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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

1000 push ups a day

dec31-485
total push ups/chin ups 142,062
weight 203.6 %bf 24.1
I have a "google alert" set up for the words "push up". Yesterday I found the article below on ;
After reading it I am kind of feeling like I am wimping out on the push ups- and need to suck it up and post some bigger numbers.
One of my clients was telling me about her boss that does 1000 push ups every day. I asked her why he chose to do that many push ups each day and she said he had had back problems and this one of the things that helped him. I was amazed and also entrigued, so I thought I would ask him for his story…
“When I was about 35 I began having lumber disc problems which is hereditary as I am now at least the third generation to have exactly the same problem at about the same age. My back is pretty good now two surgeries later, but for several years before having surgery I was doing physical therapy and would several times a day need to get on the floor and do some stretching to relieve pain. (as an aside I would recommend that even once people have successful back surgery they never stop the back exercises, as I never miss a day and it helps a lot) As long as I was on the floor any way, I began to do a set of push ups each time as it made my back feel even better than just the therapy exercises. I discovered that, at least for me, it was a back friendly exercise. Over time I kept increasing the size of my sets and began doing them as a routine in the morning and at night as well. One week I was feeling good and set a goal of 500 which I easily achieved. Then the 500 successively grew to 1000. Now 18 years later and 53 years old I still do 1000 push ups almost every day. There are some days where I do more as 1200 or 1300 or more is not terribly unusual. But under virtually no circumstances will I go to bed without a minimum of 500 for a day. That is a bad day and rare, but it sets a minimum base line. About a year ago I set my current single day record of 2300. Although my single set record is 150, my normal range starts at 100 to 120 in the morning and then I work my way down on set size from there. The single most important key to having a routine like this is getting started with the first set each day. To force that discipline I roll out of bed and before I stand up, I get in my first set of at least 100. From there it is down hill and easy all day.
Certainly I do other exercise, I walk, swim, Nautilus, but push ups are my core mainstay and give me some exercise every day of the year no matter what is going on and it is a nice quick way to constantly stretch my back while I am at it. My back is doing fine, I feel ok, maintain a constant low weight and low blood pressure.”
Gary A. Bernstein

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

losing a pound a day

Dec28-430,dec29-304

total push ups and chins 141,577

weight 205 bf %23


Down another half a pound. Since Christmas that has been four and a half pounds of weight lost,pretty close to a pound a day of weight loss. I would be thrilled to believe that the weight loss could continue this way and if it does great. I don't seem to have a ton of trouble getting down to 200 pounds, however the real test is whether I can get down below 200 pounds. If I keep heading south of 200 I will be pretty happy with the kettlebells. I have been fooling around with the kettlebells for a while. Pretty much anything you would want to know about working out with kettlebells can be found on Dragondoor.com. Pavel Tsataouline who brought this ancient strength building tool, to consciousness in the west, has his books and courses featured on the site. I have been lurking on the site and it's forums for a while. When I got the two 16kg bells I started to fool around with them a bit-but the forums say buy the book "Enter the Kettlebell" and follow the program in it. So finally I did and have been following the RIte of Passage Program outlined in the book(along with push ups of course). Seems to be working pretty well so far. The website for dragondoor is quite simply :

Sunday, December 28, 2008

down 4


dec 26-600,dec 27-335

total push ups/chins 140,843

weight 205.5 bf%24

Down another 4 pounds since Christmas. My calorie deficit according to fitday -doesn't quite justify this loss in pounds. I have read that the kettebells have a "high Metabolic cost" -which I am I think is a more manly way of saying the burn a lot of calories. I have been doing 20-45 minutes of kettlebells on top of my push ups and chins. Fitday doesn't have an activity code for kettlebells so I have been plugging my time in as "weight training" which I am assuming burns fewer calories than the kbs. Nonetheless they seem to be working okay. It is quite something if this little (well not so little) ball of iron with a handle -swinging it around and such could burn that many calories. Got this months copy of Men's Health and there is a picture of Lance Armstrong swinging a kettlebell. I guess if they are good enough for Lance Armstrong they are good enough for me.



Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas weight gain


Dec24-445,dec25-185

total push ups/chin ups 139,908

bodyweight 209.5 bf% 23

Well the old tanita says I weigh in at 209.5 exactly 5 pounds less than I weighed Christmas day last year. I suppose that is not so bad-down weight this year instead of up-however not a lot of weight loss for all those push ups. I would say I had kept the weight at bay over the Christmas season-however gaining about 7 or 8 pounds over the last few days wouldn't really qualify as "weight being kept at bay". Oh well back to the push ups and chins.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

graphic rollercoaster


dec23-347, dec 24-400

total push ups/chins 139,278

bodyweight 201.5 bf%22


The graph above is my weight loss according to fitday. If you could call it weight loss. Last Christmas day I weighed 214.5 pounds and today I weigh 201.5 -so you could say in a year I have lost about 13 pounds. However I have sort of lost the same thirteen pounds over and over again as you can see by the up and down action in the graph. This year I think the goal will be to have a little more consistant a trendline on the weight loss graph.
By the way Cathy liked the kettlebell,

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Gifts not to get your wife


Dec17-276,Dec20-228,dec21-283
Total push ups/chins 138,531
weight 207.5 bf %21
Since New Years last year, my wife Cathy has been working out with me fairly regularly. The last few weeks since we did renos( and right now she is away visiting her sister)-we haven't been working out together too often. Last night my daughter mentioned to Cathy that we had been working out together since she had been away. Cathy told her she was hoping to get back into working out together. That got me thinking while I was out shopping today. For the last little while I have been getting push ups and chins done here and there. Mostly I have been playing around with the kettlebells quite a bit. I was grabbing some stuff from the local Walmart and I come across a ten pound kettlebell. I figure -I should try to get Cathy hooked on the 'bells. I think she could probably handle something heavier than ten pounds-but I also know that if I have her over do it at first-she will hate the 'bells and not want to continue. So anyway I buy her the kettlebell. Not for Christmas or anything I just bought it. Now I know she won't be particularly excited with this -I use the term "gift'' loosely-but I know she will try it. However I know there is an inherent risk here. Men should never buy their wife fitness equiptment unless their wife expressly and in writing requests it. Years ago when I was a teenager ( my wife and I were High school sweethearts) Cathy says I would like to get in shape-we should workout together. Men can be fairly thick when it comes to how women percieve their weight, and Cathy wasn't or isn't overweight. So with that in mind I thought nothing of buying her a sit up board for Valentines day. Now I was only 16 or 17 at the time, and clearly can see now how foolish this was. However over two decades later-the sit up board story still comes up every now and again. Believe me Cathy says lots of nice things about me-but this story is never told as a story of endearment. Anyway the kettlebell seemed like a really good idea-but then again so did the sit up board at the time. I will let you know how it goes.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Cookie Mass?

Dec6-75,dec7-381,dec9-168,dec10-300,dec14-80,dec15-180

total push ups/chins 137,744
weight 208 bf 22%
I seem to putting on the holiday "pork". However my bodyfat percentage doesn't seem to be going up all that much-so theoretically I am gaining weight -but not bf%-could be muscle. Yah right. We will see how the next few days weigh in go-then decide if the weight gain is a good thing or a bad thing. Christmas season at RMH is full of volunteers doing Christmas baking for the families,staff and other volunteers. I would really like to think that the additional weight is muscle mass- I am thinking it is more likely "cookie mass"

Friday, December 5, 2008

time for a quick post

nov29-290,nov30-195,dec1-285,dec2-140,dec3-120,dec5-174

136,560 push ups/chins
bodyweight 201.5 bf 21%
Just running off to an event. But feeling guilty about not posting the push ups numbers for a while. The numbers have been repectable-but really nothing to brag about so-thus the reason for no posting. However got to keep myself accountable and motivated