Taking a break.... for now

I completed 5 weeks of the 100 pushups program and even started on week 6. Unfortunately I am unable to continue this program. I am not in the shape required to complete this program. I have managed to go from 8 pushups to 60+ consecutive pushups. I managed this over a period of 14-15 weeks. The Improvements is nothing but astounding. I have never done this many pushups even in my teenage years when I was 20 years younger and at least 75 lbs lighter.

These days when I do the pushups around 25th pushups, pressure builds up inside my chest and my head starts to get heavy and pretty soon it feels like that something inside my chest is about to snap. My head by this time is so heavy that it almost feels like blood flow is being cutoff from my brain. At this point I simply stop the pushups.

I suspect this physical discomfort has to do with every other area of my physical health which ranges from poor to abysmal. Although I have decent physical strength in biceps and triceps, I can barely run quarter of a mile without having an heart attack. I can barely carry my 3YO son up the stairs without my legs getting weak. I have gained weight and ballooned up in the last few weeks. My eating habits have become very unhealthy.

During the course of last 15 weeks , there have been many days, when I wanted to quit in frustration, the only thing that kept me from quitting was the realization that how much I would regret later. I have decided to quit the pushups program for now and I need to figure out what exactly is wrong. I am trying to decide if I should see a doctor in this matter.

I would definitely come back and finish this program at a later time. In the mean time I would e looking to start some other excersise routines that are not this streanous on my body.

Week 6 (Second Level) : Day 1 second Attempt on 11/04/2008

Todays workout turned out be harder than I expected, I was able to raise the count only by 5 pushups. Anyways it's an improvement, that's what matters and that's all I care about.

I was required to do 40,50,25,25,Max(at least 50)

I managed to scrape 40,30,25,25,35

The last set was especially difficult, By the time, I got to the 34'th pushup, My legs were shivering,My head was feeling heavier by the second and I thought something in my heart was about to snap. But nothing really happened, My biceps were pumped up and felt  good about it.

Week 6 (Second Level) : Day 1 on 11/1/2008

I started Week 6 Again today. This time I am doing the send level of pushups, I was required to do a total of 190 pushups, I managed just 150

I was required to do 40,50,25,25,Max(at least 50)

I barely managed to do 40,30,25,25,30.

The second set was the most difficult to do. It's quite a challenge to do 50 pushups right after doing 40. The Third and Fourth sets were not too hard and, in the final set, I was not that motivated.

Exhaustion Test

Well I managed 60 Pushups on my exhaustion test.

Here is my progression of exhaustion for the last four months: 15,19,35,40,43,51,60

I have been making steady improvements over the last four months. I never expected this to be easy task. 100 pushups is no easy task. I will continue Week 6 at the second level starting tommorow.

Week 6 : Day 3 on 10/27/2008

I did not have much trouble to finish up W6D3. I did 51 pushups in the last set, although Like yesterday, I thought I was going to have an heart attack towards the end :) The weird thing is that even after doing 50 pushups, My arms are not the least bit tired, but I am breathing very hard and my rest of the body is on the verge of collapsing. May be my next workout ought to be couch to 5k program.

I was required to do 13,13,17,17,14,14,16,16,Max(50)

I was able to do 13,13,17,17,14,14,16,16,51

I will be doing an exhaustion test tommorow, I am hoping to do atleast 60+ pushups and then repeat W6 on column 2.

Week 6 : Day 2 on 10/24/2008

Today, I was in a bit of rush, I was getting late for work and also had to get my son ready. On top of that I was a day late in doing the W6D2. So I did today pushups at a very fast pace, So all my pushups may not have been good form pushups.

I was required to do 14,14,15,15,14,14,10,10,max(44)

I was able to do 14,14,15,15,14,14,10,10,45

I barely took any rest between sets and did them at a good solid pace. In the last set, I did not even pause to take rest, Kept pushuing untill I hit 45. Although, I got to say, I thought I was going to have a heart attack after the 42nd pushup. I could feel lot of pressure on my chest.

Week 6 : Day 1 Sixth Attempt on 9/21/2008

Finally... Managed to do all 5 sets successfully. Todays pushups were not that hard at all. I made a slight change, Instead of counting one by one, I counted in sets of 5. For instance... first set is 5 sets of five and second sent is six sets of five and so on. This way of counting seems like a no-brainer, but for some reason, I never felt like trying this before. This made a huge difference in doing the final set.

By the time I got to 30+ in the final set, My hands started shivering and by the time I got to 37, it felt like my head was about to explode. I was feeling bit of added weight in my head, but sqeaked in 3 more and finished my 40.

I am looking forward to wrap up day 2 and 3 as soon as possible.