Week 5 - Day 1 - Second Attempt on 8/30/2008

Things did not go well at all today. I got up bit early in the morning to do pushups. I did the first set of 30 pretty easily. As I was getting ready to do the second set, My son wakes up and is going around the house calling me out. He comes over and he wants to play. So that puts a stop to my pushups.

Later when I was playing with him and I threw him a ball, Immediately I felt a pain above the tricep muscles and below the shoulder bone. I ignored it at that moment and couple of hours later, I tried to do the pushups again. This time I completed the first two sets of 30 and 24 pushups and while half way thru the third set, I felt the pain again and I stopped immediately fearing it would get worse. I still have little bit of pain in my arm, especially when I am driving and streering the wheels or lifting something heavy.

I think I know why I have this pain in my arm. Yesterday I did a lot of pushups and at atleast 25 pushups with my son stiiting on my back. Yesterday was supposed to be my rest day, but I could not resist, especially when my kid enjoys the pushups i do with him sitting on my back.

I am going to rest till monday and then I will repeat W5D1.

Week 5 - Day 1 on 8/28/2008

I still cant believe that i did 112 pushups today, I have no idea how I did 29 pushups more than my previous attempt on W4D3. Although I did not finish all the sets, I am thrilled at having done so many pushups and to have pushed myself this hard. All this difficulty to finish up the sets must be only in my head.

I was required to do 30,24,22,20, Max(at least 30)

I was able to do 30,24,22,20,16

Last week I had cut short the resting period betweek sets, But today I needed the 60+ seconds rest between and before the final set I took atleast 120 seconds of rest. Looking forward to repeating this day on saturday

Exhaustion Test

I did 35 pushups today on my exhaustion test. I am thrilled to have done so many pushups in one attempt, I have never done this many pushups even in my teenage years. The first 25 pushups were almost effortless, and then did one by one untill I got to 35.

Week 5 looks really tough, I don't think i will have the patience to do 8 sets in week 5, Usually In the morning I am in a rush and pushups are also performed at a fast pace. I am thinking of doing only 5 sets of W5D2 & W5D3. In other words combine Leve1&2 into one set and so on. I will try thi for a day and if it does not work out, I will go back to 8 level pushups on D2 and D3

Week 4 -Day 3 on 8/25/2008

Finally completed W4D3, Although my dissapointment at not being able to do additional pushups in the last set still remains. It's like my hand frozes and my mind quits after the last pushup on the last set. Anyways still happy to complete Week 4 and looking forward to best my previous attempt in the Exhaustion test.

I decided to make the pushups a bit more challenging by making the resting periods much shorter. I waited just 45 seconds before the 2nd,3d and 4th sets instead of 120 seconds and waited 60 seconds before the final set.

Week 5 looks very daunting, especially W5D1, Looks like it's going to be a long W5.

Informal Test of Strength

Few days before i began this pushup program, Itried to put by 2.5 YO son on my back and tried to do pushups. I barely managed to do one. My son weighs about 35lbs. He loves it when i put him on my back and do pushups. This is a fun test of strength that i plan to do occasionally. This pushups is slightly different from regular pushups, Instead of pushing my body all the down, I only push little more than half way down.

Couple of weeks ago, I tried this, I was able to do 8.Today I tried this test again and I managed 15 nonstop pushps. I could have done more, but decided not to, since I have to repeat W3D3 tommorow.

Week 4 - Day 3 Second Attempt on 8/22/2008

I don't know if it's my hands or me that gave up with just one more pushup to go. I was required to do 20,15,15,15,Max (atleast 18). I managed 20,15,15,15,17.

In some ways it's very frustrating to give up one step short of final destination, i was looking forward to the exhaustion test and week 5. At the same time, it's no big deal, I will try again on sunday. I took a little too much rest between 3rd and 4th sets, more than my usual 60 seconds at least 120 seconds. To compensate for the overresting, I decided to take a much shorter rest (45 seconds ) between 4th and 5th set. After the seventeen pushups, I coud not lift myself up for the final one and just collapsed on the floor.

