One Million Push Ups

2016-02-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

Jan/10-60, Jan/11-75, Jan/ 12-125, Jan 16-100, Jan/17-60, Jan 18-75, Jan 19-75, Jan 20-100, Jan/22-60, Jan 24-75, Jan/26- 100, Jan/ 27-300, Jan/ 28- 65, Jan 31-75, Feb10- 675, Feb/2- 491, Feb/ 3-637,Feb /4 - 325.

total push ups/chins 458,947

Well I haven't posted in a little while, so it was time for bit of catch up with the push up and chin up numbers. January wasn't a month for big numbers. As I mentioned early my wife and I have been going to the field house most nights for a run. Each lap we are doing 10 push ups, then some sets of burpees maybe some crunches, sets of ball slams whatever. Anyway this has made for some great workouts but there is no chin up bar at the field house and we usually do some other exercises besides push ups. Most nights I have been doing only 3 or 4 sets of push ups. I did decide that I should push the numbers up a little bit on a daily basis.

I have mentioned on this blog before that I seem to get a transformational effect on my body when I do at least 300 push ups and or chins a day. It doesn't seem to matter so much how the mix of push ups to chins is as long as I am hitting that magic number each day. So some days it is 60 chins, or 100 and the rest of the reps being push ups. Often these sets are not necessarily big rep sets either. Most days I will do sets of 10 push ups super-setted with sets of 3 reps of chins or pull ups. I will rest 30 seconds to a minute between sets. If I am in a rush and I want to get my reps in for the day I might do some 30 rep or 20 rep sets of push ups. Since the beginning of February I have been trying to get 300 to 500 reps a day. This will be my goal for the whole month -to get these reps in every day. I am going to keep going to the field house each day in the evenings and I might get another 60- to 100 reps of push ups in on these intervals. But each morning I am getting up and trying to get at least 300 in first thing. That way if I get ambitious anything else I do in terms of push ups or chins will be a bonus.

2016-01-09T07:06:00.000-08:00

Dec 9-325, Dec 11,-160,Dec 12-260, Dec 14-275, Dec 15,300,Jan 3-100, Jan 4-95, Jan 5-350,Jan 6-81, Jan 8 -260

total push ups/chins 455,474

Well I though I was overdue for an update. Over due for two reasons. The first reason was I was slacking off a little bit before the Christmas season. Second reason I am back on the wagon and have a few more reasons to push ups the push up/chin up numbers.There is a field House a little ways down the highway from us. Cathy and I have taken to going there most days to run some laps. The track is 250 meters or for my American friends that is pretty close to 250 yards. Cathy and I have been doing laps followed by a set of ten push ups. We might do this for four rounds and then do sets of burpees. This almost daily activity has got me back into doing push ups at least, and of course if we are doing burpees with a push up, which we usually do-I count those as well. The second reason that I really need to up my chin ups and push ups is I may do an Obstacle course race in August. One of the OCR promoters has chosen our charity as one of the charities you can raise pledge funds for while you do their event. I figure running the event will be a way to raise a little extra money for our charity and to create some awareness. The event here in the city has 20 obstacles. I did Tough Mudder the September before last and I know that in addition to lots of running -doing lots of push ups and chins really were important to get me ready. This event is a sprint event (5Km) but it has as many obstacles as a longer race- so the push ups and chins might be even more important in the preparation as the running.

Almost half a million

2015-12-09T13:31:00.001-08:00

Nov/24-416, Nov/25-320, Dec/1-254, Dec/5-180, Dec 7-240 ,Dec/8-377

total push ups/chins 453,368

This morning I was excited when I decided to do this update post and realized how close I was getting to a half a million push ups and chins. I was getting ready to pledge to get to a half a million by Christmas, but then I stopped and did the math. If I was going to get to a half a million by December 25th I would need to do over 2743 push ups or chin ups by Christmas - I am not sure i have that in me. Nonetheless at this rate I should hit half a million early in the New Year- that is pretty good right? Anyway I am determined to try to consistently hit some good numbers so that i hit the 500,000 mark before we hit spring. Around work we are always having volunteer bakers making treats or having our supporters show up with chocolate and treats around this time of year- so I certainly can use all the physical exercise I can get. Right now I am doing about 30 minutes of supersets of push ups and chin ups most mornings. So of the days that I am posting slightly lower daily totals I am doing bur-pees super-setted with chin ups or pull ups. I am doing burpees ( yes like everyone else I hate burpees too- but they are a great full body conditioning exercise) some days to keep things interesting , and of course I am doing burpees with a push up.

