100 Push ups

A couple of days ago I decided to try and improve my upper body strength. Walking every day has kept my legs from going downhill, but as I found out on my first kayaking trip of the year, my arms are pretty worthless.

As usual, when I have a problem, I turn to Google, and I quickly found a link to a promising web site called “100 Pushups.” Maybe a little too ambitious, but I could probably settle for a little less than 100.

According to the instructions the first step is to take the initial test and determine what group you are in by, (guess what?) seeing how many pushups you can do.

I creaked my way into a face down position and relaxed. OK. Lets get started... I barely managed to do 2 shaky pushups and was rewarded by a cramp in my right leg. So that put me in the 1 to 5 group, (probably called the 'weenie' group) or as the instructions advised, maybe I should start out by doing “bench pushups” which are much easier. I found that the step going up out of my bedroom was just the right height and using the elevation of the step I could do 6 pushups, which in my mind at least, got me out of the “weenie” group. I went back to the computer and printed out the first weeks schedule.

The schedule called for 4 sets of pushups on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. The first set called for me to do 6, rest for 60 seconds, do 6, rest for 60 seconds, do 4, rest, do 4, rest, then to do as many as I could, (at least 5.)

On Friday morning I quivered and strained my way through the first two sets and started on the third when our puppy, Squeak spied me and decided that it was a great time to lick my ear. I steeled myself to ignore her and finished the set of 4. On the next set, after I got to 3, she put both of her front paws on the back of my head and tried to hold me down. She was successful. I still counted that as a 4 considering the handicap.

Now all I had to do was rest for 60 seconds, (or more if you need it, Weenie!) and do as many as I could, (but at least 5!) My arms felt like rubber and I didn't care any more if I was a weenie or not, so I took a five minute break.

After I was rested, I lowered myself down to the carpeted step and as Squeak watched, I pushed and strained, but try as I might, I couldn't raise my 150 pound scrawny self off of the carpet. There was nothing in the instructions about that happening, so I assumed that on Monday I'd just start over again.

I made it through all 4 sets on Monday, and on Wednesday I advanced to 8 reps despite having 2 dogs licking my ears. I doubt that I'll ever come close to 100, but if it helps me to paddle my kayak without getting pooped I'll be happy.