Pushup Routines

Since I've decided to quit the gym I've been mulling over different push-up routines I can stick to that won't interfere with my daily life.

Thoughts on push-ups:

I've done the 'Evil Russian' push-up challenge three times, which consists of two weeks of hardcore push-up action. The Evil Russian challenge works like this;

First you do as many push-ups as you can in one go without stopping. Let's say you perform 30 push-ups, this is considered your 100%.

For the next week you'll perform a percentage of this total at different frequencies. At the start of the second week you take another 'test' to do as many push-ups as you can, then for the rest of the week perform a percentage of that max.

Then you're done!

WEEK 1

RI - Relative Intensity (Percentage of your max test)
SF - Set Frequency (How often to perform the set)

Mon: 100% test, relative intensity (RI) 30% Set frequency (SF) 60 min (So here you've done your max which is for example 30, and for the rest of the day you'll do 30% of 30 every 60 minutes. About 10 push-ups an hour.)

Tues: RI 50% SF 60 min (This day you would do 50% of 30 every 60 min. 15 push-ups every hour.)

Wed: RI 60% SF 45 min (30*0.6=18 push-ups every 45 min)

Thurs: RI 25% SF 60 min (30*0.25=7.5 push-ups every hour)

Fri: RI 45% SF 30 min

Sat: RI 40% SF 60 min

Sun: RI 20% SF 90 min

You get the idea. On Monday of this second week you'll definitely be able to perform more push-ups in one shot. My 100% usually doubles at this point, and by the third week I can do close to 100 push-ups without stopping.

WEEK 2

Mon: 100% test RI 35% SF 45 min

Tues: RI 55% SF 20 min

Wed: RI 30% SF 15 min

Thurs: RI 65% SF 60 min

Fri: RI 35% SF 45 min

Sat: RI 45% SF 60 min

Sun: RI 25% SF 120 min

This routine is great for building up some back, shoulder, arm, and chest muscles. It's also scales fairly well, meaning if you can only perform 10 push-ups to start, or if you perform 100, the program will still work. The problem is it can be extremely inconvenient to stay on track when at work or almost anywhere!

You're allowed to skip a set if you make up for it later, but look at Wednesday of the second week, push-ups every 15 minutes!

Go to a movie and you'll have to make up tons of push-ups. Another downside is once you're done with this program, the muscles can deteriorate just as fast as they came. There's no real structure in place to maintain what was gained and if you try to create your own you'll have to maintain similar numbers.

I'm going to develop a routine that's a nice balance between intensity and frequency that I can perform indefinitely. I want it to be flexible in case I go out of town or am busy for most of the day.

I always try to have my feet at least three feet off the ground to demand more from the upper pecs and shoulders. So far I've been doing five sets of 20 push-ups for a total of 100 push-ups a day.

Today I'm moving that total to 200. It's obvious that increasing the number of reps in a set will mean less sets, and less sets is less annoying! Today I'm trying eight sets of 25 for the 200 total. This is only three more sets than I've been doing and only five more push-ups per set. I'll be increasing the number of reps in a set every week or so, and I'll probably be delving into technique on here when I have the time.

I'm expecting obstacles once I hit 500 push-ups a day. Probably in the form of muscle fatigue, joint pain(although my shoulder cuffs feel stronger since I started), and tight muscles if I don't stretch enough. Btw Simonster's workout was definitely an inspiration for this experiment,

Quitting the Gym

I've decided to quit the gym. I'm 23 and in good health. It takes virtually no effort for me to stay in healthy shape, so why should I pay $90 a month just to use some fancy equipment? I have no idea!

