Day 69

Week 9, Day 3 The Challenge done. The Challenge is a great push/pull workout which I have said before, and today was no different. I was stronger today and able to do 122 pushups which was 47 more than the last time I did it over a month ago. Now this brings up a few things that I have to remember from now on.

1. I was able to do all the pushups for my 100x100 pushup challenge in 30 minutes so doing 20 at a time over the course of the day is going to have to change.
2. Block 2 has helped with the heavier resistance work over Block 1.
3. The 100x100 pushup challenge has been of some help in getting me stronger in that area.
4. My numbers for the challenge, while increased over last time, will continue to be increased until I am unable to do the last 1 or 2 sets of pushups.

I know I could have done more pushups now after the fact. I had increased my pushup number from 7 to 12 per set. I actually did 15 on the wides and while I struggled with military, I was able to push them out. I think I will set my number up to 15 and do 16 or 17 if I feel I can.

I had not really increased anything during the first 3 weeks of block 1 on the pulldowns with the bands. I continued to just use the green band and tried to do isometric holds at the bottom end of the exercise. I had been increasing them (the bands) throughout Block 2 and was up to all 4 bands I have which is a red, blue, black and the green. I think the red is 5 lbs resistance, blue is 10 and black 15 or 20 and I bought those in a set from Walmart. The green band from Beachbody and it is rated at 40 lbs. So I could be looking at 70 or 80 lbs or resistance, but I am not really certain, but it's a close approximation. The chinup version of this really taxed my biceps, so I know it had to be close to that range and I am feeling the work I did today after the workout in my lats as well.

I really like this workout although I still like Incinerator more, it still provides me with what I really like which is more of a push/pull workout. Next week I will be doing Eccentric Upper instead of this workout, but I enjoy that one as well. I like the changing up over the last 4 weeks which keeps the muscles guessing all the time. Muscle confusion, it really works.

The idea of the 30 day burpee challenge has been introduced and so far only a few people said they are in, but out of the 21 people doing the pushup challenge I would say about 8 or 9 post with some regularity. We will see how this plays out, but I will post it a few times coming up to the time of the burpee challenge start date of March 3rd.  Hopefully we can get at least 8 to 10 committed people to be in the group and stay active for the whole 30 days. This pushup challenge is tough because it is 100 every day for 100 days and the thought of that alone scares people. I am on day 35, so only a third of the way done, but I love doing it and why not push yourself.