300 to 500 reps on average

2015-11-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

Nov/8-60, Nov/10-487, Nov/12-168, Nov/13-144, Nov 17-342, Nov 18-262, Nov/20-328, Nov/21-442,Nov/22-465, Nov 23-403

total push ups/chins 451,381

I figured this was a pretty good time for an update as it has been a couple of weeks. I am trying to do chin ups and push ups every day but the reality is sometimes life gets a little busy. The last few days have been pretty good for numbers and consistency. I have been doing about a half hour each morning of chin ups and push ups before I go to work. I have been aiming for between 300 and 400 reps. I find that if I average about 300 chins or push ups a day- I notice a difference. When I look in the mirror I can tell that I have been working out. In the past when I have been averaging about 500 reps a day -that is when other people start to notice a difference and ask me if I have been doing something different or have been working out more. Usually in the morning I get up an make my own special concoctions. I fill a one liter drinking bottle with water and throw in some creatine and BCAAs. I sip this between super-sets of chins and push ups. If you want to know why I am using these two supplements you can click the link below and I will explain it in this video. Anyway I am going to try to average closer to 500 a day, it is nicer to notice the difference yourself- but other people making comments is kind of nice too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16JRUEHfUY

Another week of progress

2015-11-08T07:40:00.001-08:00

Nov/3-375, Nov/4-400, Nov/5-150, Nov/6-300, Nov/7-55

Total push ups/chins 448,280

Well it hasn't quite been a week since I last posted but I figured I was due for an update. Things have been fairly busy at work but for the most part I am getting my chin ups or push ups done by getting up earlier. This gets them done and out of the way before you get too busy or are too tired or lazy at the end of the day. In general this has worked pretty well for me, except the odd time were I have a really early morning meeting. I have had a couple of those in the last two weeks , so it seems really tough to get up at 4am to do push ups. Anyway still making steady progress towards the goal of one million push ups/chins.

Assisted Levers and Lever Pull ups

2015-11-03T11:51:00.000-08:00

Oct 29-402, Nov 2 - 150

total push ups/chins 447,000

I threw up another video of another variation of an exercise I like to do. Again I usually do this in addition to my regular push ups and chins ( that is I don'tr count reps of this exercise in my total).Levers are a great exercise as they work the core as well as really working the back. The advantage of this exercise over regular pull ups is that in chins or pull ups the arms/ biceps are the weaker muscle in the chain. They tend to fail before you can fully burn out the lats or back muscles. With the levers you almost eliminate the arms from the exercise and completely stress the back muscles. The down side of levers or lever pull ups is that they are a little harder to do, therefore an assisted variation can help you build up your strength for this movement. Using bands can give you a little extra momentum needed to get in a few reps. I can do levers and lever chin ups but I can't do a lot of reps so I like doing an assisted variation so I can get some higher rep sets completed.

Click to view assisted levers and assisted lever pull ups

Weekly post and Accountability Check in

2015-10-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

Oct/24-180, Oct/26-409, Oct/27-484 ,Oct/28-330

Total Push Ups/chins 446,448

Seemed like time for an update-just so you know how I am doing working my way towards a million. Not to mention if I stop posting I really won't be keeping myself all that accountable. In a way posting on this blog keeps me feeling like I have to log a couple hundred chin ups or push ups because you will be reading this. Someone asked me if push ups and chins ups were getting a little boring. The truth is I do a number of variations of both. For the most part I am doing shoulder width push ups and reverse grip chins, but I also do wide grip and narrow grip. My rule is I only count the reps towards the total if the exercise is at least as hard (or harder) than regular chins and push ups. I really gauge if an exercise is harder or easier based on how many reps I can do. For example I can do quite a few more bench dips than I can do in a set of push ups, so I wouldn't count bench dip reps in my total. This doesn't mean I don't do some of these exercises. Doing some exercises that are different -even if they are a little different keeps my daily workouts from getting boring. Below is a video of one of those easier variations that I might throw in to keep things interesting.

