100 Push-up Challenge Update

I’ve received emails now from a few fellow fit desk jockeys asking for an update on my 100 consecutive push-up goal. For those of you who’ve just recently found the site, back in July I gave myself the personal challenge of being able to do 100 consecutive push-ups in a post called Power-up Your Workouts with Push-ups. Push-ups have always been something that I’ve disliked, but then again most people tend to dislike things they’re not very good at. Something that I’ve learned simply through experience is that weaknesses can be opportunities to not only grow as a person, but also to discover and cultivate new favorites.  Some examples of lifts that I absolutely hated initially but now thoroughly love include squats, deadlifts, and pull-ups.

[h5]Progress Update[/h5]
The initial timeline for the goal was to have it checked off as accomplished within 4 weeks. It’s been about 2 months now since I’ve started the challenge, and though I’ve still not achieved the ultimate goal of 100 consecutive push-ups, I’ve made significant strides toward the ultimate achievement of this goal. I’m currently able to consistently perform 65 to 70 consecutive push-ups.

[notify_box style=”yellow”]My daily action for accomplishing my push-up goal is to perform 100 push-ups in as few sets as possible each and every day. [/notify_box]

[h5]3 Notable Issues/Barriers:[/h5]

• Other Training – It should be no surprise that on the days I train, especially on chest days, I have much more difficulty finishing my 100 push-ups for the day. I feel like I’d have more success if I’d just focused on this one goal, but I’m not willing to completely cease pursuing other fitness goals that are far more important to me. This push-up goal is a fun challenge (to my sick mind anyway), but the goals I have of losing fat and building lean muscle are at the very core of my fitness journey.
• Endurance – Though I’m a person who cycles my weight training to include both endurance and strength training, I’ve NEVER attempted 100 reps of any exercise that I can remember.  For the longest time it seemed like I always hit a wall at around 50 reps, when my muscles would just ignite in fiery soreness. Stupid plateaus.
• Injury Flashbacks – Once I hit the 30 mark I started to notice a slight clicking in my right shoulder blade. I started getting a little nervous at first, because about 6 months ago I had a shoulder injury that kept me from lifting anything over my head for about 3 weeks (doctor’s orders). If you’re a nut like me you know how frustrating being told that you can’t lift can be. An appropriate comparison would be telling a pack a day smoker that they can’t smoke for 3 weeks. FREAKING scary, both for me, as well as the people that have to put up with my crabby a**. It turns out I was just tight from doing a lot of back and shoulder work, and by the time I was approaching 40 reps at a time, the clicking had subsided. Whew! Crisis evaded.

[h5]3 Notable Positive Changes:[/h5]

• Less Sets to Success – When I initially started the challenge it took me at least four sets per day to reach the 100 rep mark, but I’m now managing to hit the 100 mark in a mere two sets.
• Bench Progress – The extra daily chest workout that the push-ups have provided has REALLY helped to improve my chest workouts, as well as my back workouts. I LOVE me a good back workout.
• Feeling Stronger – I feel much tighter in my chest area on the days that I’m not working out. I’ve also noticed that my back seems much stronger, which should really come as no surprise since a push-up is basically a moving plank of sorts.

[h4]Revised Commitment[/h4]

• For about the last 3 days now I’ve started my days by putting in work on my push-up challenge. That cat pretty much thinks I’m a lunatic, but since I workout in the evenings, this relatively new morning push-up routine has helped to keep this particular challenge from interfering with the quality of my primary workouts.
• I’ve also started to incorporate a variety of other pushups into the routine just to add a little variety and zest. I have a very passionate love to hate relationship with release pushups, which by the way, I do not recommend performing in an unfinished basement. Ouch! I’m of the opinion that you should never go the cheap route on certain things, and among these are tattoos and nose jobs.

[h5]Sign Off[/h5]

I’ll be posting my FIRST annual update on my fitness progress within the next week. About two months ago the theme of buildingleanmusclemass.net was updated, and the feedback thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. Continuing with our desire to consistently provide you with the best experience possible, some more HUGE upgrades to the site are coming in the next few weeks!

Since this post is basically about goals, I’d like to hear from you regarding how you handle momentary failure. Does it make you quit, or do you refine your approach and attack? Do you have any tricks for not getting down on yourself?

Or you can say whatever pings your pong.

Best wishes!

-Matt