Category: Health & Fitness

I totally lost track of where I was, and have not been keeping up with the push ups plan. So I’m restarting Week 4 after doing an endurance test where I ended with 33. I guess I shouldn’t feel too badly about that, since I started with 20. Oh well. Here we go, again!

So, I backslid. I admit it. I’m back down Week 4 Day 2 after being up to Day 3 and not being able to hack it. Darnitall.

After totally botching my exhaustion test (due, I think, to changes in the weather making my stiff and achy all over the place), I decide that my pathetic showing of 16 (pathetic, given that I’d been routinely doing more as part of week two’s sets) wasn’t quite good enough. So I proceeded in week three, column two. I was in column three for the first couple of weeks, but didn’t quite make the cut. So instead of stopping, I’m just scaling down a bit and will hopefully regain some momentum.

I was supposed to do an exhaustion test on my push ups yesterday. I did, sort of, but couldn’t get past 16. I’ve been feeling out of sorts, and am trying to decide if I should just continue on in column 2 (given I could only manage 16) or try again tomorrow, or what.
Suggestions welcome.

I had a routine physical a couple of weeks ago to see how I’m doing. Given my weight loss, age, and the fact that I hadn’t had one in several years, I figured it was time. I checked out pretty well in the office, and last week had bloodwork done. I just got the results. I’m within the “reference range” for a man my age on everything except my Calcium levels, which are 8.5 (in a reference range of 8.6-10.5mg/dl).
My doctor wrote a note on the results saying “These are great, Peter. Good work.”
On that note, anyone else up for joining me on the hundred pushups challenge?

Ouch. Week two started today, with sets of 14, 14, 10, 10, and 15 pushups. The last one was a killer, and for the first time, my shoulder hurt right from the get-go, but I did them. I grunted and groaned, but I did ’em! Hah! Take that, old self!

Given my serious lower back pain (like, don’t expect to get into or out of a car without going “Ow! What the hell!?”), I’ve temporarily given up on the idea of doing 200 situps in the next six weeks. Fortunately, however, I can do pushups without the slightest bit of pain in the affected area, so I carried on with Week 1, Day 3 yesterday, banging out sets of 11, 15, 9, 9, and 14.5 pushups. Yes, 14.5. I kinda collapsed halfway up the last one.
Tomorrow I start Week 2!

I seriously screwed up my lower back, presumably last night while doing my situps/crunches. I’m not sure how I did it, but combining that plus a full day Aikido seminar and I’m calling it a night. I’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow and try to get back onto the pushups wagon.

I was a bit concerned that maybe I had cheated in my 200 situps initial test because I wasn’t sure that I’d held the situp for 1-2 seconds, as I didn’t read that part of the website until after doing them. So today I started on Day 1, doing sets of 15, 18, 10, 10, and finally 23 situps. Phew! My abs feel weak, but now I don’t feel quite so guilty about those french fries I had at dinner.
Tomorrow is a day-long Aikido seminar here in Boston, so pushup performance may suffer as a result. Stay tuned to find out!

Yesterday was day 2 of my Hundred Pushups Challenge. I did my sets of 10, 12, 8, 8, and 11 pushups, although I later found I should have done at least 12 on the last set. Oops. To compensate, I did another dozen in the evening, hoping that this is okay.
Have you taken the challenge yet? If so, let me know by either commenting here on my blog or messaging me on Twitter.
Later today, I start Day 1 of the 200 Situps Challenge.