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,