D-Rock
Level 5 Valued Member
I recently did my own 30 day experiment on pushups. I have long wondered what an alactic-aerobic style program could do for my pushups.
Rules:
The sessions were 100 pushups done in sets of 10. Sessions were every day whenever I could fit them in. I did miss a few here and there due to extraneous circumstances, but I got 22 total sessions. I had to have a HR of at least 80 prior to starting the session. I had to let my HR go back down to at least 90 before starting the next set. Data that I tracked were a pre-test max pushup reps, HR after the set, RPE (1-10, 10 being max effort) of the set, time taken to recover (reach HR 90) between sets), total time taken to complete the session, and post-test max reps. I did no other upper body work during the 30 days.
Confounding variables:
I was untrained, not having done pushups or even much strength training for a couple months, and I did a decent amount of aerobic work by hiking/walking in those times.
Results:
My total time for the first workout was 28 min. 35 seconds. 2nd workout took 50 minutes! Then a significant drop and at 2-3 weeks I was getting consistent times between 14 and 18 minutes, and even a session that was close to 12 minutes! But then I caught a nasty cold, and it was pretty obvious my system was taking a hit. Week 4 my times were back up around 30 minutes and I even was having trouble getting my HR down to 80 to start the session.
HR spikes after sets at beginning of the experiment was around 130 and even some 140's. It was pretty consistent 100-110 at 2-3 weeks, then climbed back up to 120-130 when sick.
RPE of the 10 rep set was about 6 and climbed to 7 or even a few 8's by end of workout in the beginning of the experiment. End of the experiment was staying around 4 most of the time with a few 5's and a few 3's.
And finally max reps!
Pre-test: 25
Post-test: 37!!
A 48% increase!
Strict form, touching chest to floor and locking out elbows, controlled speed no bouncing and no resting between reps.
Some thoughts:
Pre-test made me sore, post-test was easy to recover from. I was not pushing myself, the times solely depended upon how long it took to recover between sets. The workout did not negatively affect me, I was never fatigued afterward. My post-test could have potentially been higher if I was not still ill. My shoulders felt great, even more "solid" throughout. I took no specific weight or body composition measurements but my chest, shoulders and arms seemed bigger and my stomach seemed leaner. A 48% increase without being sore or tired or pushing myself in only 22 sessions was a good result for me!
Rules:
The sessions were 100 pushups done in sets of 10. Sessions were every day whenever I could fit them in. I did miss a few here and there due to extraneous circumstances, but I got 22 total sessions. I had to have a HR of at least 80 prior to starting the session. I had to let my HR go back down to at least 90 before starting the next set. Data that I tracked were a pre-test max pushup reps, HR after the set, RPE (1-10, 10 being max effort) of the set, time taken to recover (reach HR 90) between sets), total time taken to complete the session, and post-test max reps. I did no other upper body work during the 30 days.
Confounding variables:
I was untrained, not having done pushups or even much strength training for a couple months, and I did a decent amount of aerobic work by hiking/walking in those times.
Results:
My total time for the first workout was 28 min. 35 seconds. 2nd workout took 50 minutes! Then a significant drop and at 2-3 weeks I was getting consistent times between 14 and 18 minutes, and even a session that was close to 12 minutes! But then I caught a nasty cold, and it was pretty obvious my system was taking a hit. Week 4 my times were back up around 30 minutes and I even was having trouble getting my HR down to 80 to start the session.
HR spikes after sets at beginning of the experiment was around 130 and even some 140's. It was pretty consistent 100-110 at 2-3 weeks, then climbed back up to 120-130 when sick.
RPE of the 10 rep set was about 6 and climbed to 7 or even a few 8's by end of workout in the beginning of the experiment. End of the experiment was staying around 4 most of the time with a few 5's and a few 3's.
And finally max reps!
Pre-test: 25
Post-test: 37!!
A 48% increase!
Strict form, touching chest to floor and locking out elbows, controlled speed no bouncing and no resting between reps.
Some thoughts:
Pre-test made me sore, post-test was easy to recover from. I was not pushing myself, the times solely depended upon how long it took to recover between sets. The workout did not negatively affect me, I was never fatigued afterward. My post-test could have potentially been higher if I was not still ill. My shoulders felt great, even more "solid" throughout. I took no specific weight or body composition measurements but my chest, shoulders and arms seemed bigger and my stomach seemed leaner. A 48% increase without being sore or tired or pushing myself in only 22 sessions was a good result for me!
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