Week 4 - Day 3 on 8/20/2008

I skipped a day to do this set of pushups, becasue I was way too much tired by all the walking we did in Montreal.

I expected this days pushups to be a bit more difficult than last two days. I failed to complete the 3rd and 5th sets. For this I can partially blame my wife :). I was doing these pushups in my hotel room and while I was doing the 3rd set, She was walking around me, which totally messed up my concentration and I just could not do any more after 11.

I was required to do 20,15,15,15, Max(at least 18)

I was able to do 20,15,11,15,12

I will attempt this day again tommorow. In the mean time, My current concern is that I am unable to do any more additional pushups in the last set. Most times I am barely able to complete the minimum required pushups. Part of the reason I believe is my weight, I have to find a way of loosing my weight similar to the pushups program, challenging, inspiring and fun.

Week 4 - Day 2 on 8/17/2008

This is a delayed posting, because I was on a short vacation for the past four days and did not have sufficient access to internet.

I completed the W4D2 pretty easily, This was done in a hurry as I had to leave to catch a plane. I did not take any more than 60 seconds breaks for each of the set. I did expect this workout to be easy because W3D3 was more difficult.

Week 4 - Day 1 on 8/15/2008

Although I successfully finished all sets today, I am a little bit dissapointed, becasue I was hoping to do at least 20 pushups in the last set instead of the minimum requirement of 16. Another reason the total number of pushups today was less than W3D3, Today I did a total of 69 pushups.

The gain in strength i made in the last few weeks is just mind blowing to me. In the earlier weeks I really really needed the rest day for my muscles to heal and recuparate, Now they are healed in a matter of hours. Also I noticed when I do the first set I feel weightless, Although I have not lost weight, My hands have become stronger and can easily support my weight.

Week 3 - Day 3 on 8/13/2008

It was a plesant surprise to be able to successfully complete W3D3 in just one attempt, I was mentally prepared to repeat this day if necessary. It took me 11 days to finish up days 1&2 of week 3.

As usual first set was easy, started to get difficult towards the end of second set. 3rd and 4th set was quite a struggle. The final set almost killed my arms, but surprisingly my arms had the strength to keep pushing.

My biggest concern is always my tendency to give up when things are going well. These days every day before the pushups, I have an urge to drop out, quit or delay the pushups and the only thing that keeps me from not quiting is the realization that how much I would hate myself later if I just gave up now.

Other than that, I am looking forward to week 4, it does not look as intimidating as week 3 looked at the end of week 2. Besides I am going on vacation next week and I intend to continue with the program in my vacation. One additional goal for next week will be to do more pushups on the final set instead of doing the minimum required. So far I have rarely done more than the minimum number of pushups for the final set.

Week 3 - Day 2 Fourth Attempt on 8/11/2008

Finally succeeded to finish all the sets. I alomost did not do the pushups today, I was feeling kinda lousy this morning and then i rememberd how few days ago before the pushups, I was feeling lousy and then did the pushups anyway and ended up finishing up all the sets for that day. That's exactly what happened today. The first set as usual was effortless, Second set struggled a bit towards the end. In the third set, started to struggle from half way point. I managed to persevere in the fourth set with some difficulty. In the final set, I decided to count backwards and that seemed to have done the trick. I collapsed after 15 pushups, tried to do one more, Could not even lift myself up.

I also made a slight change to way I do pushup. Usually when I push down, it's not actually pushing myself down, it's more like throwing myself down and catching myself, just before my nose hits the ground. Today I made the change to slowly pushing myself down in a controlled way and then pulling up.. I believe this may have contributed in todays success.

Week 3 - Day 2 - Third Attempt on 8/9/2008

Another Failure to finish all the sets. I did one more than previous attempt in the 5th set. I did the first two sets without too much effort. Started to struggle from the middle of the third set and at one point, I thought I may not be able to finish the fourth set.

