Pushups to Improve your Mental & Physical Strength

100 Pushups a Day Introduction

Why even consider doing 100 pushups a day ?

I am sure you would agree that as you get older, it gets harder to get/stay in shape, right?

Forget about getting fit, how about just losing weight, like your pot belly or man boobs.

It gets harder and harder to look and feel athletic, especially when you are over 40, 50 and 60+.

But this problem of an aging body gets worse.

You lose muscle mass every year.

According to the NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), loss of muscle mass, also known as Sarcopenia occurs as a result of aging.

After age 35 you will lose between .5-1. Percent of your muscle mass annually unless you engage in regular physical activity to prevent it.

By engaging in regular resistance training and following a sound diet that includes adequate amounts of protein, you can prevent most of the muscle loss associated with age.

Health experts recommend that you engage in some of the resistance training that focuses on all major muscle groups a minimum of 2 times per week and up to 5 times per week depending upon your goals.¹⁾https://www.sharecare.com/health/types-of-exercise-programs/muscle-mass-after-35

If you do not make a concerted effort to maintain and build your muscle, you are facing trouble.

With less muscle mass, you will be fatter.

More fat, and less fit, which means less functional and attractive.

Your metabolism will slow down and you will gain weight.

You have a 3 out of 4 chance of being overweight or obese after the age of 20.

Obesity drives many chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

So What Can You Do About It?

Two months ago I had this crazy idea to do 100 pushups a day.

I have trouble putting on muscle and wanted something simple to do with a minimum amount of time investment.

What is simpler than the pushup?

And what is easier to do anywhere than push ups?

All you need is a floor and off you go.

Even if you become a walker (which is great) and make sure to take a 30 minute walk every day, that is not enough.

You need more resistance training, especially for your upper body.

The pushup is the perfect solution to build muscle, with minimum investment, time and money required.

I wrote an article about doing a 100 pushups a day challenge.

• And I started doing 100 pushups a day on February 16th, 2018.

Even though I train fairly often, the first day was not so easy.

It took me close to 14 minutes to get through 100 pushups.

But, with only 14 minutes necessary, I thought it was certainly worth the time.

Because by the time I finished my 6 or 7 sets of pushups, I felt that I could potentially get stronger.

What I Learned Doing 100 Pushups a Day for the Last 60 days

• Your muscles will grow stronger even if you are over 60
• You need to challenge your body in order to build muscle
• Increasing the intensity of your training will build your strength
• If you can only do 20 pushups straight today, you will be able to do more 2 months from now
• You might even be able to do 50 pushups in a row after 2 months.

The last 5 or 10 might not be too pretty, but you will get to 50.  I know this is true because I have increased my initial set of pushups from 20 to 50 in 2 months.  If my body responds to daily pushups at the age of 61, your body will certainly respond as well.

• Doing pushups every day helps you get better at doing push ups
• All you need is ten minutes a day to get in a good upper body workout
• After two months of doing 100 pushups a day, you will see a difference in your physique

(assuming you eat real food daily – remember, you can never out train a bad diet, a processed food diet!)

• You will not only get stronger, but your muscles will get bigger.
• You could increase your arm measurement by up to 1 inch.
• Use a hardwood floor if you have one available. They seem to be least vulnerable to your hands getting sweaty and slipping.
• Keep your room cool.
• Keep your feet together.
• Practice perfect pushup form, body straight from head to toe.
• Do your 100 pushups a day first thing in the morning before you have breakfast for best results.

This way you make sure to get in your 100 pushups a day training before you get busy commuting and working. Invest in your health and fitness before anything else. There is nothing more important than maintaining and improving your health, is there? When you do not have energy, when you are not feeling or looking good, you will not be living your optimal life.

• Doing 100 pushups a day will prime the rest of your day and help put you into a peak state.
• Focusing on only one good health and fitness habit a day will lead to more excellent habits that will change your body and change your life.

Once you spend 10 to 20 minutes of your day doing 100 pushups, do you think you want to ruin that effort by downing a blueberry muffin and soda? I don’t think so. After your 100 pushups, you are going to be more motivated to eat real food, drink water, get to sleep on time, and do additional training like squats, deadlifts, jump rope, swimming or walking to complement your 100 pushups a day.

• Think progressive training with records and stop thinking about working out with no measurements
• Use a 100 pushups a day training log to record how many pushups you did, the number of sets and the total time used.
• You can use a standard stopwatch, a stopwatch on your smartphone or a fitbit. I prefer the fitbit because of its other features of tracking heart rate for cardio training and steps walked each day.
• You must use a training log if you want to improve your pushups and get fitter and stronger.

