Hands On: One Hundred Push Ups

It seems the best websites are those online for a purpose. In this case, it's Steve Speirs and his "One Hundred Push Ups" site, trying to give a little Internet love back. Steve had completed an exercise plan from a long since abandoned website, leaving him fit enough to do 100 push ups. He wrote about his progress in his blog and then forgot about it.

With the original site gone and Steve's site now being the only reference, people started turning to him. "I started receiving multiple emails asking if I had copies of weeks 5 and 6 of the plan. Luckily I had a few Word docs saved locally and was able to reply to all the requests. I attempted to contact the original web site's owner to find out what happened to the site, but never heard anything back. " With an obvious need, Steve put up his own site.





In this case, Steve's giving instructions for a fitness plan he's already tried successfully. "I really liked the simplicity of the plan, the progressive nature of the workouts and of course the end result of being able to do one hundred consecutive push ups." Me too.

Recently, I've taken to hiking a local (small) mountain. It was during a 'runner's high' moment (what sad shape am I in, if I can get a runner's high from walking) that I decided to add this push up goal. Last night I began my own quest for 100 push ups. In the pre-rest which determines your original level of fitness, I managed seven push ups. It's understandable. I'm middle aged and spend most of my waking hours sitting. Today, I'm really sore. But, I've also gotten one step closer to my six week goal.

The plan shows you how many push ups to do, three days a week. My first session was 7, 7, 5, 4 with sixty seconds between each set. At the end, I did as many additional as I could - four. It's a start.

Will I get to 100 in six short weeks? That would be very cool. No, it would be more than cool. It would be amazing.