Bodyweight Showing pushups who's the boss (results using protocol on Twitter)

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

In a tweet (an X?) on July 5, @BeStrongFirst described a one-month pushup protocol and suggested posting our results on the StrongFirst Forum. Hopefully I am posting this thread (my first post) in the correct zone of the Forum. My results with the protocol were good:
- at the start, my RM was 6 (doing high-quality / "perfect" pushups).
- after 2 weeks, my RM rose to 12.
- after 4 weeks, my RM is now 16.
It is a big improvement. Thank you!

 

[ShawnM]

The best results I ever got was when using a program of Military/Mountain Athlete. You would do as many push-ups to failure as you could and then rest for a minute. After the minute rest you would do 5 EMOM until you got to 100. Monday and Wednesday, every week for 6-8 weeks. I was never going to get to 100 push-ups in 2 minutes on my test, but I easily got to 67 for a score of outstanding. The butt-ton of reps also added a bit of size to the shoulders and arms.

 

[silveraw]

Nice Job!

 

[3letterslong]

The best results I ever got was when using a program of Military/Mountain Athlete. You would do as many push-ups to failure as you could and then rest for a minute. After the minute rest you would do 5 EMOM until you got to 100. Monday and Wednesday, every week for 6-8 weeks. I was never going to get to 100 push-ups in 2 minutes on my test, but I easily got to 67 for a score of outstanding. The butt-ton of reps also added a bit of size to the shoulders and arms.

I'm stealing this. I was dividing this into two different workouts (workout one was 2 x AMRAP, workout two was A+A style), but I had no idea you could combine them in the same workout.

 

[ShawnM]

I'm stealing this.

It works great! I started at 50ish very deep push-ups and finished at 71 in 2 minutes. This took like two months and the sets of 5 don't sound bad but the ten minutes or so goes by very slowly.

 

[BillSteamshovel]

The best results I ever got was when using a program of Military/Mountain Athlete. You would do as many push-ups to failure as you could and then rest for a minute. After the minute rest you would do 5 EMOM until you got to 100. Monday and Wednesday, every week for 6-8 weeks. I was never going to get to 100 push-ups in 2 minutes on my test, but I easily got to 67 for a score of outstanding. The butt-ton of reps also added a bit of size to the shoulders and arms.

Sounds interesting, I would like to be able to do 50 pushups one day and would like to give this program a run, However, I haven't understood what the total reps would be on the above program ......
i.e ... Fred can do 30 to failure and then he should do
1. Another 70 at 5 emom to make a total of 100 = 30(to failure) + 70 emom
or
2. Another 100 at 5 emom to make a total of 130 ?

Thinking about it, Option 2 would be rough deal if you can already do 95 so am guessing its option 1.

 

[ShawnM]

Sounds interesting, I would like to be able to do 50 pushups one day and would like to give this program a run, However, I haven't understood what the total reps would be on the above program ......
i.e ... Fred can do 30 to failure and then he should do
1. Another 70 at 5 emom to make a total of 100 = 30(to failure) + 70 emom
or
2. Another 100 at 5 emom to make a total of 130 ?

Thinking about it, Option 2 would be rough deal if you can already do 95 so am guessing its option 1.

There were different standards in the program. This is from 2009/10 or so. If your goal was to get a max score on your push-ups on your semi-annual Physical Fitness Test you would do the max number of push-ups, rest, and then do the 5 EMOM until hitting 100 push-ups. There were different numbers based off of the number you were trying to get to. My number was 67 so I stuck with the 100 reps. If you goal is 50 then I would probably do as many as possible, rest, and then do 5 EMOM until say 60-70 reps.

You aren't doing max reps and then another 100 reps, you are doing 100, or whatever number works for you. So, if Fred can do 30 reps, Fred would do the 30 reps and then rest, and then do 5 EMOM until Fred hits say 60 or 70 reps. Fred should be able to get to 50 reps within 6-8s weeks. But that's all on Fred.

And yes, option 1, option 2 would just hurt. This was a 2 day a week part of the program, Monday and Wednesday if I remember correctly, the same protocol was in place for sit-ups as well but know of us did it because sit-ups sorta suck.

 

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

The best results I ever got was when using a program of Military/Mountain Athlete. You would do as many push-ups to failure as you could and then rest for a minute. After the minute rest you would do 5 EMOM until you got to 100. Monday and Wednesday, every week for 6-8 weeks. I was never going to get to 100 push-ups in 2 minutes on my test, but I easily got to 67 for a score of outstanding. The butt-ton of reps also added a bit of size to the shoulders and arms.

Thanks for that protocol, which I might try. The reps till failure with only a minute rest before doing more sounds hard! When I started the BeStrongFirst protocol by measuring RM (and also measuring it 2 weeks in), I was sore the rest of the day (and understood why the protocol had one do no pushups the next day).

 

[ShawnM]

Thanks for that protocol, which I might try. The reps till failure with only a minute rest before doing more sounds hard! When I started the BeStrongFirst protocol by measuring RM (and also measuring it 2 weeks in), I was sore the rest of the day (and understood why the protocol had one do no pushups the next day).

