My friend Jen told me about this challenge she has started. Doing 100 push-ups in 100 days. As I said in a previous post, you can break this up into 5 or 10 or 25 – whatever increment you desire – over the course of the day. The point is that each day you do 100 push-ups.
The other version – the one that Will is theoretically doing – is 1 push-up on day 1, 2 push-ups on day 2, 3 push-ups on day 3, etc on up to 100 push-ups on day 100. This morning I was telling our trainer how difficult the 100 push-ups was for me. I assumed since I could break it up throughout the day it would not be that big of a deal, but by yesterday my arms were tired. He told me I could do the gradual build version if I wanted to as they add up pretty quickly. I said that I really wanted to stick with what I was currently doing. After all, I’ve already done two days in a row with 100 push-ups, so might as well keep going. Yeah, it is hard, but that is part of the point.
When I first started at Crossfit in May of 2011, I could only do push-ups against a bench. Some people start off doing push-ups against a wall – push-ups are hard if you are not used to doing them regularly. Heck, I’ve been doing them pretty regularly and I still think they are hard. Gradually, I graduated to knee-pushups, but then those became too easy. Then I went to half knee push-ups. I lower down from plank all the way and then with my knees on the floor I push back up.
I have not really felt like I have gotten noticeably better at these half knee push-ups and I’ve been doing them forever. It feels like at least a year. I have decided that I am tired of not doing full push-ups. The whole point of this 100 day challenge for me is that I hope mid-way through it or at least by the very end of it, I will be able to do regular push-ups, no knees involved. I am also hoping to build up my upper body strength.
As an extra, I’ve decided that today I am going to fold in 100 sit-ups a day, too. My goal there is to be able to do 100 without stopping. Right now I can do about 50 without stopping, but those last three are really difficult.
I have a little notebook that I am using to keep track of these two 100 a day challenges. It is so easy to forget what number you are on that writing it down as soon as you finish a set is really helpful. Also, since I am writing it down, that keeps me accountable. I don’t want to get to day 14 and stop. If I am keeping track through a written record, I won’t.
I feel like I get a lot accomplished in the three days a week I work out at Crossfit Simple, but I need/want something that I do every single day. I think this will fit that need. It has already changed the way I watch television. You can do sit-ups and push-ups while watching tv. It is more entertaining to have something that you are watching while working on the 100’s.
They put the 100 push-ups a day challenge on the board at Crossfit. So far there are only a couple of people signed up. I am hoping more people jump on board with this. I need someone other than Jen and our trainer to whine to about my arms hurting! 😉
