Talk – Health Fitness Nutrition Discussion

I got to thinking a few things these past few weeks about setting goals around pushups and how it applies to the challenges here in the forum.

There's a saying about improvements only being recongnized if you're tracking them.  “That which gets measured gets managed”

I feel that if you don't track a few things to begin with, you'll never know if you're actually getting better or stronger.

With regards to pushups, a couple of things that can improve is speed and amount.

Speed being how many pushups you can actually do in a given amount of time.

Amount being the actual amount of pushups you can actually perform (usually measured in terms of consecutive pushups)

The pushup challenges in this forum allow you to challenge yourself in various formats, simply to get moving.  Shoot for a certain number of pushups in a given day, or in a row or what have your.

I've decided to add another challenge, that of speed.

In building muscle, or getting stronger, one of the variables used while doing the work is the volume over time.  That is, the amount of work performed in a given amount of time.  One could lift 200 pounds 5 times, rest and repeat twice for three sets.  That lifter might be exhaused after doing that workout.

Another way to do it would be to press 50 pounds 10 times, rest and then continue to do that for an entire hour (lets assume 50 sets).

Which is harder?  Which results in more work performed by the muscle.

In the first example, 200lbs x 5 reps = 1000lbs moved.  Times that by 3 and you have 3000 lbs of weight moved or 3000 lbs of a load performed by the muscle.

The second example has 50 lbs x 10 reps or 500 lbs.  Times that by 50 and you have 25,000 lbs of weight moved. 

Its' a lot longer workout though, obviously, but doable.  One might not even be able to press 200 pounds, where 50 pounds is achievable.

This is the power of work done in a given time. 

The next obvious step is to cut down the rest time in between sets and you can do the same amount of work in a shorter period of time.

anyway, what I am going to do is add two challenges to the pushup forum (and eventually the other forums as well).

That of Timed Pushups:

1. How long does is take you to do 100 pushups

2. How many pushups can you do in 2 minutes

This is intended to do two things

firstly – to setup a bench mark for your performance.  Without knowing where you're starting from, how do you know you're getting better right?

secondly – the timed pushup challenges themselves are intended to push you faster so that you work harder with limited rest time.

so, measure yourself before even starting the pushup challenges.  How many pushups can you do in 2 minutes?  and how long does it take you do to 100 pushups.

Over time, by taking on a few of the pushup challenges, you will become stronger.  You can then go and do another check in with the timed pushup events to see if you've gotten better / fitter / stronger. 

always strive to beat your own personal best.  This is to be a competition with yourself, nobody else.

I highly advise you to do your own benchmark pushups (timed) and enter them before doing the pushup challenges.

Then check in once a month, or once a quarter to see how far you've come.

The timed events themselves are one hell of a workout.  You might consider doing them on a regular basis to become stronger and stimulate your chest and triceps in a different way.

The two challenges are here:

How many pushups can you do in 2 minutes

and

How long does it take you to do 100 pushups