I posted a while ago (in February I think) about starting the 100 pushups program to try to get to 100 pushups in a row. I was a bit skeptical at the time of the 100 pushups program but figured it was as good a place as any to start. I quickly became impossible though. I tend to find that this is the case with most programs that claim to be able to do X number of something in X weeks. I’m pretty sure they just do the math to see how many you’d have to increase per week if you want to get your goal by week X. Anyways, I found the the number required in a given workout soon outstripped my ability. I simply cut the workouts down to what I could reasonably do. This usually meant 3-4 sets out of the prescribed 6 or so. I kept on that for a while, improving in 2 weeks from 42 max to 48 max pushups. I was pretty happy with that. Slow and steady. Unfortunately, I injured my wrist shortly thereafter (possibly related). I tweaked it trying out a Jiu Jitsu class, but given the way it’s been behaving since then, I suspect it was borderline before the Jiu Jitsu. After hurting it, it was painful trying to support weight in a pushup positions so I took a few weeks off.

Since then, my wrist hasn’t really improved, but I figured out that I can do pushups pain-free if I do them while gripping dumbbells or on my knuckles. So after  a few weeks off I got back to doing the pushups. My latest plan has been to try to do 30-35 pushups 3-4 times during the day and every few days to max out (or near-max). Doing so I’ve managed to get my max up to 53 as of today. I think if I rest a bit I could probably add a few to that number, but I’m going to keep pushing before I rest.

So some results here:

Max pushups:

2/12/11: 42

3/1/11: 48

4/20/11: 53