DiscipleshipGuy » Fitness

Week 4 Fitness Update

Matthew E. Parrott — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:07:13 +0000

Week four of the fitness challenges is done and in the books. The two fitness challenges I have been doing are the one hundred push-ups challenge and the two hundred sit-ups challenge. Both of these challenges are six weeks three days a week challenges. Each of the three days have you do four sets of each with one max set. Everyday during the challenge your reps increase slightly (or not so slightly) until after six weeks you can do one hundred consecutive push-ups and two hundred consecutive sit-ups.

The Fitness Challenge: Week fours' fitness challenge increased by nearly twenty push-ups and thirty sit-ups per day if you includes your max sets. Each day during week four you would have a set amount of push-ups or sit-ups for your first set, say twenty five, and a higher number of reps for your second set (maybe thirty). Then the third and fourth sets would be the same number of reps as your first set (twenty five), until your max, which would be a little larger than your second set (say thirty five)

My Results: During week four I found that the jumps in both challenges were probably a little two large for me. I was able to finish the sets and max, but only after significant rest periods and I had to alter the way I was doing my push-ups in order to finish my sets. On day two of week four I almost quit, I am embarrassed to admit, because I was only able to finish two sets without significant rest. I didn't want to quit because I didn't think I could do it, but rather because I didn't think I could make the jump as fast as they were going. The idea of doing a six week challenge was interesting to me, but it seemed as though my six weeks were going to turn into 8, 10, or more! The good news here is that I did finish my workout, I finished the week, and I did experience a lot of muscle growth. I found the challenge to be very beneficial - but I am putting it on hold.

I am going to pause for a few months and come back to the challenge and see if I can finish it. I can't tell you why I am putting in on pause for now, thats for another post. I can tell you I won't be losing any strength during my break. I will probably finish the challenge in May, look for more update about the push-up and sit-up challenges then. One final thought, the reason I am putting these particular challenges on hold, is because I want to try something else that I feel will help me accomplish my goals better. One of my goals was to get fit, one of my goals was to lose weight, and to overall be healthier. I think that the push-up and sit-up challenges were helping me in one of two of those categories. I am trying a new challenge that will hopefully meet all three goals.

Your Results: How have you been working to accomplish your goals this year? Are they working for you? If they aren't working, have you considered making adjustments to help you accomplish your goals?

Week 3 Fitness Update

Matthew E. Parrott — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:25:26 +0000

On New Year's I did what everyone else always does. I made some New Year's goals. One of those goals was to get into shape and lose some weight. I didn't want to just do a short term fad diet, so instead I decided to join two fitness challenges. The first challenge was the hundred push-ups challenge, the second challenge is the two hundred sit-ups challenge. Saturday I finished week three of the fitness challenges, here is my overview of the week.

The Fitness Challenge: The hundred push-ups challenge has been very easy up until this week. Every week I have completed all of my sets (four sets plus one max set) and met minimum requirements for the day's max.

My Results: The hundred push-ups (and sit-ups) challenge has been very easy up until this week. Every week I have completed all of my sets (four sets plus one max set) and met minimum requirements for the day's max. This week has been much different. Day one went fine, day two…well that went differently. Day two of week three in both challenges have significant jumps in the amount of reps that are in each set. The jumps were so drastic that I was so exhausted that I was unable to do (or begin) the max set – for either challenge. Day three went a little better, I was able to accomplish the max sets, however, I did have significant time to rest between set four and my max set. After looking over the program again from start to finish, it looks like this steep adjustments in the number of reps is going to continue to happen every week from here on out. It was a little curious as to why there were no steep adjustments from week one to week two, and not from week two to week three. It was only during the middle of week three that there was a steep curve upwards. It seems like the challenge could have moved a bit more steadily if there would have been regular large adjustments.

Your Results: What are you doing this year to accomplish your goals? Are you still focusing on making the small choices to ensure your success for the long haul? What can you do today to either get refocused or maintain your focus on your goals?

Week 2 Fitness Update

Matthew E. Parrott — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:16:33 +0000

At the beginning of the year I made a goal to get in to better shape and lose weight doing it. One of the ways I decided to do this was to participate in the hundred push-ups challenge and the two hundred sit-ups challenge. I have just completed the second week of both challenges.

