Andrew is getting fit » Pushups

One Hundred Push-ups in a Row

Andrew — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:52:03 +0000

It’s been a long time coming but I’m pleased to announce that I have completed the hundred push-up challenge. I’ve started this challenge at least 7 times and it just goes to show that if you stick with it you can actually do it. The last ten push-ups were not pretty but I don’t care. I’m done! I think I’ll stick to doing 50 push-ups every few days as a maintenance program but I never want to go through all those levels again!

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Weigh in post #6 2010: Now with push-ups!

Andrew — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:07:13 +0000

It’s been another great week for my health and fitness goals. The weight side of the equation is going well. Another all green week with 1.28 kg (2.8 pounds) lost off my trend line.

For those who don’t know, I record my weight at PhysicsDiet.com every morning and it computes a trend line which smooths out the daily fluctuations. If my actual weight is lower than the trend my graph stays green. If it goes higher the graph switches to red. I use my trend line weight as my actual weight as that is what I’m maintaining even though my scale weight is about a kg (2 pounds) lighter. Once I move closer to my goal the line between trend and actual should merge.

And so far it has been an all green year!

If you look at the chart for the year I think it is reasonably easy to see where the weekends where I overindulged are! This last weekend’s eating was reasonably good overall although I did have some cake at a friends birthday party and the sugar did make me long for junkfood in the evening. However I resisted and so had a reasonably good weigh-in this morning.

In other news I did the end of week 04 push-up test yesterday morning and did a whopping 75 push-ups in a row! That is a new personal best for me. The hundred push-up challenge rocks!

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This is what I eat

Andrew — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:01:49 +0000

I was asked by a few people to do another “what do you eat” post so I thought I would do a short photo essay of my daily food.

This is what I normally eat Monday to Friday and weekends I reserve for a bit of variety. Some might find it a bit boring but it works for me as I enjoy every single meal. Lots of photos so I’ve put them beyond the jump.1st off breakfast:

I have some oats (in water as I hate milk) with a handful of strawberries and a handful of blueberries.

My post run protein:

One scoop of protein power in a cup of water.

And I normally have one piece of fruit as well. The other one is my mid-afternoon snack.

My midmorning snack is normally 2 boiled eggs. I love eggs and having them boiled is the easiest for me to do as I can prepare them in advance.

Lunch:

I normally make my lunches for the week in bulk. I have a bed of brown rice and quinoa and on top I have a mixture of soy mince, black beans, green beans, green & red peppers, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, spring onions and tomatoes. Nothing unhealthy in there. And it tastes pretty good too.

Dinner is a salad on top of a bed of chickpeas and nuts.

It’s a pretty healthy set of dishes I think. Best of all I’m not hungry and I have plenty of energy for my running.

It’s definitely a lot healthier than the way I was eating before I wised up.

In other news I did a great 12.6 km run into work today and I also managed to complete week 04 of the hundred pushups program for the first time.

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Weigh-in post #5 2010: A good January

Andrew — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:34:27 +0000

I managed to stay in the green this week although that wedding came close to putting me in the red as you can see by the little uptick at the end. However, it did not so overall another successful week:

This is the chart for the year so far:

I attribute my success this month to eating clean most of the time and to doing lots of running. I also have tried to build in the occasional treat as man ~~cannot~~ should not live on only healthy food at all times. I’m down to 102 pounds (46.25 kg) lost now which is a relatively large amount of weight.

I’m feeling pretty good about my progress and I feel I’m in a pretty sustainable place right now. The only niggle I have is that I hurt my knee doing the 200 squats challenge and it’s a bit stiff so I’m going to take my running even easier than normal for a bit. I’m up into week 4 of the 100 pushups challenge and it’s getting tough but I’m sticking with it.

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Wednesday roundup: Running, Squats & Push-ups

Andrew — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:24:43 +0000

My fitness routine is going well.

I restarted the hundred push-ups challenge for the 7th time after I got derailed again in December by going on holiday and getting lazy. I’ve completed week 02. At the end of each two weeks you have to do a test to see which level you start in for week 03. I needed to get more than 25 and easily got out 40. I probably could have gone past 50 (my previous record) if I had done them in the evening as I can always do more push-ups in the evening for some reason.

I’ve also started the two hundred squats challenge (for the 1st time!). On my initial test I could do 25 squats before thinking that’s enough for now. I’ve just completed week 02 of that as well and to get in to the highest level for week 03 I needed to get above 40. I did 50 with relative ease and probably could have done a lot more. I’m a lot more confident of getting to 200 squats as compared to 100 push-ups! I think the running helps with the leg strength.

