About six months ago I published a post about the 100 Pushups Program. The program was developed by my friend Steve Speirs (of the Run Bulldog Run blog), and I’m now on my third go around with it. Both previous attempts ended in failure on my part (it gets hard in weeks 5 and 6!), but I’m happy to say that I’m now officially one day into week six of the program. With any luck, I’ll succeed in completing 100 consecutive pushups sometime next week (that’s the end goal of the program)!
Given that I don’t have the luxury of getting to a gym or a the patience to mess around with my adjustable dumbbells, I can’t say enough about what a great program this is – all you need is your body and the prescribed number of pushups to complete on a given day (the program breaks things up into 5-7 sets). I use the iPhone app, which is very convenient, and my upper body strength has improved to the point where I just managed to do 220 pushups after my run today (not consecutively) – this is more than I have ever done in one day in my entire life!
If you want to learn more about this program, you can read my much more detailed review of 100pushups published last year.
The One Hundred Pushups book can be purchased from Amazon.com by clicking on the box to the left.
About Peter Larson
Pete,
I’ve been a reader here for a few months and while usually your posts are very tempered, fair and thoughtful, I can’t get behind the 100 pushup program for the simple fact that it is one dimensional and therefore not a good strength training routine on its own. I’m not a doctor but my rudimentary knowledge of exercise physiology makes me cringe when I think of the effects of this type of program. Don’t get me wrong pushups are great, pushups are invaluable, I love doing pushups (as much as one can). However, I’m a firm believer in opposing muscle balance and for every strength building exercise that you do, you must also do a strength building exercise for the opposing muscles. To do so ensures that your muscles develop in proportion to one another and do not then throw your body out of alignment due to lack of strength on one side.
If all you do is pushups, while your pectoral muscles will get very strong (triceps, deltoids and abs secondarily), the muscles in your back will not and will therefore not have the strength needed to hold your shoulders in alignment under the new force your pectorals are now exerting. As a result your shoulders might start to roll forward and inward, which would adversely affect your posture and by extension your running mechanics.
I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but maybe not all readers do and so I think a recommendation of a program like this needs to be accompanied by a disclaimer or at least a note that there are no silver bullets or short cuts to well-rounded physical fitness.
Tait,
Excellent points – I should clarify that I would by no means urge
anyone to focus only on a sinlge type of strength training, whether it
be pushups or anything else. It might be better to recommend his
program as one tool in your fitness arsenal, and indeed, Steve has
several other apps that can be used in conjunction with this one
(squats, crunches), so I think he would agree with you as well. It’s
similar to running – I wouldn’t recommend anyone to run intervals
every day and not long runs, recovery runs, etc.
For me the issue is mainly a lack of time – the pushups program allows
me to get in some upper body work ithat I otherwise probably would
never do. Fortunately, my back gets a hefty workout lugging a baby
around all day :)
Pete
That program is great for me in conjunction with other programs. Being in the Army, it is an easy way too keep up and excel in the things I am tested on and stay in shape. I do that along with the Pull up, and Sit up program. I also use the 100 push up program and substitute push ups for dips. A great way to keep up my strength and core.
Also if you don’t like weights, Stew Smith has some good workouts/articles for runners, swimmers, but mainly for anyone in the military or any emergency service. They are good tools for runners and triathletes, I’ve found.
Plus you do not bulk up like you would with weights. Just my .02c