Exercise – Page 7

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 3, Day 2 the second time around

This week is my second time around doing week 3 of the 100 pushups challenge.

I did my pushups on Wednesday just before going out to play tennis. I pushed through them at a good pace. It wasn’t as tiring as the last time I did them, but it was still hard.

I started out with the set of 16. No problem. two 14s, slightly harder. Twelve was a struggle. The last set of 15 I was able to power through them, and get all the way to 17. That is one better than last week. Small gains, right?

Now I have friday to look forward to – Hopefully I’ll get all the way through this week. If not, back to week 3 again!

After my pushups I went out for an hour and a half of tennis with my neighbor. It was an extremely hot day outside, and I was sweating like crazy. On those hot and humid days don’t forget to stay hydrated! If you don’t you’re in for trouble!

photo credit: aloshbennett

100 pushup challenge for Ipod

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My preferred indoor workout routine – “The Biggest Loser Workout”

By Peter 3 Comments

Indoor workout routines

During the winter, and when the weather is nasty outside I have to find a way to exercise indoors. Usually for me that means one of a couple of choices. My first choice is usually running on our new fuel treadmill. It has a high intensity interval training (HIIT) setting where I can get a great cardio workout – without thinking too much. My preferred choice for many days, however, is a workout video.

I know, I know. Workout videos are silly – guys don’t use workout videos, etc. Personally, I’ve had that kind of thinking in the past, and have shunned workout videos. Now, after using this video I’m rethinking that whole paradigm.

Using the video

The first time I used this video (I only have the first one – the one on the left), I was thinking that it was going to be easy and that I wouldn’t get much out of it. Boy was I wrong. By the time I was done I was huffing and puffing, and I had sweat dripping down my forehead.

The workout I enjoy doing the most is the high intensity cardio workout. Basically it takes you through a regimen of high impact cardio exercises. You do everything from tire run, football quick steps and boxing to kicks and leg lifts. It was a lot of fun, and only after doing it for a few weeks last fall was I able to complete it without almost killing myself.

The Biggest Loser the Workout Volume 1 & 2 DVD Video 2 Disk Set

The DVD also has several other great workouts you can do including low impact cardio, boot camp (pretty hard too) and several stretching exercises.

So, check out the The Biggest Loser Workout – it’s a workout that both men and women can enjoy! I give it 4 out of 5 stars!

100 Pushup Challenge: Back to Week 3, Day 1

By Peter 3 Comments

Saturday was day 3 of week 3 in my 100 pushup challenge. As I mentioned in a previous post I failed on the last set – only making it to 10 of the required 16 minimum pushups, although I did complete the pushups from my knees. This week I’m doing week 3 over.

I didn’t get to the pushups until almost 10pm on Monday, at which time I was already pretty tired. The sets for today calls for sets of 15, 12, 12, 10 and a final set of at least 15.

I started out with the set of 15, and noticed that once again I was pretty sore still from Saturday’s pushups.

After the two sets of 12 and the 10 I was struggling.

The last set I struggled mightily from 10 on, but I was able to push out 16 pushups.

I’m repeating week 3 this week, but after doing that set i think it actually felt harder doing it this time. Is that even possible? Could it be that my weekend off for vacation took that much of a toll on me?

After doing my pushups I got out our “Biggest Loser” workout video to get in a quick cardio workout as well. As far as I’m concerned the high-intensity cardio workout on that DVD is pretty tough, and it gets me sweating every time!

Stay tuned everyone – tomorrow I’ll have something for you all – related to the 100 pushups challenge. Check back here for an update!

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 3, Day 3

By Peter 2 Comments

Saturday was day 3 of week 3 in my 100 pushup challenge. I was still pretty sore from the pushups on Wednesday, but I decided to give it a go anyway.

I did my pushups around 11:30 in the morning before my wife went out to do some exploring on our vacation this weekend. I wasn’t feeling particularly strong, and my sets bore that out.

Today calls for sets of 20, 15, 15, 12 and a final set of at least 16.

I started out with the set of 20, and was able to complete them without too much trouble. I did notice, however, that I had a bit more difficulty than other 1st sets this week.

The second two sets of 15 got progressively harder and I could feel my tired muscles protesting every pushup. By the third set of 12 I was barely able to finish.

The last set I made it all the way to 12 pushups, struggling the whole time. At that time I couldn’t go any further. I finished the set of 16 by doing the pushups from my knees. So I finished the set – albeit with a bit of cheating.