LEBERT Equalizer Dips

Getting into a routine

2015-10-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Oct19-450,Oct20-513,Oct21-458,Oct22-383,Oct23-385

Total push ups/chins 445,045

The last few days I have been settling into a routine of getting some chins and some push ups done each day. Of course now that I am blogging about it I may have just jinxed myself, but let's knock on wood and assume I am just going to keep pounding out a few hundred each day. I have been getting up a little earlier for work each day this week and making sure I do about a half hour of chin ups and push ups before I have a shower. We have a home gym down stairs and we have a freestanding chin up bar downstairs but I am not even going down to the home gym. I just throw the doorway chin up bar up in upstairs. I don't want any reason not to get started-it's too cold downstairs, I don't want to bother going down to the gym-nope-no excuses -just get it done. For the most part I have been super setting sets of push ups with a set of pull ups or chins then I rest for 30 seconds to a minute. I vary the rest times between sets each day-sometimes I do more than one superset together. I might do 10 or 20 push ups then immediately go to the bar and and do 3 or 4 pull-ups , drop to the floor do ten more push ups and stand up to 3 more chins. I might keep pairing sets like this until I have done a total of 50 -60 push ups and 9-15 chins. After these sort of giant sets I will usually rest a minute. If I am only doing one super set I will usually only rest 30 seconds. Anyway all this writing about push ups makes me think I better go pound out today's. Off I go.

Fit Bit Surge

2015-10-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Oct/13-448, Oct 14-492, Oct 15-937, Oct 17th-528, Oct 18th 508

total push ups/chins 442,856

In a way part of my interest in doing a million push ups and chins is related to an interest in keeping in shape- or fighting against the bodies ( or my bodies) tendency to age. In and earlier post I talked about some of the on-line tools I use to help with my fitness efforts. I think I included the fit bit app- but really the fit bit surge is the complementary wearable tool that collects the data. Before the Surge was available in Canada I had done a good deal of research about it. One of the most attractive features of the Surge is that it calculates heart rate without one of those cumbersome straps around your chest. Most people are not going to wear these straps all day long -so the Surge has an advantage that it can calculate your heart rate and calories burned all day long- not just when you are exercising. If you want to see how the device does this go check on the specs on the company website:https://www.fitbit.com/ca/surge .

I like the fact that the device accurately calculates how many calories you burn each day while exercising and while at rest. I mentioned before that I use the myfitnesspal app to calculate calories in versus out. The nice thing about the fitbit app is that it will allow you to calculate your calories eaten versus calories burned. It will also allow you to automatically sync with an app like myfitnesspal, so when it syncs it automatically populates calorie burned data into your myfitnesspal. The watch and app have a number of cool features such as daily or weekly tracking of steps, kilometers travel weight change, average sleep duration and more. If you want to learn a little more about the watch and the app, check the link about. If you are looking for one more reason to consider the app consider my experience with the company described in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqS0nFfe5hs

Slump busting

2015-10-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Oct/5-430, Oct/6-209, Oct7-52

Total push ups/chin ups 439,943

I have fallen into a slump in terms of push ups and pull ups. Until today I hadn't done any push ups/chins since the 7th. I did get up early this morning and pound out a few hundred push ups and I am planning on doing some push ups and chins tonight as well. I am determined to get back on the wagon. Anyway not going to beat myself up about this -just going to get back to business.

