
Woody
5 Minute Pushups
Updated: Apr 6, 2020
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.
