I did 100 Pushups a Day For 3 Weeks and Here’s What Happened
I like to try and start a new habit every 30 days or so. That’s about how long it takes for a new habit to stick. Then I can weigh the benefits and drawbacks to see if it’s something I want to incorporate into my daily life. I’ve been walking regularly but have done little in the way of resistance training. I figured doing pushups regularly would be an easy way to get some in without worrying about equipment, and I have a black belt in excuse-fu so I didn’t want any easy way to ninja my way out of the responsibility.
The Baseline
Starting this experiment I hadn’t done a proper pushup since Obama was in the Oval Office. I’m 44 and 5'11", 215 lbs so while I’m not terribly out of shape, I’m also not exactly in my athletic prime. I figured 100 a day was a good starting point and I could do them throughout the day until I reached my goal, even if it meant doing 5–10 at a time.
Day 1
Day 1 didn’t seem too bad. I was surprisingly able to do 15 pushups on my first try and after that, 10 at a time, and the overachiever in me finished the day at 105. I wondered if I had set the bar too low.
Days 2–4
I wake up on day 2 feeling as if my body is staging a rebellion against me. Surprisingly it’s my core that feels like it just went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. I actually seriously considered quitting the challenge at this point and giving my body a few days to recover. I’ve worked out before so I know the DOMS can be pretty brutal at first but usually get better after. I convinced myself to continue though, for science!
Days 5–10
After getting through a few more days I still woke up moving around like a monster out of Frankenstein's lab, but it got easier and by day 10 getting 100 pushups a day in was pretty routine.
Days 11–16
Things got a lot easier, and the challenge started to wear off. Surprisingly I started being able to do 20–25 pushups at a time and was mostly able to finish the daily work in 4–5 sets with little trouble. At this point, I’m pretty amazed at how quickly the human body can adapt to new stressors.
Days 17–21
To challenge myself a bit more I started doing more sets even after I hit 100. I was getting 180–200 pushups in on most days. This increased the soreness but nothing like it was originally. Normally I would do something like this for 30 days and then evaluate but at this point, the pushups were becoming more trivial and I felt like I had learned what I needed to learn about myself and how this might fit into part of my regular routine.
Key Takeaways
I like the “micro-workout” nature of doing pushups throughout the day and getting some resistance-style training in and breaking up all the sitting I was doing throughout the day with something other than walking. I also did feel like I was getting a little stronger. The downside was my appetite went up a lot. I had some massive carb cravings and gained a couple of pounds. I’d like to think it was muscle but it’s more likely pizza and cheese!
I actually think the most surprising thing is that I was super unused to getting down on the ground and back up again regularly. It really put a spotlight on how much time I spent upright and sitting, but very little time on the ground. I’ve tried to incorporate more time on the ground playing with my puppy or my son as a result and I think that’s an overall plus.
Will I Keep Doing It?
Not in this way. I’d like to incorporate more resistance training into my regular routine, but I think something that I’m more easily able to progressive overload might make more sense. That being said, this only took a few minutes and required no equipment, so while I won’t make sure I hit 100 every day, I do think that I might regularly do a set of as many as I can as a way to get the blood flowing and make sure I get some sort of resistance activity in throughout the day, particularly if I’m not able to do another type of workout.
I would like to be able to do a respectable amount of pull-ups, so I think that might be next. Even as a younger man, I’ve only ever really been able to do a handful of pull-ups at a time. While I never anticipate needing to pull myself off a cliff or something to save my life, being able to pull my body weight up 5–10 times is probably something I should be able to do!