The Fitness Challenges: Three times a week the challenge require 5 sets. The first set is roughly 85 percent of the required max for the day. The second set is roughly 90 percent of the days max. The following two sets are roughly half of the number of the max for that day. Finally, the fifth set of the day is your max. Every day the sets are usually one to two reps higher than the day before.

My Experience: A little about my experience, so far I have been hitting all of the reps in each set, including the max set. In addition, in the push-ups challenge I have been doing inverted push-ups with my legs on a chair (this is my attempt to make it harder). At the end of the week the challenge has you do another fail set. This enables you to see how much you have progressed over the course of the week and to also determine if you have progressed as much as the challenge has wanted you to. The results of the tests also determine which column you will be basing your workouts on for the next week.

My Results: I haven't had a scale to weigh myself this year (ironically enough), but I can tell that my arms, abs, back, shoulders, etc are all getting stronger. I can feel myself push past boundaries that I couldn't have in the past.

Your Results: The big question is how are your New Year's goals going? Have you started them? If so, what are you doing to accomplish them? What have been your successes or failures?

Week 1 Fitness Update

Matthew E. Parrott — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:07:57 +0000

I completed my first week of the hundred push-up challenge and the two hundred sit-up challenge. Both challenges were opportunities to focus on my personal health and fitness in the New Year. While I want to lose weight (doesn't everybody?) I am more concerned on long time health than just a couple pounds. And, by focusing on fitness instead of weight, I can have the side effect of losing weight while I get in shape. Both challenges presented aspects I wasn't expecting. For instance, I have had far more success with the push-up challenge than I initially expected. I have been able to complete all of the expected sets and the quantity involved in each set. Not only that, but I have been using a technique that is a bit more difficult than normal push-ups. In addition I have been able to exceed my max by 5-7 each day.

The sit-up challenge on the other hand has proved to be more difficult. Once again I have been able to complete all the sets in each of the challenges. However, the first couple of days I was able to exceed the programs max. However, on day 3 I was merely able to meet my max. The reason for this could be one of several things:

My arms, shoulders and back are in better shape than my abs, or
The sit-ups challenge is a little bit more aggressive than the push-ups challenge.

Of course I prefer option two, regardless, I am going to need more work in this area. On day two of the challenge I noticed that I may not have been doing the technique quite as well as I thought. I made the necessary adjustments and this is when everything became a whole lot harder. I am glad I found this out early however, this way I can ensure myself the best results possible. How are you doing with your New Years goals? Are you still on track, determined to follow through on your goals for the New Year? Or have you already fallen and determined that your goals are to difficult to succeed? Hopefully you are still on your path. Since we are not yet two weeks into the New Year it's not to late to get going and focus on small successes rather than minor set backs. Share your journey and what it's been like so far in the comments.

Fitness Challenge

Matthew E. Parrott — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:27:37 +0000

One of my goals for 2010 is to get in better shape and to lose weight (aren't these everybody's goals?). Today I took my first step towards these goals. Initially I had thought about doing the p90x workout, I didn't (and still don't) know much about it. I don't own the DVD's and I didn't have any of the equipment your suppose to have, so in the mean time I found out about the 100 push-up challenge. I have heard about the push-up challenge in the past, a couple of friends of mine had tried it. But it really got me thinking about it again when I saw another post about it on the Quicktofit website. After doing some more research, I found hundredpushups and read their 100 push-up challenge, you can find the complete program here. After reading their site I saw that they also have a sit-ups challenge, found here.

Reading about the sit-up and push-up challenges really struck a cord with me and I decided that I would rather do both of these challenges than the p90x. While I was They also have a logger program were you can keep track of your progress through their site. They make is easy to log-in with Facebook Connect, and if you chose, it will publish your updates as stories on your Facebook page so that your friends can do it with you. The sit-ups challenge may be a little harder to complete, it is two hundred sit-ups! The sit-ups challenge program is found here. I really like the idea of doing both of these challenges, so tonight I signed up and did both of my initial tests. Both challenges are things I can do on my own, require no additional equipment, and will go a long way towards meeting my fitness goals. I am really looking forward to going through this challenge and I hope that you would consider going through the challenges with me. I have signed up on the site as user parrott84 and my user number is 77923. You can even add me as your friend as we go through the challenges together. There are two other things that I have been focusing on the past couple days. I have increased my water intake and have decreased the amount of food I am eating – especially after dinner. If you join the challenge leave your username in the comment section so we can go through the challenges together.