100 What?

Obviously I love the number 100. I recently did a "100 Things" post - and in fact I loved it so much that I wrote Sean an email with 100 things that I love about him. (aw). I also love the word challenge, so when you put those two words together, it creates an unstoppable marketing force that beats its way into my brain. I haven't done the 100 Thing Challenge yet, but I am seriously thinking about it.

So, it was only a matter of time before I gave in to the mystical allure of the 100 Pushups . Thanks a lot Alex for putting this ridiculous idea into my head.

If you quickly peruse the 100 pushups site, you'll see that you are supposed to give yourself an 'initial test' where you see how many pushups you can do when you max out. I can do 10, so I put myself into the 6-10 category. If you click on week 1, you'll see that the first day of training for someone in that category is the following 5 sets: 7,7,5,4,max.

Well, guess what happened. Last Wednesday I tried to do these 5 sets and made it through 7,7, and 5. Then after 2 more pushups I collapsed onto the floor. Friday I was so sore that when I tried to repeat day 1, I did even less pushups. Yesterday I tried for the 3rd time. I actually made it through the first 4 sets. For the 'max' set you're supposed to do 'at least 5', and I managed to do 1. So I am almost, almost there. I think the 4th time will be the charm.

Sean also decided to start the program with me yesterday. He can do about 35 pushups so he put himself in the 31-35 category, which meant he should start in Week 5 of the program. But guess what? He couldn't do his 5 sets either.

My conclusion: this program is insane. It's a fine idea but has a major flaw: if your max is N pushups, it's unlikely that you'll be able to do 5 sets of approximately N-2. Now that I'm so close to being able to complete my first day of my program, I think I'll try to stick with that level. But my recommendation for anyone who also falls victim to the "100 * Phenomenon" is to take your actual max, cut it in half, and then start at that level. Good luck!