The Improvement Thread- Next Meeting on Thursday, March 18th- 1st & 3rd Thur Meetings

Regional Matchmaking Northwest
81

pushups

I can speak to pushups a little bit. Let me start by saying I hate pushups. I hate them with a passion. They hurt my right shoulder, and they make my crotch feel wierd. I hate doing them I hate everything about them. I don’t want to do them, ever.

Anyways I went out of the country for 3 weeks and I asked my personal trainer what to do to work out while I was on vacation. His answer was : Every morning do 150 pushups. Take breaks as needed but do them all in one sitting. Do this every day and you will get jacked.

I really hate pushups but I said okay, and I committed to trying this every day while I was on vacation. Before I left we measured how many pushups I could do in one minute. He timed me with a stopwatch and the most I could do was 43 or something before I had to stop.

On my vacation the first morning, I got out of bed and tried pushups on the floor. I did 40 before everything hurt like hell and I was out of breath and had to stop. I rested a little bit (couple mins) and then did 30 something. After 30 I had to stop because I was already so tired. Did I mention it was horrible and I hated it? I was barely able to get 30 in the next time, although it was really hard. After that I was so tired and it hurt so much so fast that I could only do 20. Even that was hard. Anyways after what felt like an eternity, I finally reached a grand total of 150 pushups. The sequence was something like this

40-30-30-20-20-10 (6 sets)

By the end of the last 10 I wanted to shoot myself, hehe. Anyways I had my normal day, and the next morning did it again. Did this every day.

I found it got easier after the first couple of days. After about a week I was able to do something like

50-40-30-25-5 (5 sets)

That was encouraging, because at least it went by faster in 5 sets than in 6 sets. After a few more days, I was able to do something like

50-40-30-30 (4 sets)

Once I was able to get in 4 sets it was a lot less miserable. It got done a lot faster and I could be consistent about it without worrying if I could finish.

Finally, after over 3 weeks I was able to get

60-50-40 (3 sets)

I have to say I was so excited the day I was able to do 150 pushups in 3 sets I jumped up and ran out to tell my family (I was on vacation with them, haha). They were all on the beach reading and I ran out of the hotel yelling “I DID 150 PUSHUPS IN 3 SETS!!!”. I ran around in little circles in the sand. They kind of looked at me like I was crazy. I was really excited.

After I did this I checked to see how many pushups I could do in one minute, and I was able to do 69. So the test of how many pushups I could do in one minute went up from 42 to 69 in about three weeks!

I don’t do the pushups anymore (haven’t done them for 1 month), and last time I tested (1 week ago) I could do 63. So it went down from not doing it every day (but I was still going to the gym 3x/week)

So I’d recommend something similar for you Mickey. For your health issues 150 is probably too much. As a rule of thumb I would say

  • Figure out how many pushups MAX you can do in one minute. You can rest or take breaks or whatever in that one one minute, spend it how you like.
  • Multiply that number by 3.5. This is your daily total.
  • Every morning, do that number of pushups in as many settings as it takes. But DO THEM ALL AT ONCE. Don’t stop until you reach your daily number. Don’t spread it out during the day.
  • Write down how many settings it took you on this thread.
  • After 1 month look back at your progress!

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

82

^push ups are a serious mental goal for me. When training for the SEAL PST I would do about 100-150 any given day and when it came down to the test I was able to do 115 after a 500yrd swim…now I can maybe do 60-75 which for me is a huge cut. Reading peoples goals has got me kinda fired up to get back into a more stricter regiment. What Jared said is completely true the avg person’s core is relatively a lot weaker than the rest of their body. Strengthening that can fix back problems help posture even help people sleep better because the spine will straighten and discs will compact uniformly so when resting they will unpack uniformly fixing some discomfort. Core was the biggest portion in the strength training portion of getting a CPT license.

My Improvement Goals

: get back to my old regiment
: In 3 months do another version of the PST
: Keep a watered down version of my regiment after my personal test
: Test every 6 months

83

Thank you so much man!!! I’m going to start TODAY! Thank you!

84

So, first update.

Cooking:

Cooking has gone really well. After my first recipe, which had a ton of ingredients and steps involved, the ones I’ve been doing lately seem like a breeze. I’m glad I started with it.

