100 push ups a day

No matter if you do 100 pushups in one time, in one day, as your only form of exercise, as a finisher, as a warmup, or just to relieve constipation ... the important thing is just to do something.

Any activity is better than no activity.

 

100%

 

That’s a great point. Plus your body is warm and less chance of injury.


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I always tell people 'showing up you get most of the points'. IE: you show up you do something and that is great.

 

Still lapping everyone sitting on the couch!

 

When I couldn’t lift in my home gym (on road trip, etc.) I’d do 5 sets of push ups pretty much to failure (it’s all I could do) every morning.
35, 25, 20, 20, 20... my chest would feel pumped for a couple hours, felt great all day.

 

While in the Navy I had a shipmate (a Navy SEAL candidate who had an injury in hell week) help me with push-ups as I could never get past about 50-60 at one time. He would make me do as many as I could in the regular position and then continue doing them on my knees until my arms gave out. And then do it again. We did that every third day until I could do 100 at a time. One of the things I learned by doing that was that my mind was letting me quit even though I was physically capable of doing more. Once you realize you can do more than you think you can by ignoring your brain telling you to quit then you can really see significant gains.

 

So true. As my trainer says 'stay ahead of the weight'. IE: do all you can then do some more even if you don't go quite as low, go to an easier position, or drop the weight. My wife started out at 5 with her knees down. Now she can do 30 full on pushups. She is targeting 60 f0r this year.

 

Perfect Pushup is great. Check out Stew Smith's website. He and the Perfect Pushup guy are/were friends. I think they both went through Naval Academy and BUDS together. Stew's a great guy and can build on the perfect pushup stuff. He's got some great tips.

 

Loads of ways to make the push up both heavier or lighter. Incline or decline feet also help increase/decrease the load.

 

Yep, I do incline with a weight on my back. More like a finisher, not the main event. Also, not usually over 25 but have done up to 45. I do weighted dips, and a bunch of other things like that as well.

 

Weighted dips are a really good exercise; just make sure you keep the pressure on eitehr chest or tricpes and not shoulders. when performed with poor form they can be a shoulder killer.
I'm personally using stretch push ups between two bences as a chest finisher. I tend to superset these with either dips or a cable fly. The stretch and pump are amazing and they really 'open up'your chest fibers. Just make sure you do stretch type exercise always last and not first in any program.

I do feel that incline or decline push ups are tricky with weight on your back as it moves the stress away. if you feel the exercise is too easy, simply do it between benches or increase the angle and always use full ROM.

 

That’s great. I need to try that. One thing I have learned is to keep arms only shoulder width apart or only slightly wider. Any wider and it becomes unnatural, too much stress on shoulder joint. The pecs can get a good strengthening workout when the intent of the push and release is at them rather than the arm muscles.


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You should focus on imagining an imaginary arrow with your head being the tip. Your arms about shoulder wide or slightly wider. That's the ideal base for the push up when focussing on maximal muscle reqruitement. In a weight lifting program I would focus on keeping the push up at the end of a workout due to the lesser load. And yes, the stretch push up is truly amazing for activating a lot of deeper stretch muscle fibers. It will allow you to go below paralel which is great at the end of a workout (but very bad at the start!)

 

100%. the days I don't feel like working out or going to the gym, I just go anyway or start lifting at home. Once the wheels are in motion, it's easy and the motivation isn't an issue.

 

211lbs is super lean.

 

I missed hour height. OK, actually forgot and it is probably back in the thread.

 

Nice! I am 6'6" and currently sitting at 188. I have a long lean build to start with but my current body fat is too low. If I am busy and miss lunch, by 3:00 I hit the wall and just want/need to lay down because there is no fuel left.

 

At 5'8" and 50yo I'm solving a somewhat different scale problem than you tall bastards!

Started the summer around (read: over) 185 and floated down to low 170s by just not bringing food/beer on the boat. Seriously refocused on lifting a few months ago after a long layoff (thanks, Lars!) and finally had to lock diet down a few weeks ago to ensure I wasn't undereating. Two weeks ago got sick and had a fairly stressful life event simultaneously so took a bit of time off from lifting to recover and let some of the accumulated aches and pains heal, plus a break from diet (eating around maintenance) for the holidays. I'll drop a bit more fat for a few more weeks which will leave me probably more lean than is sustainable in my real life, then shift to a hopefully long and slow mass gain phase.

Weirdly, I kind of enjoy the fat loss phases.

Diet is pretty flexible, with a 1.0-1.5g/lb LBM protein target, moderate/low fat, and the rest of the calories rounded out with carbs. Intermittent fasting is my natural state of affairs, with first meal somewhere around noon and last nibble around 8pm. Mistakes most often take the form of midnight salty/carby snacks by the box, usually accompanied by alcohol. Cutting alcohol back to only special occasions has made a HUGE difference all around, and literally the day I did that I started losing fat preferentially with virtually no loss in LBM/strength. Can't recommend it enough.

This is current.

 

It's awesome what you are doing, and have done my friend.

Maybe the next step is to increase your protein (not just calories). A higher protein intake (maybe as high as 2.2 grams per 1 kg of bodyweight) will not only help build muscle, but maintain muscle especially during the holidays when regular workout routines get thrown for a whack.

 

Amen brother. Over the past few years I cut out alcohol to perhaps once a month. Usually when out with family enjoying some steak. Best thing that helped me stabilize my weight. Of course, not yet at the point of arrival in terms of optimal weight but can see the light at the end of the tunnel. One thing I would say is that pre-pandemic I used to go on at least 2 or 3 trips with the guys per year -- and it was pretty much days of drinking. COVID kinda help right size the situation so to speak.