I just did 50 pushups

dxdmma06 · 27-Dec-05, 06:26 AM

Not in a row though. I'm thinking if I keep this thing that I started today up, I'll be able to rep out 50+ by the end of the month or somewhere around there.

Today I did 50 pushups in sets of 1-10. Like first I'd do just one pushup, and then rest. Then I'd do two pushups, then three all the way up to ten pushups. By the last set of ten, my arms were shaking. I guess I'm kinda out of shape.

What I'm thinking of doing is something like this:

Day 1- 50 pushups in sets. No timed rest. (that was today, just get them done)

Day 2- 50 pushups in sets with timed rest

Day 3 and 4- 25 or 50 pushups (depending on how I feel) in sets staying in lean-rest. No timed rest

Day 5 (hopefully)- 50 pushups in sets staying in lean-rest. Timed rest.

That's for this week, I kinda made this thing up so I don't want to really overplan it incase it doesn't work or it just ends up getting me injured or something. I'm just going to play it by ear though. I really like designing my own programs because then I can customize it and play around with it depending on how I feel a certain day or something. It might be just me though. I'm not exactly a physiologist or anything, so I kinda just go off common sense, hard work and sugar rush (hoorah for sugar rush). I'll post back how this works, if it works.

peace

**.V.** · 27-Dec-05, 12:27 PM

Kind of like when I was doing 50 pullups. Just do sets of however many you can handle until you reach your desired number.

If 50 is your goal, then by all means...keep up the work.

Klinger · 27-Dec-05, 12:52 PM

Good advice from welch here - just break down your goal into smaller goals and you'll get there. For example: 5 sets of 10 one month, 4 sets of 12-13 the next, 3 sets of 15-20 the next month, and so on.

I would add some pullups or assisted pullups so your chest and triceps don't dwarf the development of your back and biceps.

dxdmma06 · 27-Dec-05, 04:54 PM

yeah I have a pullup bar in my door way and I do like 2-3 everytime I go in or out. The thing is I'm going super light on purpose for upper body because alot of times what I would do is just jump into a program and do crazy stuff like Jumprope and then do plyometric pushups and hop right into burpies all on the first day. I guess you can say I get over enthusiastic, and the last time I started training out of season I injured myself. So for right now I'm going to try to do it right, take it very slow because I have the time to build up and do it right. Guess its lack of patience that kills me.

dxdmma06 · 28-Dec-05, 02:41 AM

I'm actually pretty soar tonite. I think I'm going to make a slight modification and put a day's rest in between each workout for the first week. I just came off an injury and I don't want to re-injure anything.

dxdmma06 · 29-Dec-05, 06:52 AM

Aight, its Day 2.

Day 2 was actually a little harder than I thought it would be. I decided to time my rests with about ten seconds in between sets (however, getting tired towards the end of my workout might have made a second more like a second and a half. lol). I didn't feel at peak performance, but I was kinda tired from training at my brazilian jiujitsu gym. Next time, I'll do this in the afternoon instead of after practice.

I felt okay until my fifth set, where I do five pushups. All the way up to my fourth set, my form had been absolutely perfect (my form has really straitened out over the past month). Then around five my arms started to get fatigued. Six and seven were suprisingly pretty challenging, and I went to TMF at eight. I thought that eight was a pretty good number and was going to call it a night until I did my math and realized that eight was only 36 pushups. Heck with that! I was going to finish my workout!

So I guess there was like 30-45 seconds of rest in between set 8 and 9. 9 was actually easier than I thought it would be, I guess because I had more rest, and ten was pretty hard and I dropped to the floor afterwards. But I made it to fifty, and even though my muscles were fatigued I still managed to keep respectable form.

If I'm not too soar tommorrow, I think I'm going to do this same thing one more time before moving onto Day 3, I might need a little more time to adapt to it. Either that or substitute this for Day 3 and move everything up a day.

29-Dec-05, 11:52 AM

Here is another way to get your 50 - actually 55.

Do 10 pushups. Rest for 10 seconds, then do 9 pushups, rest 10 seconds, etc., etc.

Complete this cadence for two consecutive workout sessions.

Then do it again, except rest only 9 seconds. Complete this twice again.

Then rest 8 seconds. Complete this twice.