A couple of my favourite online fitness tools

2015-10-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

Sept/29-703, Sept/30-325, Oct/4-68

Total Push ups/Chins 439,252

In my last blog post I made reference to using the myfitnesspal app and the Fitbit Surge to help me monitor my fitness progress. This is a screen shot from the myfitnesspal app.
I took this screen shot early this morning so I hadn't yet added all my food for the day and as you will notice the app is registering zero calories for exercise. As I mentioned in my last post the calories in versus calories out theory of weight loss is probably fairly over simplified, however at some level if you want to lose weight you do have to burn more calories than you eat. We have worked with trainers and nutritionists who have helped us with our diet and workout routine - and the other nic thing about this app is it does help you track your macros fairly accurately. If I am being very focused on my diet I Amy be cycling carbs and watching every closely at how many calories are coming from each protein, fats and carbs. If I am mainly focusing on losing weight I pay a lot more attention to creating a calorie deficit and maybe some attention to getting enough protein.

I also mentioned that I like the Fitbit Surge as a fitness tool. There are a number of reasons for this but probably I should do a future blogpost about the FitBit Surge. However for this post I will say that one of the things I really like about the Fitbit is it will automatically sync with myfitnesspal. So the zero calories you see in the exercise section above will soon be replaced by an accurate estimate of the calories burned after the apps sync with each other. If you enter the number of minutes of each activity you perform in myfitnesspal it will give an estimate of the calories burned ,however the Fitbit gives an estimate based on your actual heart rate which is more accurate. Below is a screen shot of one of the Fitbit apps reports and this is a benefit to the Surge -there are a number of usual measures and fitness/health data points that the app will report on and graph. Overall these two make a great duo when it comes to technology to support your fitness program and goals.

Calorie Burn

2015-09-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

Sept/25-49, Sept/26-75,Sept/27-545

Total push ups /chins 438,156

Nice thing about doing lots of chin ups and push ups is they burn some calories. If you are looking to lose some weight this can be a way to do it. Below is a graph of my weigh over the last week. The graph comes from the app Myfitnesspal. You enter all the food you eat in a day into the app and it calculates all your calories and your macros ( I'll talk more about macros in a future blogpost). Nutritionists would say I am oversimplifying but essentially more calories burned than calories eaten and you loss weight. The app will tell you how much you have eaten but also if you put in the number of calories for each activity it will also calculate how many calories above your BMR or basal metabolic rate ( the calories you burn each day just living ). Most days I do sets of chin up and then a set of push ups and rest for 30 seconds before doing the next super set. If I workout for about a half hour at this rate I usually burn about 9 to 10 calories per minute. If I am really interested in burning more calories I will do a set of 50 to 100 reps on the skipping rope before taking the 30 second rest. This keeps the heart rate up, and in general the longer you keep you heart rate up and the higher you get it the more calories you will burn. In a future blogpost I will talk about how I get a more accurate calorie burn estimate than the myfitnesspal alone will calculate.

Training other than pull ups and push ups

2015-09-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

Sept/16-460, Sept/19-143, Sept/21-100, Sept/22-170, Sept 23-211

total push ups/chin ups 437,487

I have not been hitting the chin up bar or doing push ups everyday. That is good to avoid over training but not so good in driving more quickly towards my goal of one million push ups and chins. None the less what is it they say? Slow progress is better than no progress. Cathy and I are doing a round of Insanity and for sure I will be counting any push ups or push up jacks that we do during those workouts towards my total. Anyway below is a video for this weekend to give you an idea how I train when I am not doing push ups or chin ups.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVOnQHgpkbE

Supplements for an old guy

2015-09-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

Sept/13-360, Sept 14-390

436,403 push ups/chins

Not a bad couple of days, I think if I am getting at least 300 push ups and/ or chins a day, I will make progress towards my goal of one million. I think after I have been at it a while and I can handle the daily volume I will probably try to ramp up to around 1000 push ups or chins a day. I am a little older than I was when I first started this blog. Recovery is a lot more important to me, or at least getting some good rest and decent diet and supplements. My wife and I were working with a coach and personal trainer and he got us into a little more serious supplement program. He turned us onto a couple of things that I think are making a big difference in our recovery. One of the things he had us try out were BCAA or branched chain amino acids. The idea is that these help prevent muscle wasting if you are working out really intensely. They really seem to work but below is the link to a video where I talk about the overall supplement program we are using.