My low heart rate training has been going well. I’ve bumped my runs up by 1km so I’m doing 11km every morning before work now instead of 10. The runs are so slow (6:30 min/km pace+) that my legs don’t feel tired. I’m getting in a really good aerobic base I think. I can tell it’s working as my resting heart rate (taken in the evenings while reading my book) has dropped from mid 50s to mid 40s.

My run this morning was great. It was a bit windier than it has been which was a blessing as it has been starting to get quite hot. I ran from the city out to the end of the Jetty below:

For a total of 11.5 happy km.

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Cycle commute

Andrew — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:53:06 +0000

I gave cycling home from work a go yesterday. I had meant to cycle to and from work but was running a bit late in the morning and my wife said “Why don’t I drop you off and you cycle home?” I thought that was a mighty fine idea as it meant I wouldn’t have to shower again when I got to work.

This is the first time I’ve actually ridden my bike back from work and I think it might become a regular Friday event. I had planned on incorporating a large loop and making it about a 20km ride but the weather became a bit rainy and windy so I decided to go directly home. This meant it was just a short ride of about 4.5 km with 3 large hills along the way. Dead easy really even though I had to engage granny gear!

One problem I’ve got is that I’ve got a toddler seat on my bike and when it’s very windy it acts like a sail! Not so good when you are not travelling with the wind.

I don’t think I’m going to become a keen road cyclist but it is handy to have some form of cross training I guess and cycling is supposed to be relatively good.

I’ve also started the 200 squats challenge. This is similar to the 100 pushups challenge which I’m doing as well. First time on the 200 squats challenge and about 7th time on the 100 pushups challenge! I’ve got both the iphone apps for them and it’s quite good to get a few more exercises in even if I never make the actual targets. Although I have been getting closer every time I do the program!

The sun is just coming up here on Saturday morning so I’m off for a 10K run. Hope you have a good day wherever you are!

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A windy run, a milestone & a fan

Andrew — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:33:19 +0000

My wife and I have the Adra Half Marathon coming up this Sunday so we wanted to get a nice easy 12km in yesterday morning. Our babysitter (Grandma) needed to be out by 8am so we left at 6 so that we would have a good buffer.

Unfortunately it was very windy and so running was quite tough at times. I kept thinking that it was funny that I could run a marathon but still struggle on a 12ker!

There were very few other runners out on Tamaki Drive (unlike just before the Marathon!) but we did meet one older gentleman who ran with us for a few km. He managed to impress me greatly when he casually mentioned that he’d recently run his 106th marathon!

The highlight of my run had to be hitting 1000 miles for the year. I think 1000 miles is a decent total myself.

Today I nipped down to Borders to buy a book during lunchtime today and a friendly lady jumped out and said “You won’t know me at all but I read your blog!” Funnily enough, I think I do know her. My long suffering wife immediately commented on how the highlight of the day was no longer lunch with the wife but rather recognition from a fan. I say long suffering wife as she is used to lots of people coming up to me and saying hello. I’m not famous or anything but I do teach at stage 01 at University and as such I’ve had thousands of students over the years.

In other news I did the end of week 02 100 push-ups test and I managed to nut out 41 in a row which is a good improvement.

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Next challenge is an old challenge

Andrew — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:33:05 +0000

I’ve had a few people ask me what is next in terms of running and I’m going to be doing the Adra Half Marathon on the 29th of November. I’m going to run this with my wife and I’m really looking forward to it as it will be her inaugural half marathon.

However, my next big fitness challenge is to get the 100 push-ups challenge out of the way.

I was very fortunate in that Steve Spiers, who is the mastermind behind the 100 push-ups craze, sent me a copy of his book:

I found the 100 push-ups website quite useful the first few times that I tried to do this challenge but I have to admit that I think the book is much better.

In part 1, Steve starts off with a great introduction about why he started doing push-ups. He’s a runner who was looking for more strength. Similar to me! Except he is really really fast.

The book is a very easy read with lots of interesting tidbits about push-ups. There is some Japanese bloke who has done more than 10000 in a row!

In part 2 we move on to the actual training programs. There are a lot more training programs offered in the book than there are on the website. I think this is a big plus as the one on the website was fairly hardcore and there are quite a lot more pathways for push-up beginners in the book.

In part 3 Steve offers a section on more complicated/challenging push-up types for those who need more challenge. Needless to say I’m not there yet but it’s something to aspire to.

Part 4 is an appendix that has some stretching routines and a program for folks who are not able to do any push-ups yet. It also has a training log but I’d use my computer for that myself.

I found the book easy to read and it has got me inspired to do more push-ups. The last time I attempted the challenge I got up to the mid 40s however, when I did my initial challenge last night I only managed 20 so I’ll report back once a week or so on how I’m going. There is a real sense of achievement in managing to do a lot of push-ups. I suspect it’s a guy thing. What do the ladies think?

I reckon this would make a great Christmas gift for someone who was into fitness!

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