100 Push Up Challenge :: Join Me And Win
While my day was wasting away at the office, one of my good friends sent me an email about a site that was getting a lot of attention from an article on digg (via lifehacker) called one hundred push ups.
About a month ago I remember seeing this site and thinking that it sounded like a cool idea but never pursued things much further than that. My buddy, Ryan, said he was going to try the program, so naturally he challenged me to do it as well for a little friendly competition.
For quite a few years, Ryan and I were lifting weights together but recently our schedules became an excuse and we stopped lifting. The program we were following had the sole purpose of improving our one-rep max bench press, which is one of the ultimate testosterone, chest-thumping, male exercises that you will find. Since I clearly dominated that friendly competition, moving well above 300 pounds for my one-rep max, this is Ryan’s shot at redemption.
100 Push Up Challenge
One Hundred Push Ups is a site dedicated to providing a progressive push up training program that will have you doing 100 consecutive push ups in just six weeks, no matter how many you can do today.
The program requires participants to exercise three days per week for a total of roughly 30 minutes. Each day you will perform four sets of push ups with the number of repetitions gradually decreasing for each set. Then you will perform a fifth set that is a “max” set, meaning you do as many as you can until your arms turn into noodles and you collapse on the floor. Each week the number of push ups gradually increases, with an exhaustion test required after Week 2, Week 4 and Week 5 until the final test after Week 6.
Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
Before you begin the program, it is recommended that you obtain clearance from your doctor (yeah right, we’re guys, so this step will be skipped…but don’t blame me if you skip this step and drop dead during the program) and then take an initial push ups test. This initial test is used to measure your current fitness level and determine where you will start in the program.
For the record, I have taken the initial test and recorded 27 push ups with good form. This was much lower than I was expecting and is a rude realization of how far I have slipped since Ryan and I stopped lifting weights. Ryan has also performed the initial test and recorded 29 push ups although I am sure his form was less than perfect!
Join The Challenge And Win
That’s right - it is time for another contest. Since I wanted to encourage as many of you to join me as possible, I figured that I would have to sweeten the pot a little more than just simply asking. So I am going to offer up a prize that includes $25 cash and a few random t-shirts - you know, because your old shirts will have ripped with your new rippling muscles.
Obviously I will have no way of proving that you are actually participating in the challenge, although requiring a video clip of you doing push ups in order to enter could be entertaining.
How Do I Enter?
To enter the contest you need to pledge that you will participate in the program for the next six weeks and write a post about it on your blog, linking back to this contest post using whatever anchor text you see fit.
You’ll want to be sure to send a trackback to this post or leave a comment with the link to your post so I know that you entered. For those of you that don’t have a blog, well…sorry, I guess this contest isn’t for you. Maybe you can convince a friend, or a completely random blogger, to let you post about it on their blog.
When Is The Deadline?
Normally I would only run a contest like this for one or two weeks. However, this contest will run for the duration of the one hundred push ups program, which is six weeks long. That would put us right near the end of August, so the contest will officially close at 11:59pm CST on August 31, 2008.
How Will You Decide Who Wins?
The winner of the contest will be selected at random using the Random Integer Generator, similar to how I have selected blog contest winners in the past.
The prizes will be shipped anywhere in the world and the cash prize will be in US dollars, which could be a bummer depending on where you live, paid preferably via PayPal. The winner will have seven days to respond with their contact information, otherwise an alternate winner will be selected.
Who Is In?
So…who wants to get strong and have a chance at winning some cool schwag?
Neat contest, but I’m afraid I haven’t exercised in a very long time. But if you add a coupla zeros to that cash prize, I might think about getting up off the couch..
Hey, I want to win
So I read your article-but its not clear, what I can definitevly win?
It would be nice, if you can answer me!
You can definitively win $25 and a currently undetermined number (probably around three) of t-shirts. With conferences I have attended and shirts received since I started blogging, I’ve got a handful that I will never wear - so I will pick a few and send them to the winner.
