Derek Semmler dot com - money, motorcycles and cars (with a little bit of everything else)

Last week I had commented that I needed to break the trend of not completing the third workout by the time that I wrote this recap post. Unfortunately, that trend is going to continue for at least one more week.

While I was on schedule to complete the third workout today, I was invited to attend the Chicago Cubs game. As soon as I heard that it was an afternoon game (meaning an early exit from work) and we would be on one of the rooftops surrounding Wrigley Field, I was in and accepted the invite.

Even though it is an afternoon game, anyone that has been to a Cubs game will tell you that you will most likely not be in any condition to perform five sets of push ups after an afternoon at Wrigley Field. As a matter of fact, I am writing this post a day early to avoid the possibility of missing the post entirely.

Week Four :: The Program

As a reminder from last week, here is the program for Week Four:

Day One

• 27 push ups followed by 60 seconds rest
• 20 push ups followed by 60 seconds rest
• 20 push ups followed by 60 seconds rest
• 17 push ups followed by 60 seconds rest
• Max (at least 27 push ups)

Day Two

• 27 push ups followed by 90 seconds rest
• 21 push ups followed by 90 seconds rest
• 21 push ups followed by 90 seconds rest
• 18 push ups followed by 90 seconds rest
• Max (at least 25 push ups)

Day Three

• 30 push ups followed by 120 seconds rest
• 22 push ups followed by 120 seconds rest
• 22 push ups followed by 120 seconds rest
• 20 push ups followed by 120 seconds rest
• Max (at least 29 push ups)

You’ll recall that the completion of Week Four also means that it is time for another exhaustion test in order to gauge your progress.

Week Four :: The Results

Repeating the Week Four workout was clearly the right approach for me, as I was able to complete the first two workouts and surpass the minimum requirements for the max set.

On the first workout of the week, I was able to complete 33 repetitions during the max set and I completed 31 repetitions during the max set on the second workout. While I had been hoping that I would be able to do more repetitions at this point, I am pleased that I was able to surpass the minimum requirement.

In a change from the last few weeks, I felt the best during the Day One workout this week. The Day Two workout was much more of a challenge for me this week.

As mentioned earlier, I have not yet completed the third and final workout for this week. However, considering that the third workout followed the same form last week where I was able to complete the first four sets but struggled on the max set, I am expecting that this week I will be able to finish strong.

Week Five :: Looking Ahead

The first order of business before reaching the fifth week will be to complete the exhaustion test. The exhaustion test will be used to monitor progress, as well as determine which column of workouts will be followed for Week Five. To maintain my position in the third column, I will need to perform more than 40 repetitions during the exhaustion test.

Once the exhaustion test is out of the way, I will be facing what looks to be the most difficult workout yet. Assuming that I am able to stay in the third column, I will be performing a minimum of 167 push ups across five sets. That is a lot of push ups!

As the week progresses, I will be doing less push ups during each workout but the amount of rest in between sets is also decreasing. On the Day Two workout, I will only be resting 45 seconds between sets and the Day Three workout only calls for 30 seconds of rest between sets.

At this point in the program, I really thought that I would be able to do more continuous push ups in one sitting. Seeing that I am about to enter Week Five and haven’t even surpassed 50 repetitions at one time, I have a hard time believing that I will be able to do 100 repetitions after only two more weeks.

How did you do this week with your workout?

As a reminder, it is not too late to enter the 100 Push Up Challenge Contest. As long as you start the program prior to the deadline and follow the contest rules, your entry will be considered valid.

If you have spent any time surfing the blogosphere recently, you’ve likely seen a good deal of publicity surrounding the affiliate company Market Leverage.

John Chow has been running a Market Leverage affiliate challenge and not too long ago Enkay reminded us that Market Leverage is where its at. Of course you also have people like Nick who won a bag of Market Leverage swag and Tyler Ingram who has made his first earnings with Market Leverage.

Seeing all the fun that everyone else has been having, I decided it was time to give them a try myself. You’ll remember that I often talk about how it never hurts to try a new service as there is only one way to find out if it will work for you, and that is to try it.

So what do I think of Market Leverage?