The two I cooked so far are Mushroom and Roasted Pepper Tarts and Chicken Tamale Casserole

I am going to cook a Rainier Cherry Crumble tommorow. Cherries aren’t in season, so if I can’t find any, I’ll just use peaches.

Job Contacts:

I haven’t been following through on my method for contacting people for jobs, but I am going to start searching for people to do informational interviews with. The goal is to get to know people who are working at different businesses and create more contacts who know I am looking for work, while also getting to meet people face to face who may be able to give me a refferal in the future. My goal is to have a good list of my current contacts and refferences by next Friday, and start to contact them by Monday asking if they know anyone in careers or fields I am looking to enter, and see if we could set up a meeting so I can ask them about their jobs or the business. I will post up more on this later, but I think it will be a very useful method for finding contacts who can help you get a job.

Marketing and Advertising:

Thanks to a friend who let me know about an opportunity, I got a marketing internship with the Tacoma Farmer’s Market and I will be starting Monday! The Internship covers a lot of things that I have always wanted to learn, so it should be great experience!

Finish Wuthering Heights:

This wasn’t one of my main goals, but I finished it recently and I’m really happy I did. Great book. Didn’t think I would really enjoy it when I started but it turned out pretty awesome. Finally finishing the Ender series now.

Since I am now working in a Marketing Internship, I am going to add one goal to my list. Learning about marketing is still a goal, but I think I can take on another goal since I have set dates and times for when I will be learning about it now.

So I really want my next goal to be getting in shape. Being really fit is something I have always wanted to do (again), but haven’t focused on or followed through with it in a long time. I am sick of failing at it, and I would like to just buckle down and work hard for 4 months and see some great results. Along with it, I want to improve my sleep schedule, and I think that goes hand in hand with setting a workout schedule and being healthy.

So my goals for now are-

Goal List:

  • Get a better job through creating multiple new contacts
  • Improve marketing and advertising skills
  • Learn to cook
  • Stick to a regular workout schedule

I will post up more about methods tommorow.

85

For anyone looking to cut fat, gain muscle mass, and overall improve body health i would reccomend reading a book called “body for life”

the portion control the BFL teaches you is easy to follow. The program is not a gimmick. It helped a lot of people.
also check out this site and educate yourself on diet, exercise.

oh. for losing fat, it all come down to one thing. use more calories than u eat.
reading articles and knowing the ALL the little tricks just accelerates the process.
(trying to minimize the muscle loss and maximize the fat loss)

protip- when i was dieting, i would cook 1-2 bags of chicken (2 weeks worth) at a time on the foreman grill. and store cooked breasts in ziplock bags in the freezer. every day i would take a few out to thaw and eat.

86

Yeah, the plan I am on right now which is exercise and a diet thing through work is 6 meals a day, and for me it’s roughly like 200-300 calories/meal and they are all about balancing - so like its 40/40/20 (Carbs/Protein/Fat) so you want food to be about that ration in grams of carbs/protein/fat). It works pretty well so far, and there is a bit more too it, but I start the inclass workouts on Monday and it’s every weekday so I should see some good progress.

87

DO NOT get to hung up on the actual numbers of calories consumed/burned. Reason being shit gets skewed when you consider things like sleep burn calories. You burn calories whether you work out or not since your body does that anyway to survive. My point is do not starve yourself. Dieting isn’t some retarded meal plan, it’s a lifestyle change. You should have seen how fat I was back in 2003. It is something you have to keep working on. I could easily be 220 pounds right now if I didn’t watch my eating and exercising. I am not some physical specimen, but you would probably never know just how diligent I am about what I eat or how much time I spend working out unless you followed me around for a day. This is serious stuff and I commend you all for trying to improve this part of your lives. Health is sacred. Do not take it for granted.

88

I am confused. How can you do a shit ton of pushups every day? Don’t your muscles need time to recover. I don’t get it.

89

If your really trying to build muscle, you need to let your muscles recover and rebuild (ie. Grow) over a 48 hour period. So if you do pushups at 6 o’clock on Monday, try not to work those muscle groups again till Wednesday around 6 o’clock, or until you have had 2 nights rest.