So I’ve failed a set for the first time – although I don’t count it as a complete failure. I still finished the set.

So next week I’ll be repeating week 3 of the 100 pushup challenge. I knew it would probably happen sooner or later. Hopefully this week I won’t be quite as sore after day 2 of week 3. How are you doing on your challenge?

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 3, Day 2. Challenge Participant Roundup!

By Peter 6 Comments

Today is day 2 of week 3. Monday’s workout was tough for me, and I just barely made it through the last set of 15. Today’s workout steps it up another notch, and I am 50/50 on whether I’d be able to finish or not.

To get some added inspiration today I checked out some other fitness and finance bloggers who are taking the challenge. I thought you might enjoy reading some of them too, so here they are! If you want to be added to the list – leave me a comment or go to the forum and tell us after taking our poll.

100 Pushup Challenge Participants

Today’s workout is 16, 14, 14, 12, 15(max) pushups.

I’ll be doing the workout tonight when I get home for work. Just trying to psych myself up to do it. I’ll update here once I give it a shot.

UPDATE: I just finished the pushups for today, and I have to say this was the hardest one yet! I was able to do: 16, 14, 14, 12, 16. That means I did a total of 72 pushups!

Here’s the progress chart for the challenge so far:

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 3, Day 1

By Peter 3 Comments

Today is the big day – day one of the 3rd week. After yesterday’s exhaustion test I’ll be starting in column one of this week’s regimen.

That means today’s workout was 15, 12, 12, 10, 15(max) pushups. Even though I’ve been progressing, this seemed like quite a bump for me, but what else can I do but give it a shot?

I got home from work, drank plenty of water and then started the sets off. The first set of 15 was no problem. The second set of 12 was done in no time. The third set of 12 got a little harder. The next to last set of 10 was a struggle. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish the set, but I did. The last set of 15 was even harder. I went steadily until about 10 pushups. At ten they became a bit more labor intensive.

Pushups 11-15 were extremely difficult. On 15 I pushed up about half of the way, and then struggled with my arms to make them push up the rest of the way. I did it!

Well, I made it through today’s workout, but with how much I struggled on those last couple sets today, I’m afraid I might not make it through the next one. Stay tuned – will it be a train wreck – or will I make it through another day?

Here’s the progress chart for the challenge:

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 2 Exhaustion Test

By Peter 4 Comments

On friday I finished week 2 of the 100 pushup challenge. As they suggested on the 100 pushups website, I waited a couple of days, and then did the exhaustion test to find out what column I should be starting in tomorrow for week 3 of the challenege.

I got up this morning, got hydrated by drinking a couple of 12 ounce glasses of water, and then proceeded to pump out as many pushups as I could without stopping.

I quickly made it to 10 pushups, the point at which I stopped on my initial exhaustion test. So already I’m ahead of the game! I then made it to 16, my previous high number of pushups that I performed this past week. I finally topped out at 20 pushups – my new high.

Now if you had asked me if I could do another pushup after that 20th one, I may have been able to squeak out 1, or possibly 2 more. But after seeing week three’s workout, I knew there was no way I could finish it if I had to do column 2. Even column 1 looks hard to near impossible.

So next week, I start with sets of 15, 12, 12, 10, 15. Could it be my first fail? I hope not!

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 2, Day 3

By Peter Leave a Comment

Today is day 3 of week 2, and once again it’s slowly upping the number of pushups.

Tonight is our 4th of July BBQ, so I figured I better get my pushups done in the morning before I get weighed down by hot dogs, burgers and beans. It is not going to be a healthy eating day today.

After having a yogurt for breakfast, and drinking most of a 32 ounce water bottle, I got down on the ground to do my pushups. The first set seemed harder than they normally do for some reason. (or do I say that every day?) I eeked out my 10 pushups, and then moved on to sets of 10, 8, 8 and then my max set. I took probably 60-90 seconds between reps, although it says to take 120 or more if required.

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On my max set I wasn’t even sure if I could hit the max minimum of 10 pushups, but I was able to make it to 10, and then 11, 12, 13 and finally 14! So in the end I was able to do just as many pushups today as I did 2 days ago – 50. It doesn’t feel like that many each rep when you’re doing them, but when you put them together you’re actually doing quite a few pushups. It feels good!