Then rest 7 seconds. Complete this twice.

Get it? Eventually you'll be down to a 1 second rest, and then eventually 50 consecutive pushups with flawless form.

Good luck!

dxdmma06 · 29-Dec-05, 01:54 PM

That's a good idea. Maybe getting the hard sets out of the way first would be better than doing them while I'm fatigued and not able to put as much effort into them. I think I'll try that today. I really like the idea of shortening rest time, I was thinking of doing something like that after I got past this initial "breaking in" week. I really like the way you set it up though. Thanx for the advice!

dxdmma06 · 31-Dec-05, 06:12 AM

Tonite was kinda hard. I wasn't feeling at 100%, infact, I felt at like 65%. It wasn't good. Anyway, I tried what pierini suggested, going from high set to low set instead of low set to high set. It was a little different.

It did allow me to stay true to form for more reps at a time, but for some reason I don't feel like I got as good of a workout. I mean getting towards the end of my workout, the reps were getting kinda hard, but my arms weren't shaking near as much as they were last time, and I didn't reach TMF. I may have gotten a little stronger, but I don't think its significant enough. What I think happened was when I went from low set to high set, I was making my body do high reps when it was really fatigued, this was making me go to failiure. When I start off at high set though, I'm able to get the hard stuff out of the way, so when my muscles start to get fatigued and the work really counts, I'm only really making them do 4 or 5 pushups, as opposed to 7 or 8.

My last set, where I did just one pushup, I was able to go all the way down, touch my chest, come all the way up and stay up for a second. Last time, I toppled to the floor in exhaustion after doing ten. I dunno, high set to low set might be good to focus on form, but I think for now I'm just going to stick with low to high set. It seems to be a lot harder for some reason. Then again, it might just be me.

dxdmma06 · 31-Dec-05, 08:34 AM

Well I didn't feel tired, so I figured I'd try again. This time, I went from low set to high set. The fact that I already worked out tonite may have contributed to fatigue but I'm not sure. I was doing very good, respectable form until set five. After that I got tired, took ten seconds rest and lost count of what set I was on. I might have done two fifth sets. Set six and seven were really hard, and I failed at set eight. I had to dig deep to find set nine, which I had to attempt twice to finish. I couldn't do set ten, at least not in ten seconds. So I did about 45 pushups, and if I did an extra fifth set, then I hit fifty. I don't know what it is that makes going from low set to high set harder than going from high set to low set. But I like how low to high makes me reach TMF, so I think i'll stick with that for now. Or what I could do is up the load and do something like one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This is pretty perplexing. All I know is that I'm shaking after the fact.

31-Dec-05, 10:20 AM

It's good that you are experimenting to discover what works for you.

I will say this, based on my personal experience: you will not make significant volume gains by working yourself to failure. Better to always be 1-2 reps short of failure unless you are testing yourself for a PR.

The next time you go from high to low, you can add an element of extra challenge that you did not experience by introducing a "super slow cadence" to your pushups. Let's say that at 5 reps it is starting to get too easy. Fine, just perform those 5 reps superslow, maybe a 10 count down and a 10 count up. I guarantee you that you'll be challenged big time. Modify the count down and up time to maximize your challenge while still keeping you at 1-2 reps short of failure.

Another pushup routine that I've done that I've liked, was 10 pushups every minute on the minute, so 100 pushups takes 9 minutes and some seconds. When I was in a little better pushup shape earlier in the year, I did 300 pushups in 29 minutes and some seconds.

Keep up the good work!

dxdmma06 · 31-Dec-05, 05:33 PM

I'm mostly training to PR and improve athletic performance moreso than for gaining volume, even though it is an added plus. What I'm trying to do is a certain amount of pushups while staying in the lean-rest position. I figure if I just take baby steps to keep from stopping in between sets, I'll eventually get there. I've chosen 50 as the magic number because I figure once I can do fifty strait with good form, which I'm not too far away from, I'll be able to just rep it out from there and take off with it. I figure after these baby steps, its all just numbers. My next workout (either tonite or tommorrow depending on if I'm sore), I'm probably going to stay in the lean-rest for a low number like 25 with a ten second rest, even though I can easily do 25 strait, just to get used to staying in the lean-rest for extended periods of time. Its all baby steps, its all just numbers.