Well, I’d love to tell you but unfortunately my application was denied.

Not once, but twice!

The first time that I submitted my application, I received an email from a Publisher Manager at Market Leverage indicating that they needed me to call before my application could be approved. When I called to talk to them, I was informed that my application could not be approved because the domain that was entered on my application was showing that it was not owned by me.

When I applied for an account, I listed this domain as well as the domain for The Man Page. However, the application apparently only listed the TMP domain and I don’t personally own that one, so that made sense.

The recommendation was to apply again using only the domain for this blog to avoid any confusion regarding the ownership of the domain. So I visited the site again and completed another application and anxiously awaited the approval of my account.

Denied…again!

Now I am a bit confused, although I think I know what might have happened. The domain for this site is owned by me but I used the private domain registration service when I purchased the domain. Therefore, Market Leverage might be checking the domain and when they cannot confirm that the domain is owned by the same name on the account, they deny the application.

This is only my suspicion, as I haven’t called back the second time to determine why my account was denied. As much as I would like to be testing how Market Leverage might work with the sites that I own/author and encourage all of you to sign up as well, I am not able to get an account.

If anyone from Market Leverage happens to stop by, can you help me out?

In an effort to expand the reach of your blog, you have likely signed up for a variety of social media sites and forums that are frequented by like-minded people.

I’m no different, as you can see from this list of sites where you can find me.

Awhile back I had signed up with Perfect Business. With so many sites out there, you may not have come across this one before but it has been built for entrepreneurs to network and help one another build their business.

With so many different sites competing for my time, I have to admit that I have been neglecting my Perfect Business account; only checking a few times to post a note or connect with someone. The other day I decided to visit the site and provide more detail for my profile when I noticed a pretty sweet promotion that they are offering.

Perfect Business is running a business competition where the member with the most votes will win $1000 in business seed money. The best part is that anyone can vote for their favorite member, you do not have to be a member yourself to vote.

So…

I thought it would be interesting to see if the community could support me in an effort to win the competition. If you’re interested in helping me try to win the $1000, all you need to do is vote for me.

As I mentioned earlier, you do not need to be a member to vote so it will just take a moment of your time. In addition, you can vote for me once every day - so vote early and often!

While I am getting started with my effort to win this competition fairly late in the month, I am encouraged by the fact that the top entrepreneur right now only has approximately 160 votes. With approximately 200 unique visitors arriving to this blog each day and roughly 250 RSS subscribers, I think that I can skyrocket up the list pretty quickly.

Now, you’ll note that I said that there is a chance that you can win as well.

If all of you are able to support me and I win the competition, I will return the favor and select one of you to win $250 cash. Just by showing your support and clicking the Vote Now link, you have an opportunity to win your own cash prize!

Lets see if the power of the community can win this contest…

Support me with your vote!

When we got together last week, we took a look at a handful of posts with the intent to further our education on a variety of topics. As we learn new things, we often start to make a list of what we want to accomplish with our new found skills.

Therefore, this edition of Speedlinking will focus on lists. Some of the lists will tie in nicely with the lessons that we learned last week while others are just plain fun and interesting.

1. The SES coverage is getting into full swing over at the aimClear Search Marketing Blog and Jennifer Osbourne kicks things off with a recap of 43 killer viral tips from top marketers.

2. Trying to get started in your freelance writing career? Michael “Kwanye” Kwan recently provided an overview of the 6 step approach to writing feature articles that he has used to build up his freelance writing career.

3. Stressed out? In need of a mental boost? Leo Babauta reminds us that sometimes the best way to have a great day is to make someone else happy. If you’re in need of some pointers, check out 32 ways to make someone happy today.

4. In the recent Q&A Session, I commented that one of the most difficult things to maintain with multiple blogs is the ability to come up with post ideas. Fortunately, Darren Rowse has provided us with 24 things to do when stuck for a topic to blog about.

5. Not everyone that authors a blog enjoys getting into all of the code behind the scenes. For those that do love to tinker with the code, Smashing Magazine recently provided some fodder for “tinker time” with 7 principles of clean and optimize CSS code.

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