Twice as Good as the Twenty Somethings

May4-1109,may5-1050,may6-1137,may7-1029,may8-1051

total push ups/chins 285,856

weight 186.6 bf%18

Well five days straight I have grinded out over 1000 push ups/chins. I am hoping I am not jinxing myself by typing this but it has been going okay. No serious pain or muscle soreness. I have a slight tenderness where the biceps meets the forarm. This has not prevented me from doing chins-but it has made doing sets of wide or reverse grip chins a little less motivating. I will just take it easy and go a little easier on the chin ups. I was looking back over my posts. I started this obsession in Febrary of 2007. Around this time my weight was hovering between 205 and 210 and my bodyfat was around 22 to 24 percent. I didn't start really tracking my weight on this blog until about 2008. I noticed December 31 of 2008 I was at 205 pounds with 24.1 percent bodyfat. Now December is Christmas time and probably the worst time of year to weigh yourself-nonetheless my weight was hovering back and forth around this level for a while. I seem to be able to hover between 17 to 19 percent bodyfat and I am having less trouble keeping my weight in the 180;s (albiet the high 180s most of the time). This is hardly what you would call rapid weight loss. If you track my entries you will see that I have probably gained and lost about the same hundred pounds over the last few years. However I suppose the real point is I am much less reluctant to take my shirt off than I was at 24 percent bodyfat. Men's Health won't be offering me a cover shot anytime soon-but I will likely spend a little more time at the beach this year. Speaking of Men's Health-this month's edition says the average 40 to 49 year old can pump out 15 push ups and the average 20-29 year old can pump out 25. In the upper half of my middle forties it feels okay to think you can do set after set of twice as many push ups as those twenty something guys.

50 straight

Jan13-445,Jan14-610,jan15-400

total push ups/chins 149,681

weight 203.6 bf%22.0

Well if this is the first time you stumbled on this blog site-I'll give you a bit of an update. I have goals in my personal life,goals in my professional life. Once you hit your 40's your body starts being able to do less of what it was able to do in your twenties. Somehow that doesn't seem quite fair and part of me thinks it doesn't have to be true. I figured I needed some kind of goal-aimed at proving it didn't have to be so. I stumbled across the blog one million push ups (link over on the left). Jack wanted to do a million push ups in his lifetime. Perfect goal-I could do that. It was a goal that would not quickly or easily be accomplished-it would take some persistance. The total above is where I am at in the quest for one million. Every chin ups I do counts as one, every push ups I do counts as one. So unlike Jack's blog where he is counting only push ups-I am counting push ups or chin ups.

On another note I tested my maximum for push ups( in a row). Yesterday I did 50 straight. Around New Years I thought I could probably do about 40-but when I tested myself I could only do straight sets of 30. 50 straight-halfway to one of my New Years goals.

Goal Graph

Jan 11-550,Jan12-586

total push ups/chins 148,226

weight 202.2 bf%23.6

Here is my fitday weight goal graph as of today. It is a little hard to read, but the straight line represents the trendline I will need to maintain to hit 185 by next New Years. The squiggly line underneath is my actual recorded weight to date. As you can see by the graph even with the ups and downs-I am apparently ahead of schedule to make this target. Of course the challenge is when I reach the sub 200 lbs point -but knock on wood. Haven't tested myself for maximum chins or push ups in a while-but my total daily numbers are going okay

Craig Ballantyne article

May 25-530,May27-300 total 102,464
weight 199.5 bf %20
calories left to burn 49377

Epictetus:
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

Found an interesting website on working out without weights. Specifically using gymnastics moves to get in shape.

http://gymnasticbodies.com/home.html
Also found an interesting brief article by Craig B on push ups/fitness level. Despite hundreds of push ups a day in a single set-I can only do the low end of the "fit:" range in a single set. Here's the article.


How Many Pushups Can You Do?
by Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
The push-up is the all-American exercise. Too bad most Americans would have a hard time cranking out a single repetition, let alone the number they should be able to do for their age.
It's time to start re-gaining your upper-body strength. And in a challenge I put together for Men's Health Magazine last summer, I set the bar very high. Here, for example, are the numbers I gave for men under the age of 45 to determine their level of fitness:
Able to do less than 20 push-ups = out of shape
Able to do 20-34 push-ups = average
Able to do 35-49 push-ups = fit
Able to do more than 50 push-ups = "Men's Health" fit
(For a woman, cut the number of repetitions by 60 percent. So, to get an "average" fitness score, a woman under the age of 45 would need to be able to do at least 12 pushups.)
If you are a beginner, start with kneeling push-ups to build strength. Do one set of 5-10 reps today, and add one set every other day until you are able to do three sets of 10 kneeling push-ups.
Once you are able to do that, you'll be ready for the next level: lowering yourself to the ground for a 3-count, then relaxing onto your knees and getting back up to the start position. Work your way up to 8 repetitions... and then you'll be ready to do full push-ups.
If you're already doing full push-ups, here's how to improve your fitness score: Start by doing half the number of repetitions you can do, rest 30 seconds, repeat that same number of push-ups, rest 30 seconds again, and then repeat the push-ups. Do this two or three times per week, decreasing the rest period by 10 seconds each week. Retest your max after three weeks.Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS©2008