100 push-up challenge – finale, (plus wanting to be younger and a joke)

On Sunday I tried the finale of the 6 week 100 push-up challenge … actually doing 100 of the beggars in one go. I had completed the training programme on Friday and then given my arm, shoulder and chest muscles a bit of recovery time. I had no idea whether that would be too much or too little but, to be honest, I just wanted the whole exercise finished.

During the training I’d got to 70 push-ups in one go in the ‘to exhaustion’ test at the end of week 5, and 70 push-ups on the final day of week 6 (but that came immediately after 8 previous sets with a total of 214). I had done everything required by the programme so I suppose the odds were in my favour but I wasn’t sure that I would be able to manage the missing 30.

I would like to tell about the agony I went through, the separated shoulder, the torn tendons and the pulled muscles but none of that really happened. As is so often the case, having done the training to the letter, although the ultimate test was certainly very tough (the triceps were certainly shouting and unhappy) – it was not impossible.

The result was 105 push-ups. With much relief, challenge completed.

As the challenge comes to an end, here are some thoughts, should anyone be mad enough to consider doing it too.

Positives:

• No specific kit needed
• No great dexterity or technique required
• Modest time requirement over only 6 weeks
• Can be done pretty much anywhere
• Independent of the weather
• Builds muscle on the arms, chest and shoulders
• Also pretty good for the core
• Very satisfying to succeed
• It’s a real challenge

Negatives:

• Harder than I expected
• A ‘bit’ repetitive – I did 3018 push-ups during the whole exercise
• Difficult to judge if you’re doing it well
• Probably best to minimise other arm exercises while doing it
• Of limited value beyond vanity?

Although there is some technique involved in a push-up (position of hands, width of elbows, straightness of the body and how far down to go), I guess the programme is mostly about building the relevant muscles and developing their endurance.

My natural style (if it can be called that) is with relatively wide elbows – I believe this puts more emphasis on the chest compared to narrow elbows that focuses more on the triceps. Whichever way it’s done, building muscle is harder the older you get so I probably wasn’t the best person to be testing the programme but I have certainly put some muscle on my triceps, chest and shoulders.

If it worked for me it should work for most people who are prepared to stick with it but it does take some determination and bloodymindedness (luckily, one of my strong suits). I started out looking forward to push-up days but that changed in week 5 when it all got a bit serious. Based on my first test before starting the programme I could have jumped straight into week 3 – I’m glad I didn’t.

I went into it hoping that the programme had some silver bullet that would make the 100 push-up finale easy – but there seems to be no secret formula that can replace simply doing a lot of push-ups. The number and pattern of the sets may well be finely judged – but doing a shed load of push-ups seems to be the key.

I’m very pleased to have finished the challenge and will carry on with push-ups – perhaps I’ll ty them with different elbow widths to round off the range of potential benefits. I believe that the push-ups I did certainly were ‘proper’ push-ups but I’m sure they could be better (I cannot pretend mine went down to touch my nose to the floor) so I can improve them… but 100 may not be the target.

As far as the next challenge is concerned, I’ve never been any good at chin-ups or pull-ups (perhaps I’d better find out what the difference is between the two first) ….

I had no real input into the question of what programme to follow (I simply went along with the choice of another blogger who was taking on the challenge – but who has been ill and hasn’t been able to complete it this time) but the one I followed is here: https://hundredpushups.com/test.html

Interesting stuff in just a day or two

1. African wise words: Wisdom is like fire. People take it from others

2. BBC News website: What’s wrong with wanting to be younger?

Cameroon’s Under-17s footballers face a race against time to field a team for regional African Cup of Nations qualifiers after more players failed age tests. Of the initial 30-member group, 21 failed the tests. BBC Sport Africa now understands Cameroon have suffered a fresh setback as 11 new players also failed tests on Tuesday.

A statement by the country’s football ruling body said “strict instructions” were given for the actions to be taken “in order to put an end to the tampering with civil status records which have, in the past, tarnished the image of Cameroon football”.

3. A joke

David Beckham’s second son, Romeo, has joined English football club Brentford to train with their second team (true).

When he arrived he asked what number shirt he should wear. The coach replied ” Wear four out there, Romeo”

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