5 Minute Pushups

Day 404

4/4/20

One of my dad's memories of my grandfather was his 250 daily pushups. On July 16th, in honor of Grandpa's passing, I did 250 pushups, spread out over 10 sets. Since that day, for 264 days in a row, sick or well, rain or shine or sleet or snow, I have completed 250 pushups. Every Day. No Excuses.

Eventually, I would like to be capable of completing 100 consecutive pushups without resting.

I've tried a number of different schemes in an effort to improve the number I can do in a single shot. To date, 75 is my best score.

Recently, I've been a little frustrated. After illness in January forced a regression, I haven't been progressing like I'd like. I've been stuck.

Taking a day off now and again to rest and recover has been recommended, probably wisely, but I'm not giving myself that option.

James Clear's newsletter on Thursday gave me a new idea.

He asked: "What can you do with 5 good minutes?"

The first answer he proposed was this"

"5 good minutes of...pushups is a solid workout."

(click HERE to read Clear's newsletter...I highly recommend signing up)

A light bulb went off in my head, and yesterday, I started a new approach that I'll share so that you can try it out, too. If you feel so inclined.

Get a stopwatch (I use the one on my phone)

Start the clock and immediately do as many pushups as you can.

Repeat ever minute on the minute for 5 minutes.

This will allow for 6 sets of pushups and will leave you gassed if you give it your best effort.

Today, two 5 minute sets got me to 230 total reps. I took about a 20 minute break in between sets and completed my final 20 reps a short while later to get to 250 for the day.

Give it a go.

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