You can go ahead and do bicep curls the day after, because those are a different group, responsible for a different kind of movement.

As far as eating goes, you should try to eat the same grams of protien a day as your body weight. So if you weigh 150, try to eat 140-160 grams of protien a day at least. You can do this by eating a lot of tuna, cottage cheese, eggs (egg whites), regular cheese, chicken and other really high protien-to-calorie ratio foods. Eating less protien is fine if you are more focused on getting fit, but to really see good gains in pure muscle, the more protien the better.

90

At least do 100 push-ups everyday. Before I tweaked my back again I was up to 300 a day. 150 in the morning, 150 at night/after work. I was at like, 1 set of 50, next set 40, third just rep out so I would have less to do for the fourth. Maybe that’s why I fucked up my shit again and started drinking and smoking…again.

I need to start back up.

As for my update…uhhh…still not eating well but better than before.

Chinese is going O K. About to hit up the vocab after taking a break from the grammar side of things. Got a girls number, well she got mine so hopefully we can set something up where she helps me with my Chinese and I help her with English. I need to get a few other people’s #'s so I can set up a study group. Things should be a little easier then.

Drinking and smoking. The only times I have been doing either is in social situations(TW, hanging out with friends). I feel since I really wanna get this Chinese down before next quarter that’s been helping as well. When I do drink it’s Hard A, instead of gasolicous beer. Been hitting my stretches a little more consistently as well.

So all in all, a little improvement but still not where I want it to be. Hopefully when I update in March it will be better.

91

This is my understanding as well. If this is the case though, how are these guys able to make gains working out the same muscle group every single day?

92

With my trainer we definitley alternate days when doing resistance training (ie: using weights). So yes, we will do chest, and then 2 days later do legs, then 2 days later do back, etc… Never the same muscle group even 4 days later.

But this is the same trainer that told me about the pushups. I don’t know why the pushups rule is to do them every day. I can only theorize, but my guess would be that pushups aren’t as intense as weight training. They’re more of a combination of muscle endurance/core strength/cardio/chest and arms. It’s a complex excercise that involves a lot of things.

Anyways I don’t really know WHY – but I can tell you from personal experience that the daily pushup routine does work.

93

Oh okay, that actually makes some sense to me. Thanks.

94

So I came to figure out that I don’t have the strength/endurance to “do as many pushups as you can in a minute.” The most I could do in a sitting was 10, maybe 11 or 12 if I had really tried to push myself with full exertion. By the 10th push up, my body was struggling with wobbly arms to push back up. I took a break for a good 30 seconds or so and did another set of 5 :sad:. I hate being so weak and doing such low numbers that it brings me down a bit.

All in all, I did 20 pushups doing sets of 10-5-5 in a span of about 5 minutes (is this too much time to do push ups?).

It’s really frustrating that I’m this weak, but I’m going to try to do things every other day…is this right? I’m going to gradually increase push ups as well by 25% - 35% each weak.

  • Week 1: 20 push ups 3x a week in 3 sets
  • Week 2: 25 push ups 3x a week in 3 sets
  • Week 3: 35 push ups 3x a week in 3/4 sets
  • Week 4: 45 push ups 3x a week in 4 sets

Julian, you said that I should take my “max amount in one minute” and do this number by 3.5 times correct? So if I could only DO 10 push ups, I should instead aim to do 35 push ups in 3 to 4 sets NOW right? Let me know your guys’ thoughts…I don’t know if I’m pushing myself too LITTLE, or if I can even DO the amount in only 4 sets…I’m really sad that I’m this weak, maybe a bit of encouragement?

95

Mickey, when I said do as many in one minute as you can, it’s normal that you take breaks. So doing 10 pushups, waiting 30 secs, then doing 5 more is totally fine, that’s the whole point. Sorry if I didn’t make that clear. The point is that you can rest up for 10 secs, 30 secs, whatever you want, just figure out with a stopwatch what the max is for 1 minute.

Anyways sounds like your 1 minute max is about 15. Don’t worry about it that’s fine. That means your daily total should be around 50.