Supplement program

Post once or twice a week?

2015-09-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

Sept 10-449, Sept 11-38, Sept 12-390

435,653 push ups/chin ups

As I have started up this blog after not posting for a couple of years- I figured I would need to figure out how frequently to post. It did occur to me that if I posted I did 300 push ups everyday, the content would be pretty boring pretty quick. I think I will try to post once or twice a week, and at the top as I have done here I will just list how many push ups and chin ups I have done on each day. Underneath in large font and bold I will list my total push ups and chins towards my goal. I started out on September 9th and so far the progress is pretty good. September 11th I did a few chin ups before work and had intended to do some push ups and chins after work. I ended working late that night so I figured 38 more chin ups towards the goal was better than nothing.

Let's try this again

2015-09-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

Well I had almost forgotten about this blog. December 22 2012 was the last time I posted on this blog and up to that point I had done 434,418 push ups and chins ups. I started this blog after finding a few other blogs in which the authors were on their own quest to do a million push ups. This sounded like a pretty decent challenge but I decided to throw chin ups and pull ups in the mix. No sense disproportionately developing chest, triceps and shoulders, might as well have well round back and biceps development as well. Anyway I figure a few years have past-and it is time to finish this challenge off- the idea of leaving something like this unfinished is a bit unnerving.Last night I did 358 push ups and chins ups. Not 358 of each- but each chin up and each push up counts as one. So this brings my new daily total to :

434,776

Let's see if we can finish off this challenge

December Update

2012-12-22T11:27:00.001-08:00

Dec1-240,Dec2-169,Dec4-106,Dec5-40,Dec 8-211,Dec 9-198,Dec10-306 dec 11-60,dec12-150,dec13-164 dec15-269,dec17-115,dec20-50 dec21-20

total push ups/chins 434,418

December is almost over so once again time for an update. Still doing the p90x -insantiy hybrid I described on my other blog. The numbers are not so high on a daily basis ,and I am not logging numbers everyday (as not all the workouts involve push ups or chins) -nonetheless these workouts are getting the job done.

You can check out my plan and progress on my other blog:

http://20poundsdifference.blogspot.ca/

Under 2000 for the month

2012-12-01T11:34:00.001-08:00

Nov7-nov29 -1879

total push ups/chins 432.320

It has been almost a month so I thought I should do an update. November wasn't such a good month for push ups and chins. I only logged push ups or chins on 9 days. I didnt do a breakdown above but instead a total which was under 2000 reps for the month. My wife and I are doing and Insanity P90X hybid. Trying to keep my pre-Mexico progress going. P90X and Insanity both have push ups and P90x has chins as well. So I wll be logging some chins and push ups this month but the numbers will probably be a little lower. If you want to see how the hybrid progress is going- check out my other blog.

Las Cabos here we come

2012-11-07T12:24:00.001-08:00

nov 3-1056, nov 4-1108,nov 5-1004

total push ups/chins 430,441

Tomorrow is my trip to Mexico. I am hoping to keep up the push ups and chins, but maybe not at the 1000 reps a day level. Push ups and chins have worked quite well at helping me lose weight before the trip. Most day I am doing about an hour or so of push ups and/or chins. As well as my dip/chin tower that we have in the basement -I bought a doorway chin up bar, and this has been useful in getting a few more chins in each day. The odd extra 15 or 20 minute chin up work out has burned a few extra calories and helped me log a few hundred extra chins.

1000s

2012-10-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

Oct 24-417, oct 25-198,oct27-405,oct28-1053,oct29-1000,oct30-1006,oct31-1000

total push ups/chins 427,273

Thought it was time for a post. I have been trying to do a 1000 push ups and/or chins a day. I have managed to keep it up for a few days. It takes me at least an hour to 90 minutes to pump out a thousand, depending on how many are chins and how many are push ups. Chins are smaller sets so it takes me longer. Whenever I have tried to do days of 1000 I tend to burn out or hurt myself but it has been a few days in a row and I am feeling not so bad. I am going to try to keep it up for a while and see if I adjust to the higher volume. I am away on business the next few days so we will see if I can keep it up in the hotel, or if there is a gym/fitness area.

