Me2Be, welcome!Yep, good form's a bear! :devil:

Week 2, day 2 - New #'s are in my post on page 1. 78 total, 24 max at one go. Tried knee pushups. I'm still laughing. Halfway down on the first try -STUCK. Halfway! Stuck! on my knees! Can you imagine if the mailman had looked in the screen door? Poor guy's already a little jumpy. The second time I locked up I leaned left and hit the mat.

My max # of reps dropped this time from 33, I think, to 24. I was a little upset, but let's look at this more closely.

1) The overall # of reps during a workout is trending up.
2) NP, Me2Be, etc. are noodging everyone to keep tookus tucked, back straight, belly in. It makes for a tougher overall pushup.
3) My pre-workout nutrition is all over the place.

When I did this challenge last year, I was all about slamming out the numbers. Measurable improvements in health, strength, and endurance are the name of the game this time, one thoughtful pushup at a time.

Ha ha! Funny story, Losing80. Yes, form is very important. Not using the correct form makes the pushups less effective and might cause injury. Eek!

I'm pretty sure I'll have to put off Day 2 until tomorrow. When I did strength training on Monday, I overdid it. Now my chest, shoulder and abs hurt like crazy. Hopefully I'll feel a little better tomorrow.

Let's not forget too that this challenge is truly a challenge! I think the program progresses rather fast myself! I wonder if it isn't really meant for guys? I whole heartedly believe women can do it, but it's intense. I personally think each daily workout should/could be performed across one week rather than continuously bumping to the next level. Of course, I'm also all about protecting those shoulders.

I look at it this way: With all my lifting routines, I nudge the weights up in small increments once I am able to lift 15 reps across 3 sets. If I can't meet that goal, I stay at the same weights for as long as it takes, which is usually 2-3 workouts. I do not increase the weights each time I lift whether I'm ready to or not. :dizzy:

Take your time! Losing80, I wouldn't try for the knee pushups until you've met your goal for the wall pushups, though you have a great attitude about it. ;) You do make me laugh. :D I just hate to see you keep meeting with difficulties rather than constant successes. I'm all about success when it comes to exercise! It's what keeps me coming back.

I agree that slow and steady makes sense. I bump things up when I'm confident that I'm doing the form right the whole time. I do a video (The Firm's: the 500 calorie workout with Kelsie Daniels) four times a week. I'm still on the same weights I've done for some months as I still feel challenged. I had bumped up from 3 pounds then 5 pounds but now I'm at 8 and think it's good. Well, I do have 1 pound wrist weights and 3 pound ankle weights, too.

By the way I used to tell people they should do yoga. I would tell them all the great things about yoga. I never mentioned that I did yoga. In fact, I'd never done yoga. I'd really converted many to it. After my pinched nerve in the fall of 2009, I finally tried it and liked it. Don't really do it much anymore (used to do at night but now I just go to bed). Maybe later on start up again.

I just completed Week 1, Day 2, Column 1. I didn't feel like doing this today! Yesterday a played tennis with a mate I've known for 20 years, we seem to always act like 6 year olds around eachother and our tennis game turned into a 'bashing the ball as hard as we could at eachother's heads' match lol Between the elbow over-extensions and rolling around laughing I woke up SORE this morning. However I still did the pushups (though it burned a bit) and increased my max to 10 :)

Everyone seems to be doing amazingly well! Love reading all your stats

Losing80- Thanks for the kind words, I'm on the Tim Ferriss 4 hour body diet. It's legumes, legumes, LEGUMES lol

I just completed week one day 2 level 2. I was able to do a total of 35 with the max consecutive 9, which is two more than I'd expected. Yes, I'm already sore but it's good sore.

I wanna try this. Just did the intial test and I managed 12. Guess I have a ways to go LOL.

Oh, I forgot to log what I did the other day! AND I need to do a pushups workout tomorrow and I wouldhave forgotten, so thanks Charlie for bumping this tonight!

I did a total of 105 pushups on Thursday. :D I'm pretty proud of that, even if they weren't consecutive.

okay finished week 1 - found today hard,my arms seemed just . . . weak! Going to take 2 days off, so I'll be back on Tues for week 2 :)

It's great how everyone's plugging along. I can't tell you how I used to think anything for arm strength for girls was practically impossible. Sounds sad but I just remember gym classes in school and that was my impression. I was on softball and later the rowing team. Neither sport asked us to pump our arms.

I have bumped up my pushups during the video to 12 on-knee pushups (with pulling up a weight in between) and later two sets of 28 combined with lunges and weights. I tried on Saturday to switch the on-knee pushups to on-toes pushups but these aggravated my arthritic shoulder (following the video includes one had on a weight, pushup, pull up weight, then another pushup, etc). The different levels just don't work.

I'm totally at my max right now so I'm going to hold off at this number for a while to monitor my form. I'm super exhausted when I finish this section--in a good way.

Just saw this thread and wanted to add my two bits. :D

I did this program last year in the spring and I stalled out. Maybe I'm just a weakling or maybe my long limbs make it tough I don't know. I did go from 35 on the initial test to 57 after six weeks.

I noticed they added a couple gifs to show proper form that they didn't have last year but anyone who is doing a large number of pushups should check out this link it shows perfect form and is by far the best work I've seen on the push up.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/trai...-some-push-ups

Question for everyone: How/Are are you guys doing regular strength training along with this program?

Last Monday I did week one, day 1 (column 3) and about 45 minutes of strength training with quite a bit of ab work. My abs were so sore that I wasn't able to continue week one of the pushup challenge. They're back to normal now but I need to figure out how to do both the pushup challenge and strength training, without having my abs be so sore that it makes it difficult to do the pushups. Any advice?

Yippee! Thanks for the link, JohnP! That lets me know my form is perfect!

Week 3, Day 1, column 3. 90 total, 34 max. Anyone else got spaghetti arms?

Welcome to the workout, Charlie 12! Great start. Let us know how your regular workouts go.

JohnP, thanks for the GIFs. Will you bring your lanky limbs back for another go?

I thought my numbers would be higher this week, but keeping good form is forcing a tougher workout for sure.

Y'all remember to get in a nice long stretch while you're still warm. You can get an amazing pec/front shoulder stretch by leaning into the corner of a room. Right hand on right wall, left on left, lean your torso slowly forward through your shoulders. You'll get a slightly different stretch if you put one foot in front of the other before you lean, then switch feet.

Good luck this week, everyone!

Thanks John! I'll have to check that out! Are joining us for a sort of rematch then? :D

Pink, I never realize just how much push ups work the core until I attempt to try them with ab work. LOL! Best case scenario, I'd try to work it so those days didn't coincide. I'm currently doing both on the same day though. I do push ups first, a few other things, and then I finish up with abs. That way my abs "tell" me how much I still need to push them. After a while you may find your core is strong enough to tackle both. I honestly no longer notice my abs when I'm doing pushups, but I did for a long time. I do know what you're talking about!