Pushups, Week 2

Now that I’ve dug out from the 25 inches of snow that got dumped on us earlier this week, it’s time for a pushups update. Week 2 is in the books! Definitely more of a challenge than the first week, but I’m still feeling really good about this. The next two weeks won’t be nearly as easy though. I’m still about 75 away from being able to do 100 consecutive pushups, and it’ll be hard to get from here to there in only 4 weeks (skepticism creeps in). There’s still no good reason to believe that this won’t work though, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks.

Now for a bit of a confession: I actually haven’t done any pushups for 5 days now. The trouble has been with work – I’ve been pushing paper all week (literally pallets and pallets full of paper), so I’ve been too sore to do much lately. No worries though, because the great part about this program is that it’s very flexible. Have trouble with a week? Do it again and then move forward. With this in mind, tomorrow I’ll continue with the first day of the third week, and then I’ll be re-starting the third week on Monday to get back to the Mon-Wed-Fri schedule that I want to follow. Problem solved.

Up next, finally a beer review!

Push Up Count
Last Week: 183
Cumulative: 330

Resolutions

I hesitate to call them New Year’s resolutions, because really there’s no need to wait for an arbitrary date to improve yourself.  But since everyone is making them this time of the year, here are mine as well.

1. Get in shape - Yes, it’s the stereotypical New Year’s resolution. Yes, everyone quits it a week into the new year. Yes, it’s damn near the most ambiguous resolution you can possibly have. Here’s why it’s going to be different this year:

I have a plan. Countless other times I’ve failed at this resolution because I get about a week or two in and realize I don’t know where to go from there. One Hundred Push Ups solves that problem. It contains a six week program after which (you guessed it) you should be able to do a hundred pushups, or so they claim. While I am heavily skeptical of the time frame they’re giving to be able to perform 100 consecutive pushups, the routine of gradually increasing intensity seems at least plausible, albeit difficult. And I have to say, being only halfway through the second week I already do feel stronger than when I started. Whether that’s just me wanting to believe in this actually working or I’m already seeing results remains to be seen, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this.

One Hundred Push Ups also has a couple of daughter sites focusing around sit ups, squats, and pull ups. I’m going to focus mainly on the former two after push ups, which would cover most of the “core” that means so much for strength. These three programs should take me 18 weeks (at least) into the year, after which it will be warm enough to start running, after which I should be in pretty good physical shape. So assuming everything goes as planned, it’s possible that I can achieve this goal as early as the end of June, which is pretty exciting! I’ll keep updating on this as I progress through each week.

2. Don’t make another resolution until the first one is done – This has been my downfall so many times, trying to make dozens of changes at once and not accomplishing any of them. So I’m going to keep it simple this year – after I’ve gotten in shape to my satisfaction, I’ll set another goal to work towards. That’s not to say that I’m not going to try to do anything else during that time, it’ll be more like prioritizing my goals so that one is clearly above the others.

So even though it’s only 3 days into the new year, I’m already a week and a half towards achieving my resolution and I have a solid plan towards achieving the rest of the resolution. I’d say that’s a pretty good start to the year.

Push Up Count
Last Week: 105
Cumulative: 147

Second verse, same as the first

Following John Cage’s advice to begin anywhere, last week I decided to go for a hike in a blizzard.  I’m not really sure why I felt like I needed to take that hike, but the thought process probably went something like “who knows when the next time I’ll get to hike in a blizzard will be?”.  So I made the quick drive over to a lookout that’s about 5 minutes from home, just to see if I could see anything.  The view obviously wasn’t as good as it normally is, but the hike was still worth it because of how wintery it looked outside.

On the way back down the hill the gusting wind at the top of the hill died down in the shelter of the trees, and it was a quiet, peaceful walk back down.  I got to reflecting on the past year and how difficult it was for me, and decided then and there that it was time for a fresh start.  Resurrecting this blog is part of that starting over, expanding its focus to a few more things that I enjoy.  So here’s to making 2011 a great year!