was too big. I was able to do 40, 32, 24, 25, 18. I was short on one set in the middle and my max set was very short.
I plan to finish week 5 and then repeat.
9 xxNicky // Jul 14, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I’m so glad I found this site. My roommate and I have been following this one hundred push-ups plan, this is our fourth week, and last week we struggled. I decided to go back to week 2 and do the next column, but I really think the schedule is unrealistic. It’s nice to see that others aren’t flying through the six weeks either.
10 Debbie M // Jul 15, 2008 at 9:09 am
When I find myself not managing to finish a set like that, I just wait for a second and then try to continue. (I also like to record what I’m doing–I might record that as “8+4″ or “8+3+1″ instead of “12.”)
Like P mentioned above, I always wait 3-4 minutes (=1 game of solitaire) before the final set.
11 bRobert // Jul 15, 2008 at 11:17 am
You can speed up the gains by increasing the difficulty using pushup variations, rather than just straight pushups. For instance, when you can knock out 10-20 regular pushups, increase the difficulty by elevating your legs on a stool, couch, wall, etc. Vary the width so you will be working your chest more with a wide stance, triceps more with narrow.
Also, use pushup bars to increase your range of motion, thus increasing the difficulty.
In just a few weeks of playing like that, I’m able to do 25 pushups with my 5 year old on my back and 35 with my 2 year old on my back. I guess I need to try them with both or move up to my wife on my back. She will love it.
Also, rather than set aside time to do a series of regular sets, do event based pushups. Everytime I walk by my hall closet or at the beginning of commercials when I’m watching tv, I will drop and do a variation. The point being that I am fully recovered before I try again, which is sometimes longer than I care to sit around and wait.
A good book covering bodyweight exercises is “The Naked Warrior” by Pavel Tsatsouline. I skip around rather than read it sequentially.
My 2 cents, all my budget will allow.
12 The Vegan // Jul 15, 2008 at 1:00 pm
bRobert - those are some good suggestions… kinda reminds me of a roommate I once had. He kept a barbell by the couch so he could exercise while watching TV… or sometimes he’d do pushups against the couch while chatting or watching a movie, etc.
I’m going to look that book up - I love the idea of staying fit using your body’s weight rather than buying a thousand dollar home gym.
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