Ok so here's the deal. I'm 41 and not in great nor terrible shape. I've fooled around with various exercise programs over the past couple years with varying success (P90x, strong lifts, crossfit). I want to do something different for 2013 that is all year and will really challenge my endurance and my body

Push-ups. Hate em. Well 'hate' is a strong word. Dislike is more like it. I've been using a pushup coach on my phone , it is one of those that try to get you to 100 push-ups within 4 minutes or so. I'm right at the edge. I'm doing nearly 300 in a workout over 7 sets. Not easy but manageable. I want to go bigger.

So I decided I want to do push-ups every day for a year. I'm going to start with 60. Each day. At the end of a week ill increase this to 65. Then in week 3 70 and so on. This works out to 68,645 in a year. This has got to be probably about 30-40 times more push-ups than I have done in my entire life so a big challenge. By the final week ill be doing 315 each day. A good amount but not exactly world record quality. (I looked up the pushup records....INSANE. 10,000 non stop. 1.5million in a year )

I'm 41. 5'11 and weigh 184. I will be taking pictures each week to document changes to my body. I hope to really define my upper body and my core as I do these. I will also be eating as lean as possible. I hope to lose 10 pounds during this challenge.

The great thing about this challenge is I don't need any special equipment or a gym. I have no excuses as they can be done anywhere.

Anyway I guess this place is as good as any for a log or journal.
Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

why not make it pushups and air squats to get in some lower body work as well?

Hmm maybe a separate challenge for those. Good point.

Lol. Air squats and air push-ups???

Do weighted push-ups, weighted pull-ups, and some type of weighted squats. Now we are talking.

Sure push-ups burn decent calories, but there is only so much they are going to build your upperbody. Need to add weight ASAP. And air squats? What a waste, at least hold some dumbells.

And plain silly to do infinite push-ups if you are not going to do pull-ups also. Sorry bro, stupid idea to do infinite push-ups.

I have access to a gym so doing squats is no problem.

Pull-ups? Never really been able to do them. I'm not sure but I think my gym has bands for them. I could maybe do one at most. Not sure that would give me much of a work out. Thanks for the input.

If you wanna get bigger, lifting weights would be optimal. You can still do pushups daily while following some type of lifting program. PULLUPS >>>>>

SS+GO MAD

Body weight stuff can only get you so big to a point and then it starts becoming a muscular endurance thing. If you're skinnyfat to start with then you will lose weight and gain definition by virtue of losing weight.

If your goal is muscular endurance to be able to crank out one per second for 90 seconds or whatever then keep at it.

You can't see your back or legs in the bathroom mirror. Out of sight, out of mind.

Isn't that a reason to make your challenge revolve around pull-ups?


Why not strengthen someplace you've always been weak?

You can do 300 pushups easily over a handful of sets but can maybe barely do one pullup?

Although I guess I'm the opposite - I had pushups and my rotator cuffs/shoulders historically don't seem to love them either if I do them frequently. But I may just be a big baby.

Well one place I'm weak is in sticking with a program for the long haul thus the year long challenge

Still I would like to get stronger on pullups

I'm skinny fat. Body fat around 22%

Kettle bells might show better results with only a little less convenience factor. Don't know much about them myself, I'm afraid. Pretty sure a billion pushups will basically end up being cardio after a couple months of mediocre strength improvement in that limited range of muscles.

yea, you should definitely diversify more. If you're into the home workout thing then I would suggest buying a pullup bar, a weighted vest, and one or two kettlebells

Comprise your program around pushups, pullups, burpees, air squats, bear crawls, etc. You the weighted vest sometimes and do them with just bodyweight sometimes.

This workout will imo give you much better results than your suggested one.

only skimmed OP but Assani is dishing out dimes here. listen to the man.

eta: but that doesn't even mean you need to reduce push up volume.