It's not the easiest program, I'll admit that. But it does work. depending on your goals, you don't have to do 100 reps. If you want to hit say 60 reps, go to near failure, whatever that is, and finish off the 5 EMOM until say you hit 75 reps. Keep doing this for 8 weeks and re-test your max. You're going to be making progress and it's only on Monday and Wednesday, don't go nuts!

 

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

It's not the easiest program, I'll admit that. But it does work. depending on your goals, you don't have to do 100 reps. If you want to hit say 60 reps, go to near failure, whatever that is, and finish off the 5 EMOM until say you hit 75 reps. Keep doing this for 8 weeks and re-test your max. You're going to be making progress and it's only on Monday and Wednesday, don't go nuts!

Good advice! I'm starting today (doing Wed/Sat probably). My goal is to double roughly my current RM of 16 to, say, 35. So I'll try 45 as the total including the EMOM sets.

 

[ShawnM]

Good advice! I'm starting today (doing Wed/Sat probably). My goal is to double roughly my current RM of 16 to, say, 35. So I'll try 45 as the total including the EMOM sets.

Yeah, 45 sounds good. Enjoy the program. I used it the last decade or so of my Navy career and was always able to hit my numbers.

 

[Steve Freides]

@Sanjoy Mahajan, welcome to the StrongFirst forum.

-S-

 

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

@Sanjoy Mahajan, welcome to the StrongFirst forum.

-S-

Thank you -- it's a great place. I've been doing kettlebell swings using S&S for 2+ years now, working up slowly from 16 kg to 32 kg (untimed still), Even just that much, incomplete as it is (perhaps one-eighth of the whole Sinister program!), has got me so much stronger and healthier, including in aerobic endurance without doing any extra aerobic work.

p.s. That reminds me of a small suggestion for the next printing of S&S. The description of the first S&S goal as "timeless simple" confused me for a long time, because "timeless" nowadays has only a figurative meaning of "valid for all time, an eternal truth". Eventually I realized that "timeless" might be a literal translation from another language and that the intended meaning was the literal "without time" or "without a timer". Then it made sense! To clarify it and prevent that misunderstanding, I would call it "untimed simple".

 

[Pete L]

Thank you -- it's a great place. I've been doing kettlebell swings using S&S for 2+ years now, working up slowly from 16 kg to 32 kg (untimed still), Even just that much, incomplete as it is (perhaps one-eighth of the whole Sinister program!), has got me so much stronger and healthier, including in aerobic endurance without doing any extra aerobic work.

p.s. That reminds me of a small suggestion for the next printing of S&S. The description of the first S&S goal as "timeless simple" confused me for a long time, because "timeless" nowadays has only a figurative meaning of "valid for all time, an eternal truth". Eventually I realized that "timeless" might be a literal translation from another language and that the intended meaning was the literal "without time" or "without a timer". Then it made sense! To clarify it and prevent that misunderstanding, I would call it "untimed simple".

I think it's a play on words

 

[the hansenator]

In a tweet (an X?) on July 5, @BeStrongFirst described a one-month pushup protocol and suggested posting our results on the StrongFirst Forum. Hopefully I am posting this thread (my first post) in the correct zone of the Forum. My results with the protocol were good:
- at the start, my RM was 6 (doing high-quality / "perfect" pushups).
- after 2 weeks, my RM rose to 12.
- after 4 weeks, my RM is now 16.
It is a big improvement. Thank you!

Are you able to describe this protocol or link to it?

I might be interested in giving it a try.

 

[Sanjoy Mahajan]

I think it's a play on words

Ah, good thought! I'm sure you're right. Most Russians whom I know have a dry sense of humor.

 

[watchnerd]

The best results I ever got was when using a program of Military/Mountain Athlete. You would do as many push-ups to failure as you could and then rest for a minute. After the minute rest you would do 5 EMOM until you got to 100. Monday and Wednesday, every week for 6-8 weeks. I was never going to get to 100 push-ups in 2 minutes on my test, but I easily got to 67 for a score of outstanding. The butt-ton of reps also added a bit of size to the shoulders and arms.

Am I reading right that this is a 20 min push up workout?

 

[ShawnM]

Am I reading right that this is a 20 min push up workout?

No sir. I would do as many push-ups as possible, say 50. I would then do 5 EMOM until I reached 100, 10 minutes of 5 EMOM. I was doing this to hit my max number of 67 for a score of 100 on my Navy PRT. If someone is trying to hit say 50 and can max at 25, they would do 5 EMOM for 5 minutes to get to 50.

 

[watchnerd]

No sir. I would do as many push-ups as possible, say 50. I would then do 5 EMOM until I reached 100, 10 minutes of 5 EMOM. I was doing this to hit my max number of 67 for a score of 100 on my Navy PRT. If someone is trying to hit say 50 and can max at 25, they would do 5 EMOM for 5 minutes to get to 50.

Ah, now I get it, thanks.