Category: Personal

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.

Alright folks, “one hundred pushups sounds like fun,” you say? Well chew on this: Two hundred situps! At the suggestion of my Twitter pal, Michael Santarcangelo, I’ve decided to shoot not just for one hundred pushups, but also for two hundred situps as well! “Crazy,” you say? Perhaps, but why not! We’re talking just a few minutes a day, for a few weeks, and the results are certain to be noticable.
So, I started today with my initial test. I made it to 50 then collapsed down on the floor for a few seconds, before springing up to get the phone (thanks, client, I didn’t want to rest anyway).? Given my age, this rates me as “good.” Okay, I’ll take “good” over “pathetic milksop.” After all, it lets my skip right ahead to week 3!
Tomorrow is another pushup day, so I’ll get back to situps this Friday.
Care to join me? Comment on this blog, or send me a message via my Twitter page.

On Sunday I accepted a challenge from a friend: To see if we can get to 100 pushups. What is it? Check out the One Hundred Pushups website.
Since I’m in fairly good health and exercise regularly, and just had a physical where my doctor told me I’m in good health, on Sunday evening I tested myself to see how many I could manage. I did 20 pushups in fairly short order. I probably could have done more, as I wasn’t completely dead at the end of the set, but I decided 20 was my limit for that day.?
Given my age and 20 pushups, I am Rank 3 on the test. So I rested yesterday, which is to say, no pushups, although I did practice Aikido at my dojo last night. This morning, I began on week 1. I completed the first day, doing sets of 10, 12, 7, 7, and 10 pushups. Now that my arms feel like jelly, I’m off to the shower.
Do you want to take the challenge? Let me know and we can do it together!