PDA

View Full Version : High (for me, at least) Volume Push Up Experiment


Viking Dan
08-29-2009, 08:13 PM
Lately I'd been doing abt. 150 assorted pushups every 2-3 days (a mix of atlas II, IIIs, dips and pikes.) Progress had been so so.

In the interest of pushing the envelope I decided to adapt a program I saw online for increasing your numbers. The long and short of it is to do 200/day for 10 days then rest 3 days and retest your max on the 14th. Since regular military pushups hurt my wrists, I decided to do 200 Atlas III/day.

Supposedly this can up your max over 50%. Sadly I only know my max on Atlas IIs which was 21, but the III is harder so if I can do >21 at the end of this its worth it.

Sunday (8/23) 200 in a little under an hour. 18x10, 5x4
Monday (8/24) 11x6 in 9m54. 11x6 in 9m58. 10x6,1x8 in 10m2. These sessions were throughout the day, along with pull ups and chin ups.
Tuesday (8/25) 10x6,1x10 in 9m55. 12x5, 1x13 in 10m5. 15x3, 1x12 in 9m47. Also did Hypers, Sit Ups and Hamstring Curls on my Swiss Ball. Also did Beggar's Knees for thighs---a tough exercise.
Wednesday (8/26) 7x10 in 10m12. 12x5, 1x9 in 9m49. 11x5, 1x6 in 9m22.
Thursday (8/27) 5x14, 1x4 in 9m56. 63 in 18m34 as part of a push up/pull up circuit. 9x7 in 9m50. Also did chin ups.
Friday (8/28) 10x5 done 4 times in circuits with swiss ball situps, hypers, squats and leg curls.

Saturday (8/29) The monotony of this is getting to me, but there's only 3 days to go. I did the following:

6x5 in 2m54
3x10 in 2m31
4x10 in 3m52
3x10 in 2m37s
12,9,10,7,5 in 4m49s.
3x9 in 2m26.

Its worthwhile to note that doing 200 straight through takes me an hour, but breaking it into 5 minute or less chunks throughout the day gets my total time to half an hour or less. Today was only 19m19s or so minutes total time. I might try doing some ladders tomorrow.

Sometimes my shoulders and chest feel stiff, but once I get into it the feeling disappears. We'll see if Atlas was right about 200 being the magic number. As a side effect I feel it in my abs and legs as well.

Between walking and the pushups I am probably averaging 7 hrs/week of exercise. I tend not to walk on days I do anything more than pushups.

Viking Dan
08-30-2009, 02:28 PM
Sunday (8/30)

My arms are 1/2" smaller than usual. Maybe I'm bordering on overuse atrophy. On the other hand, my waist is abt an inch smaller than when I started so perhaps its just flab coming off.

Chin Ups - Ladders from 1 to 4 (1 rung every 30 secs) ending on a 3 in 7m10s. I was going to run it 10 minutes but I've been trying to stop myself short to stay fresh. 36.

Atlas III Push Ups. 8 x 5 in 3m49s - 40

Chin Ups 2 x 7 in 2m45 -14

Atlas III Push Ups 3 x 10 in 2m32s - 30

O.K. 130 pushups to go...yikes! Have some pullups to do, too.

Wish me luck!

Viking Dan
08-30-2009, 07:47 PM
Atlas III Pushups - 5 x 12 in 8m - 60 total ----70 to go for the day.

Pull Ups - 3 x 6, 1 x4 in 4m59

Atlas III Pushups - 5 x 4 in 1m32 - 20 total---50 to go GAH!!!!!!!!

Pull Ups 5 x 4 in 4m47

Atlas III Pushups - 4 x 5 in 2m3s---26 to go.

Viking Dan
08-30-2009, 08:45 PM
Atlas III Pushups 13,10, 3 in 3m54s DONE!

Chin Ups 9, 6, 4 in 3m9.

My hat's off to peacekeeper. He does in an hour what it takes me 6 days to do. Oh well...I do as well as I can.

Just 2 more days of this, then I take Wednesday and Thursday off and test my max.

Viking Dan
08-31-2009, 08:49 PM
Tuesday (8/31)

67 Atlas III done in a circuit with swiss ball sit ups (168, if anyone wants to know) in 14m23

After work did another 70 as sets of 7 in a circuit the first half was swiss ball hypers (110 of them,) then halfway through I switched to swiss ball wall squats (115 reps) in 21m23s.

Last 63 done in sets of 11s and 10s in a circuit with swiss ball leg curls (120 of them) in 14m38s.

Tomorrow is the last push up day. Its only push ups, so hopefully I can get them over with in 1/2 an hour total time. Then I wont push anything heavier than a pencil until Friday when I test my maxes.

Viking Dan
09-01-2009, 09:03 PM
(9/1) Only did Atlas IIIs today.

66 in a ladder from 1 to 11 reps (1 rung per minute) in 10m54s

34 as 6x5, 1x4 in 4m34s

100 as 20x5 in a leisurely 13m50s

DONE! Now to take 2 days off from pushing and test maxes on Friday.

Viking Dan
09-04-2009, 07:18 PM
20. Definitely not pleased. :(

Perhaps I didn't rest long enough afterwards. Feel cheated somehow.