Ring Push Ups

2012-10-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

Oct 20-615, Oct 21-239, Oct 22-324, Oct23-255

total push ups/chins 422,194

As I have been playing around a bit with Crossfit workouts, I decided to get myself a pair of rings. They are some sort of plastic rings with miltary webbing type straps. I don't think I could do a muscle up at this point so I have been using them to do ring push ups. I have them suspeded about 6 or 7 inches from the ground. A few sets of push ups on these rings is a great workout because you have to fight a bit while you are doing your push ups so that your arms don't flail out. They do provide a bit of motivation to do pretty strict controlled repetitions - the motivation being that you really don't want to fall straight onto your face. Maybe motivation, or maybe more accurately "fear" . Nonetheless the rings are adding a little variety to the push ups workouts.

Half a Million by Christmas?

2012-10-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

oct 10-306,Oct13-130,Oct 14-252,oct 15-138,oct 17-362,oct18-155

total push ups/chins 420,761

Time to update the numbers. I am not sure I am going to hit half a million push ups and/or chins before Christmas-but who knows might just ramp it up a bit. I have kept up the running, with a little moderation. I am doing about a mile or two every second day. I have been throwing a few crossfit workouts in here and there as a lot of the workouts include push ups or chins and there is a pretty good calorie burn which fits into my goals ( as described on my other blog). If you want to check it out the link is below on on the side of this blog:

http://20poundsdifference.blogspot.ca/

Calorie Burn

2012-10-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

Oct 6-459. oct8-215, oct 9-285

total push ups/chins 419,418

Thought I should get a post in. I have been a little more consistent this week in posting on my other blog. Essentially right now tracking my efforts to get beach ready for Mexico next month. I have mostly been using the push ups and chins ups as an additional strategy to burn calories. I have been trying to do either supersets or small sets with only 30 seconds rest in between. Keeping that heart rate and calorie burn up. My heart rate monitor also measures calorie burn, which is interesting as I seem to be able to get my heart rate up quicker supersetting push ups and variations of chins, than when I run. Also overall I am getting a better calorie burn. Partly because I run at a slow shuffle and I have conditioned myself to do set after set of chin ups or push ups. If you want to see how my prep for Mexico is going check my other blog. http://20poundsdifference.blogspot.ca/

Closing in on that half a million mark

2012-10-06T13:56:00.002-07:00

Sept 30-389, Oct1 -503, Oct 2-80,Oct4-447,Oct 5-478

total push ups/chins 418,831

It has been a pretty decent week for push ups and chin ups. Most days I got some work done even if it was only 80 push ups one day. Typically I start chins with sets of 7 or 8 reps and over the course of the workout this deteriorates down to sets of 3 reps. Push ups I start with sets up around 40 reps and over time the workout this goes down to sets of 20s or 10's. I can do an hour workout of sets of 10 with rest between of about 30 seconds. Right now I most days I am alternating sets of chins and push ups with about 30 seconds between these sets. Mostly I am trying to use these supersets to get my heartrate up into a fat burning zone. I am still trying to make progress towards my goal of 1,000,000 push ups and chins, but if you check out my other blog you will have a better idea of why I am doing the supersets and trying to burn more calories.

http://20poundsdifference.blogspot.ca/

Race training finished

2012-09-30T08:18:00.001-07:00

Sept2-106,sept3-112,sept6-77,sept9-112,sept10-341,sept11-163,sept12-196,sept13-329,sept15-112,sept16-352,sept18-66,sept24-320,sept25-430,sept26-577,sept27-500,sept29-300

total push ups/chins 416,934

Been a little while since I posted. last Sunday I did my fundraising race against Ronald McDonald. Between the two of us we raised $6000 in pledges for RMH, and our presenting sponsor for the race matched those pledges- so it was worth $12 k to the House. Not bad. I think I will keep running, because I am a little hooked now, but I won't keep running every day. That will give me time to get back to some more serious push up and chin up training.