So every day, set aside to do 50 pushups in as many sets as it takes. But do it every day, and do it all at once. Do as many as you can until you need to rest. Then rest until you feel you can do more, then do those… rest again, etc. Do that until you’ve got 50 pushups done. Do that every day.

Write down what sequence you do them in. So for example maybe something like 10-10-8-7-5-5-3-2 that’s a total of 50 pushups and that was 8 sets. Write down how many sets you do (you can just update this thread if you want) each day and see what happens after 1 month of doing this.

Good luck I’m cheering for you.

PS: Don’t feel down or weak about what your numbers are. What’s important is to see improvement toward your goals, not where you start at.

96

That’s not a bad number for someone who hasn’t focused on really building strength before, so I wouldn’t be embarresed about it.

I think the schedule you set up sounds perfect for you. It is not to much, and as long as you are eating and giving your body fuel, you’ll start to see some improvements in strength and performance very soon. Don’t expect anything to quick (1-2 weeks), but in about 1 month, if you stick to it and eat right, you will notice a real change.

97

Awesome, thanks a lot guys! And Julian, you did make it clear about the “do as many as you can in one minute, even if you need to rest.” I was just thinking that my number was so low, that it wouldn’t really be “worth it” to just do as little as 10 push ups then break for a bit, then do as little as 5 more.

Thanks a lot for your insight/wisdom concerning the subject! I’m really excited to do this now! One last thing I wanted to ask however was that I’ve seen recent talk about not working out specific areas one day after another and to give rests. Should I be doing push ups EVERY DAY, or every OTHER day?

EDIT: By your post, I’m assuming I should do this every day then…at the same time most people say to “rest a day after exercising” in order for muscle go produce, hence why i’m asking the question…maybe I’ll just try to do this every day

98

Don’t feel bad about not being able to do a lot of pushups - before I worked out or did yoga or anything I died after 10 pushups too. If you haven’t worked out your upper body before, you haven’t worked out your upper body before. Don’t think of it in terms of being weak or scrawny. Just takes practice.

99

Yep directly from my trainer’s mouth, the pushup routine is to be done every day. I don’t know why pushups get to break the “don’t work out the same thing every day” rule, but that’s what he said. I even asked him the same question “I thought I wasn’t supposed to do the same thing every day”. He smiled and said pushups are different. Also he said he did the same thing backpacking around europe, he and his buddy did them every day and after the trip they were both pretty huge.

This guy is a bodybuilder so I listen to him since he’s obviously gotten the results on himself, and so far what he’s told me to do has worked well.

PS: Whoever said to eat was right on. Not eating enough was my #1 problem too. I started counting my calories on www.dailyburn.com (cool website, it’s free. just put up what you eat and it figures out the calories for you) and I found I was only eating 1800 calories per day. Now I eat like 2800 per day. Big difference. Protein shakes/mixes help to pack those calories in. You need calories to build muscle otherwise you won’t make progress.

PPS: Make sure you eat breakfast every day. Cereal + milk + protein powder is one I’ll do because it’s fast. Or if you have more time make several eggs, toast, and bacon. For me I hate cooking I’m lazy and it takes too much time but you have to force yourself to eat, and breakfast is really really important.

PPPS: for your health issues, you probably need to eat even MORE than most people. Fighting infection is super calorie intensive. So you need normal calores + calories to build muscle + calories to fight infection. You probably need to eat all the time lol :slight_smile:

100

if you are not careful on what calories u eat, u will get fat. and that is not good for u. pay attention to your pcf value (protein, carbohydrate, fat) mine while dieting was 60/30/10.

protein- contains the essential amino acids that your body needs to repair muscle. u rip/tear muscle by using them (working out), and u repair by eating protein and sleeping.

carbs- these dont do shit for building muscle. Glucose is fuel for muscles. any unused glucose turns into fat. carbs never build muscle.

fat- EFA (essential fatty acids) omega 3 and 6 are good for u. u can find this stuff in fish and nuts. other fats are bad for u.

zass- eating bacon, and eggs. is not a good reccomendation. egg whites are good. the yolk will clog your arteries. and bacon… that much saturated fat. how in the world can bacon be healthy or beneficial to eat at anytime?