I’m interested! Unfortunately, I am not a US resident. I’d love to join competitions of this sort.
Best of luck to the winner!
Just to clarify, you do not have to be a US resident to enter the contest. I’ll ship the prize wherever the winner happens to reside.
I may be up for the challenge. I’ve heard of the 100 pushup challenge but didn’t really get into all of teh details. i’ll check it out and see if it’s something that I can get in to.
Great entry!
I’m in for sure
I am definitely interested… my intial test is 25, even though I study Tae Kwon Do. This program will give me more inspiration (read: nag) to do better.
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Its great that you ship the prizes wherever we live.
I come from Germany and I will take part here-and I would be very glad if I can win something :-))
This is an unfair competition. You must handicap us women!
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I’m not sure what is more embarassing… the fact that I could only do 29 pushups, or the fact that I’m already feeling the soreness.
Oh well, at least 29 > 27
I have heard of this contest before from a forum i visit frequently. so read the details and i was seriously interested in doing it. So i did the initial test to see how many i can do…well…I can do well over 100 as it is w/o trying. So i never pursued doing the challenge.
ah well….
Sounds like a challenge… I like it!
Shoooooooooot, count me in!
BTW - “Get Moving!” is my workout/fitness blog.
You’re ON!
This is wild, man…I just started a program of doing 100 push-ups a day for two weeks…I’ve already completed week 1 and am in the middle of week 2. I’ve been doing them a little different, though…just 4 sets of 25, not on any kind of sliding scale or anything. This is a good idea…looks like it will “shock” your body into building stronger muscles.
I don’t think I will enter in to this contest, but I will still participate in the 100 push up challenge. I bet by the end of the six week training program I’ll be very strong, which is always a good thing.
Nice blog, man!!! I liked that!
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Count me in!
I’m considering it….
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This sounds pretty interesting:) Goodluck to the participants!
Kelly beat me by 20 push ups. She did 35 in a row. That means I only did 15
She saw the challenge on my feed reader and is making me do it so I guess I’m in too now
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I don’t think I’m into this. Its about 90 pushups too many where I’m concerned.
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Would love to give it a go, will have to have a word with the doctor first though, I had a disc removed in October and am not sure how my back will fare.
Good luck to you Derek and to everyone else participating in the challenge as well. Been reading up on the challenge so I think I’m going to give it a go after my upcoming vacation. Keep up the good work!
When is competition going to end.
The competition is running until the end of August.
I’m very interested to see how this works. Having done push-ups every night for the last couple of years, I can manage 100, but I think I would still have trouble with some of the sets that the propose for later weeks. Just doing six sets of 10 regular and 10 wide push-ups is enough to wear me out… I don’t know if four sets of 40 or so is really feasible. Anyway, I hope you continue to update us on how it’s going!
I’ll have an update each Thursday until the end of the program, so stay tuned for the next update tomorrow.
Cool man, I was looking at your blog and saw this post. I started this about two weeks ago..how’s it going for you?
So far it is going really well, tonight is my last workout for the 2nd week and will be posting a recap of how things went.
But I feel great so far and have already made gains on my max.
You’ll be doing them with one arm soon then?
I am in the third week of the challenge. I started on August 10th. It is getting tougher and tougher. I will finish, but it probably take more than six weeks.
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for those of you interested in this 100 push ups challenge, you might also be interested in the 100 push-ups in 100 seconds challenge: http://www.parttimepersonaltrainer.com/2008/09/05/100-push-ups-in-100-seconds-challenge/
Tommys last blog post..100 Push-Ups in 100 Seconds Challenge
Thanks for posting about the 100 push ups site. Even though your contest is over, I’m still going to take the challenge!
Love doing push ups. A major exercise which has made me less skinny and getting lean muscle mass. In peak form, I will do 150 push ups in 5 sets of 30 reps with minimal rest in between.
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