I get the feeling that I am giving up too easily, although I do not feel that when I am actually doing the pushups. Usually by the time I do the last pushup, I do not have any more energy to lift myself up. What is more surprising is that how quickly the fatigue in my arms go away. In earlier weeks, it would take me more than a day for my muscles to heal. I really really needed a days rest before doing anymore pushups. I remember one day i tried to do pushups again in the evening after doing pushups in the morning, I could not even one pushup.

Right now I do not feel any fatigue in my arms,I feel like I can do few more pushups, Does this mean that i am giving up too easily when i am doing my sets? Does it mean that once i surpass my previous days pushup count, I just give up?

Week 3 - Day 2 Second Attempt on 8/7/2008

Failed to finish all the sets again, Did just 10 pushups on the last set instead of 15. The First two sets of 16 and 14 pushups were fairly effortless. Towards the middle of 3rd set, I started to struggle, but this time around, I don't have to struggle as much like previous attempts. The Fourth attempt was not very easy either.

Overall I did 66 pushups, 3 more than previous attempt. This is the reason I love this program, becasue I get a chance to compete with myself. I am generally very bad at competetive sports, this gives me a chance to be competetive, although the competetion is just between me of today and me of yesterday

Week 3 - Day 2 on 8/5/2008

Required to do 16,14,14,12, Max(at least 15)

Managed to do 16,14,14,12,7

Failed to complete all the required pushup, Slightly dissapointed, since i managed only 63 pushups, one less than previous days attempt. On the other hand, I arms feel a lot stronger than before, I can actually feel the difference when I am pushing thru fatigue in my arms in the third and fourth sets. Looking forward to retry again.

I may also have picked up the wrong time to do the pushups, I did them at 6:00 PM, instead of my usual 6:00 AM routine. I am more fresh and energetic in the morning

Is this really a six week program?

That's the question I have been asking myself, since i started this program of hundred pushups. Initially what attracted me to this program was the idea that i could be doing 100 pushups in six weeks. It seemed like a realistic goal and it got me stirred up and exited.Today it's been six weeks since I started doing pushsups and currently I have completed only 2 weeks of pushups.

The other day I was talking to a co-worker who is also doing the hundred pushups program. This guy is a pretty healthy guy, who eats healthy, goes for walk during lunch breaks and is also taking karate classes. He is doing this program along with his instructor(sensei) and some other classmates in his dojo. My first reaction when i heard this was "You mean your sensei who is a 3rd degree black belt cannot do hundred pushups". Turns out his sensei can do about 80+ pushups and then he has to struggle to get to 100. Up untill this point I really did not have a sense of the enormity of doing 100 pushups in one setting. I believe my cor-worker is someone who can finish off this program in six weeks.

For someone like me, who

• sits in front of a computer 8-10 hrs a day
• who is atleast 30 lbs overweight
• Breathes hard after carrying my 2YO son up the stairs

This could be a 12 week program or more. To be honest I do not care how long this program takes for me. So far this program has helped be become stronger and my muscles are firmer than before, I can actually feel the muscles on my arms. The most important aspect of this program is that it has given me a sense of accomplishment every day. The beauty of this program is that it makes me stretch and struggle every day and gives me an opportunity to beat previous days pushup count. Earlier when I started this program, I would struggle to just do 30+ pushups a day, a Week later I would be struggling to do 40+ pushups and in the last week I was struggling to do 60+ pushups a day.

Week 3 Day 1 - Seventh Attempt on 8/3/2008

Finally...... Success, Completed all 5 sets, although Had to struggle thru the last set. Feels Great. The First 3 sets were almost effortless.

Week 3 - Day 1 Sixth Attempt on 8/1/2008

I was so dissapointed, frustrated and depressed in failing again to finish up all 5 sets. This time around i managed only 10 pushups on the last set, Two less than my previous attempt. The truth is that i just gave up after 10 pushups. It was like I lost the will to continue. Moreover I struggled like never before on the first 4 sets. By the time I was dane with 4 sets, I did not have any energy or will to continue.

Part of the reason why i struggled so much today must be due to the time i choose to do the pushups. I did this around 4:00 PM and I had a heavy lunch that day and was feeling very good.