kentcowgill.org/blog

July 13th:
Push ups, initial test: I did 20. I could've probably squeezed out a few more, but 20 is where I stopped. The program at hundredpushups.com doesn't really have you do anything different if you can do more than 10, and I'm planning on starting in with the program on Monday (the next day), so I figured I wouldn't kill myself eking out the last few. But man, that's a long way from the 300 I used to be able to do, albeit in pyramid sets.

Chin ups, initial test: I did 3. There is a very slim chance that with an appropriate amount of grunting, kicking, and facial contortions I could have possibly gotten close to doing another one, but my wife was in the room next to my chin up bar trying to get some work done, so I left it at 3, and left her a little less disturbed than she could have been. But man, that's a long way from the 100 I used to be able to do, albeit in pyramid sets.

So I'll be starting this program on the highest level for push ups, and the lowest level for chin ups. Sounds about right, since chin ups have always been a lot harder for me anyhow.

Which takes me to the next day...

July 14th:
Push ups: 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 9. Resting about 60 seconds between sets. Total of 43 within about 5 minutes. The start of the second ten, the eight, and the six seemed a little tough. I think I'm a little sore from my initial chin up test yesterday, and it is surprisingly interfering with the push ups a bit. I'm dreading Wednesday a little, I'll have to do 11 more push ups than I did today. But I guess on the bright side, today I did 23 more than I did yesterday.

Chin ups: 2 then 2 then 2 then 2 then ... two and a half. And then another half. Resting about 60 seconds between sets (except I tried that last half chin up within a few seconds after the previous half). So that's three on the last set, right? Well, no - I guess it doesn't count unless I get my chin over the bar. Or at least near. Total of (let's call it just) 10 within about 5 minutes. Man, I can't believe I used to do 100 of these things within 40-50 minutes or so. I really had to strain for the 6th and 8th chin ups. I was really kicking to get the 10th, and I completely ran out of steam on what would've been the 11th. I'm not sure how I'll be able to do any more than these on Wednesday. But today was 7 more than yesterday, and Wednesday is only 5 more than I did today. That ought to be doable, no?

Since Matthew was born (and even before) I had been severely lacking in my personal fitness. I recall a time where I used to do a pyramid workout consisting of 100 chin ups, 300 push ups, and 500 sit ups. I'd start with 1 chin up, 3 push ups, and 5 sit ups. Then multiply everything by two; 2 chin ups, 6 push ups, 10 sit ups. And so on up to 10; 10 chin ups, 30 push ups, and 50 sit ups. And then back down the pyramid levels, so that by the time I was all finished I had completed 100, 300, and 500 of chin ups, push ups, and sit ups respectively.

Naturally, it took me a long time to work my way up to that level, and even then I ended up doing short sets during the chin ups and push ups because it was so hard to do so many, especially so close to each other. By the time I was in the 7+ chin ups/20+ push ups per pyramid level, I could only do maybe 4-5 chin ups or 10-15 push ups in a row, so I'd take a lot of short rests and complete the required number for the pyramid level.

Regardless, this was years ago back when I was really working out a lot. I've really let myself go in the interim. I don't think I was weighing myself much back then, but I'm pretty sure I'm about 15 lbs heavier today. I felt like I had to keep up with my wife's caloric intake as she was pregnant with our little bundle of joy. You know. For support. Well, that's not entirely true, but that's pretty much what happened.

So around July 13th I stumbled across a site called hundredpushups.com and was immediately smitten by the idea - which is to work your way up to being able to do 100 consecutive push ups, over the course of about 6 weeks. It sounded awesome to me. The plan is to do about 5 sets of push ups (more sets in later weeks), each set being fewer repetitions than your all out maximum for each set, and rest for a length of time between each set.

I also decided to follow the same routine for chin ups. I'll be posting a narrative about my misadventures and missteps along the way of pursuing these goals.