Training is superior to working out. Why? Because by definition, training is measured and workouts is more of a general activity. How many people have you seen at the gym ‘working out’ with not much to show for it? Even after years of working out?  But, if you train with a log, if you record every training session, you will know the time or number of pushups you are trying to beat.

• You do not need to compete against anyone to become an athlete.

Start by competing against yourself. Beat yesterday’s time taken to do 100 pushups. Do more pushups on each set today than yesterday, even if it is only one more pushup.

• 100 pushups a day is a base foundation for pushing you to keep training to get fitter. get stronger. live better.

How To Increase the Intensity Of Your 100 Push Ups a Day Training

Increase your push up training intensity to increase your strength.

Shorten your rest period between sets.

For example, let’s say you need 10 sets of 10 pushups over 30 minutes to do your first 100 pushups.

And you rested for 3 minutes in between each set.

Every day try to decrease your rest time gradually.

You will find that as you decrease your rest time, your muscles will get stronger.

And before you know it, you will be able to do 12 or 15 pushups, and then 20 pushups.

As you can see on my own push up log, my initial max pushups was 20 on Feb 16th, 2018.

And it took me nearly 15 minutes to do 100 pushups over 7 sets.

But today, April 19, 2018, I did 50 pushups straight for my initial set.

Then 20, then 5, then 15 and 10 for the last set.

My best time for 100 pushups is down to 6 minutes and 23 seconds.

You will accomplish the same.

Be consistent and before you know it, your time to do 100 pushups a day will decrease as well.

And you will be able to do more pushups on your initial set.

Conclusion

If you a 50+ year old man or woman, you can absolutely get fitter and stronger than you are today.

And if you are younger, what are you waiting for?

By doing 100 pushups a day, you can inspire and motivate yourself to keep training for better health and strength.

What do you want more of in your life?

More oreo cookies or more fitness and strength?

I shouldn’t have asked that, right?

Because you would rather have the Oreos?

Me too, true, but the taste of the Oreos only lasts for a few minutes, and the Oreo high only lasts an hour.

And you are only satisfying your tongue at the expense of the rest of your magnificent body.

Is that fair?

And after a lifetime of Oreos, Snickers, Doritos, etc, you only have a lifetime of obesity and other chronic illnesses to look forward to.

If you invest 10 to 20 minutes of your time to do 100 pushups a day, you are building a foundation for a fitter, stronger and better life.

When you think long term, you are going to want to look and feel great.

A lot more than you want those Oreos.

Stop investing in Nabisco stock and start investing in your health and fitness.

Feeling good and fit tastes much better than tired, out of shape, groggy, diabetic, high blood pressure and fat.

This is how you build better habits, by starting off with one.

And what is more practical than push ups?

You just need a floor, a little space, yourself, a stopwatch or fitbit, a 100 pushups a day training log and a pencil or pen.

That’s it.

100 Pushups a Day Challenge

Why record your 100 pushups a day in a Journal?

Peter Drucker famously said “What gets measured, gets managed.”

If you want to make progress, you must keep a journal of your pushup workouts.

Here is my updated 100 pushups a day challenge table as of today:

After 21 days on this 100 pushups a day challenge, I hit 45 pushups straight in the initial set.

And today did a total of 100 pushups today in 8 minutes and 27 seconds.

This is the first time that I broke the 9 minute barrier.

But, this challenge is about you.

Have you started doing 100 pushups a day?

The idea is that as you reduce your time, you will get stronger.

Even without going to the gym to lift weights.

To help you record your workouts, here is a Pushups Journal for you to print out and use for yourself.

I have found keeping records the old school way is more satisfying and motivating than doing so online.

Introduction to 100 Pushups a Day

Why do 100 pushups a day?

Between 2,800 and 3,100 pushups a month, which can add up to 36,500 pushups a year?

Because you know you want to get fit.

What new habit can you start that will take you less than 15 minutes a day and put you on the path to fitness?

Is there one exercise you can do which will not require a lot of time and special equipment?

The answer is yes, the ‘simple’ pushup.

Pushups are your most basic resistance exercise, and all you need is yourself, and a floor.

This is why we are all familiar with pushups, from school gym class, military training or even punishment!

Push Ups will build your chest, arms, shoulders, core and your confidence.

No wonder even the Navy Seals incorporate pushups into their training and strength testing.

If pushups are good enough for the Navy Seals, they are good enough for us.

Did You Know That Pushups Alone Can Build an Impressive Physique?

As pushups did for Herschel Walker, the former football player turned MMA fighter:

Herschel did not lift barbells or dumbbells.

Every day Herschel did thousands of pushups and sit ups and built one of the most powerful physiques you will ever see.

Success leaves clues.

You do not have to lift weights to get a chiseled physique.

Herschel Walker is the proof.