This weekend I’m supposed to do another exhaustion test to figure out what column to continue in for week 3:

At the end of Week 2 it will be time to check your strength and perform another exhaustion test. In simple terms, perform as many good-form push ups as you can manage before you physically can’t do another rep. The number of push ups you complete will determine which level of the program you’ll start in Week 3

If I’m able to do 16-20 pushups (which is what I expect probably), I’ll be starting on Monday with sets of 15, 12, 12, 10, 15. That’s 64 pushups, and 14 more than I’ve done before. Why did I sign up for this again? Wow.

If you’re doing the 100 Pushup Challenge right now, and you’re blogging about it – please let me know on the Quick to Fit Forums, I’m going to do a roundup in the next few days, and I’d love to link to you!

Quick To Fit Forums

100 Pushup Challenge: Week 2, Day 2

By Peter 1 Comment

Today was day 2 of week 2 of the 100 pushup challenge. I was not feeling it today, and was not looking forward to doing my set of 11, 9, 7, 7, 10(max). I changed once I got home, and got to work.

It seems like the first set or two I’m usually pretty tense or stiff, and they’re a bit harder to push out. Once I get warmed up they feel a little better, but they start getting harder to do. The first set of 10 I got out, but my muscles were pulsing a bit. It wasn’t hard necessarily, but my muscles weren’t warm yet. The second set of 9 was a little easier. By the third set I was pushing them out no problem. By the fourth I was starting to get tired. And on the last set I really pushed myself.

On the last set I was able to keep going until I collapsed after doing 16 pushups. My new high! So today’s final numbers were 11, 9, 7, 7, 16 (max). 50 pushups!

Day three is just around the corner – could 17 or 18 pushups be the new high after today? Somehow I doubt that because the numbers of pushups on each rep go up next time. I think I’ll be lucky to reach the max on the final set of 10. We shall see!

QuickToFit.com Forums

Soreness after a workout: Burn and recover

By Peter 5 Comments

Last night I did my pushups for week 2, day 1 of the hundred pushups challenge. Afterwards I went running for about 1.5-2 miles. It feels good to get back into the swing of things, and once you get going you can feel that your body enjoys getting the exercise (mine does at least). Your body starts to crave it.

photo credit: eyeliam

Since I only restarted the workouts this week I’ve found that my body is adjusting slowly to the routine, but that I am extremely sore the next morning. I’ve found that the first week or so of working out is usually the hardest for me in terms of soreness, muscle fatigue and exhaustion. After that first week I still get tired and sore, but not to the extreme that I do during that first week. So what causes the soreness? Soreness is discussed on DrMirkin.com:

On one day, you go out and exercise hard enough to make your muscles burn during exercise. The burning is a sign that you are damaging your muscles. On the next day, your muscles feel sore because they are damaged and need time to recover. Scientist call this DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness.

It takes at least eight hours to feel this type of soreness. You finish a workout and feel great; then you get up the next morning and your exercised muscles feel sore. We used to think that next-day muscle soreness is caused by a buildup of lactic acid in muscles, but now we know that lactic acid has nothing to do it. Next-day muscle soreness is caused by damage to the muscle fibers themselves. Muscle biopsies taken on the day after hard exercise show bleeding and disruption of the z-band filaments that hold muscle fibers together as they slide over each other during a contraction.

So I’m damaging my muscles, that doesn’t sound good? But is it necessary? He continues:

Next-day muscle soreness should be used as a guide to training, whatever your sport. On one day, go out and exercise right up to the burn, back off when your muscles really start to burn, then pick up the pace again and exercise to the burn. Do this exercise-to-the-burn and recover until your muscles start to feel stiff, and then stop the workout. Depending on how sore your muscles feel, take the next day off or go at a very slow pace. Do not attempt to train for muscle burning again until the soreness has gone away completely. Most athletes take a very hard workout on one day, go easy for one to seven days afterward, and then take a hard workout again. World-class marathon runners run very fast only twice a week. The best weightlifters lift very heavy only once every two weeks. High jumpers jump for height only once a week. Shot putters throw for distance only once a week. Exercise training is done by stressing and recovering.

Stressing and recovering is the key to success when you’re working out. This sounds a lot like what I’m doing with my Body For Life exercise regime. On cardio days they have you do interval training where you start out slow, and then work your way up to sprinting 5 minutes later, and then back to slow to repeat the process 3-4 times. Burn and recover, burn and recover.

The weight workouts are the same way. Start out with high reps/low weight, working your way towards high weight low reps, and then one set to exhaustion. Burn and recover.

So there you have it, while the soreness may not feel that great, it is to some degree a necessary part of exercising. Embrace, it, use it to your advantage, and you’ll be on your way to being fit.