I joined the fancy gym over a year ago but began seriously working out about 4 months ago. I was 180 pounds, and decided I would make the leap to 200. At 6'2'' 180 pounds is kind of scrawny in my mind. Taking some protein shakes and vitamin supplements I worked out a little over an hour a day, 6 days a week for four months. I also did cardio three times a week as a 5-7k run or swimming 3000-5000 meters. I was reading about proper exercises, bulking vs cutting, all that jazz. Anyway I think I move between 10 and 18 percent body fat depending on how active I am. It was a great daily ritual but needless to say it took up a lot of time, and the number of showers my god. Three out of five days a week I was taking three showers a day! I put on the 20 pounds of muscle, and now rest at 205lbs. I was spending $90 a month for the gym, and close to $200 on protein shakes and vitamins. Yikes right?

I've decided to see if I can not only maintain but continue to make gains without supplements AND the gym entirely. The annual savings would be over $3000. AM I CRAZY!? MAYBE! I think it's possible.

I started a couple days ago and I've decided to replace the expensive gym procedure with some simple exercises. For now I'll just be doing pushups daily. I was doing about 60 pushups a day when I started, now I'm at 100. This doesn't even compare to a hard one hour workout, but I plan to move this number up as high as I comfortably can. I'll add more exercises(situps, pullups) and maybe some cardio to keep the body fat percentage under control.

It's not a very complicated strategy, but I'm confident that it can work. If I ever start slipping I can just join the gym again, right?

Back in Action... maybe

Well I've decided to start writing posts again, let's see how long I keep at it this time ;)

I wanted this to be a professional blog, with oxford grammar and technical topics, but my interests change frequently. I'm in a constant state of discovery, and I usually feel too humbled to assert myself as a publisher(ha) on any one topic. Maybe that's all normal.

Time seems more valuable each day. Between two jobs I can hardly find time to really probe my curiosities. I do have time for some though ;) I'm lucky enough to be working for a small ISP that allows for a late afternoon/evening work shift. My mornings are completely free, so I've passed my Series 56 and saved up some initial capital to start day trading. I went live early last week and I can't believe how eye opening this process has been.

It's late so I'll be keeping this short. I'm obviously a little nooblet when it comes to trading, but I was expecting daily number crunching and mind boggling formulas that would force me into deep calculations. The Series 56 was somewhat technical, more about the numbering of regulations than anything else.

From the bit I've read in a Mark Douglas book called 'The Disciplined Trader' I've realized the markets give a trader so much freedom, so much control over his own destiny, that the main reason for failure is not always the lack of direction, but the lack of perseverance to focus on that direction, the very root of which are subjects that I can relate to anything in life.

What I'm reading and learning to be the foundation of any successful trader is attitude, expectation, personal philosophy; things that I didn't expect to be learning at all. The book is covering simple topics about objectivity and discipline, with interesting points. For instance the markets are a reflection of yourself. The market does not show pity, it doesn't listen to you, you can't control it(at least not for long), and it's continuous. The only thing you can control is yourself and what you do. The successful trader has unlimited freedom and understands he is completely accountable.

The book refers to the market as a river, with participants making up the waves. There's a small group that consistently profit from the market, and these are individuals that know exactly what they're doing and why, they are the highest points on a wave in the middle is everyone else trying to stay as close to these people as possible, being lower and lower points on a wave going outwards from the middle with the lowest point of the wave being the trader last to jump in and out, the clueless trader.

I've always been interested in how we think and why we think the way we do, and this book brings that deduction to trading. The main idea being that once you surpass your own limitations, you'll be able to identify these limitations as a movement in the market (Easier said than done!)

There's also so many emotions that come into play in a trade. To actually analyze what these emotions are and why they come up has changed my trading style already. I'm starting to understand how a sloppy entrance into a trade can snowball into not only a bad trade, but a bad habit, and eventually a hole in my wallet. Big losses become 'psychological damage' which manifests fear. Fear being the one thing that paralyzes a poet or an artist from expressing himself through his craft. I've only read a small piece of the book but I'll have to pick a topic like fear or greed and cover them one at a time. I should probably finish at least one book first ha. Anyway that's enough for tonight!