Can you do 100 consecutive push ups?  I can’t.  In an effort to build strength and get more physically fit, I started doing push ups a year or so ago.  When I started, I could only do about 15 at one time.  Not terrible, but not great.  I wanted more.  I didn’t have my sights set on 100 yet; that came more recently.  I had no goal besides getting stronger.

I created a habit of doing push ups every evening.  I started with about 15 which was all I could do at one time.  I would rest for about five minutes and do as many as I could.  I repeated that up to five times a night.  At then end, I would only be doing about half of what I started with, but I was getting stronger.  I missed a day here or there, but I tried to not miss more than one day in a row.  I still did not have a goal, but I did have a direction and I started moving.

As time went on, I could do more at one time.  By the time I stopped, I could do 40 the first set, 40 the next set, 35 or so for the third set, and about 30 for the forth set.  I tried to make sure that I was doing at least 100 push ups a day.  Then, my shoulder started to hurt.

There are few exercises that are as low of impact on your body as push ups.  No jumping or quick movements are required, so how do you get hurt doing pushups?  I still don’t know.  I could say that I didn’t warm up (which I didn’t) but I hurt my shoulder on the third or fourth set of the evening.  I was using good (or pretty good) form.  I just don’t know what happened.  All I knew is that I had hurt something in my shoulder.  Goodbye push ups for a while.

As the typical male of my age and inclination, I did not seek medical help for my shoulder.  It hurt every time I raised my arm over my head, but I just figured it was a sprain or strain or something.  It would heal.  Now it is over eight months later and I can still feel the injury, but it no longer hurts (as bad).  I do warm up a little, but at least I can do push ups again.

Eating and losing weight have always been a challenge for me.  I have tried several ways to lose weight but nothing really worked.  I think most of the problem was no matter what I tried, it did not fit my personality, lifestyle, and work schedule.  I really just needed a kick start and a small change to get me going.  Since kick starts can happen in all different ways, mine happened when I was sick.

Every year or so I tend to get some sort of upper respiratory funk.  I hack and cough for what seems like months but is more like a week or two.  I am usually not ever sick enough to go to the doctor but I just feel bad and sound awful.  This year was a little different.  The week I started getting sick was a week I was scheduled to work out of town.  The day I was leaving, I decided to either jump off a bridge or go to the doctor; I chose the doctor.  After two injections, a prescription, and a diagnosis of pneumonia, I headed out of town.  Sounds like fun, right?

Getting sick did a number of good things for me.  First, I did not feel like eating much so I didn’t.  Since I was not eating that much, I realized the second good thing, that I could actually leave food on my plate and not eat it.  That, combined with ordering the smallest portion I could, lead to a much reduced caloric load on my body.  I didn’t mind or care; I had pneumonia and still felt terrible.

I felt better after a week and much better after two weeks.  My appetite did not return as my health improved.  Great news if you are trying to lose weight.  I didn’t stop eating, I would just stop when I was no longer hungry.  Again, it was pretty easy because I was just getting over pneumonia.  At that time, I noticed a fundamental shift in my personality, actions, and body.  I not only did not need to eat that much, but I was actually losing weight.  And not just a little, but over four pounds a week at times.

I was losing weight so steadily that I thought there might be something wrong.  From someone who found it difficult if not impossible to lose weight in the past, I was worried when I ate what I thought of as normal and still lost pounds.  Since then, I have noticed that I not only eat less but the food I eat has changed.  I now eat much more brown rice and beans.  I still eat bread and other normal foods, but I eat more fruits and vegetables.  I eat much less candy or sweets, not because I don’t like them anymore, but after not eating them for a month or two, they seem too sweet.

Back to push ups

A month or so ago (a little before Christmas 2011) I found the website hundredpushups.com.  I had not really wanted to get back doing push ups but I wanted to get back to working out at a gym.  For many reasons, a gym membership will not fit into my schedule at this time in my life.  After looking at this site, I decided to set a goal of 100 push ups.  The website says you can get there in seven weeks and that is what I am going to try.  Currently, I can do 30 push ups at a time which puts me at week 3.  I am hoping to do a video in a month of me successfully doing 100 push ups.

I have lost about 20 pounds in the past several months and my goal is 185.  I am at 210 right now.  My clothes fit much looser and sometimes, too loose.  For one of the very few times in my life, I actually need to buy smaller clothes.  Good problem to have, in my opinion.

(photo by: zirconicusso)