kentcowgill.org/blog

So, I was true to my word, and did some pyramids today.

I had done the 100 push ups (and 100 chin ups) thing for about 8 weeks. I made some progress, but it felt like I was stalling. So I did something different.

The routine is essentially this: 1 chin up, 3 push ups, and 5 crunches. Then multiply everything by 2: 2 chin ups, 6 push ups, and 10 crunches. Then by 3: 3, 9, and 15. And so on, until I've done 6 chin ups, 18 push ups, and 30 crunches. Then work my way back down: 5 chin ups, 15 push ups, 25 crunches. And so on. By the time I'm all finished, I've done 36 chin ups, 108 push ups, and 180 crunches.

This is the routine where I used to be able to work my way up to 10, 30, and 50, for a total of 100, 300, and 500. I'm not quite there yet.

But there are some good notes.

1) I was really concentrating on form. Powering through the 40 consecutive push ups had me cheating a bit - I wasn't going all the way down and having my chest touch the floor. Now I am. I've already mentioned how I've cheated on the chin ups - this time I bent my knees and didn't let my feet touch the floor (until near the very end).

2) This feels good. Granted, I had been doing a greater number of both chin ups and push ups with the 100 push ups program, but my form was sloppy and I was getting tired and discouraged.

3) A little more about that form. I had realized a week or two ago that it is entirely possible that I had been doing crunches and working only my rectus abdominals, and not my transverse abdominals (which seem so important to help mitigate my back pain). Now that I know how to engage my transverse abdominals, I'm concentrating on doing exactly that throughout the range of motion for the crunches.

So I figure I'll do these for a little while and work my way up.

Todays routine, for brevity in notation, looked like this: 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1 (OK, maybe not so brief). Next time I'll probably repeat the 6 set (1-2-3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3-2-1) and work back down, for a total of 42 chin ups, 126 push ups, and 210 sit ups. And the next time I'll go up to 7. Or so I hope.

Will I keep at these until I hit the old mark? I'm not sure yet. I guess it depends on how I feel as I go along. This may just be a week, or a few weeks, or possibly more. I'm still kind of itching to hit some real weights again.