Jeff and I started an experiment this week. We found a website
www.hundredpushups.com that has a set of charts for 5 sets of pushups 3 days a week. You test yourself to see how many pushups you can do in a row, then pick a column in the chart for week one based on the result of that test. Then each Monday, Wednesday and Friday you do the prescribed number of pushups, with the prescribed breaks between sets, and after two weeks you test yourself again. Based on that number you move on to the appropriate column of the chart for weeks 3 and 4. The idea is that after 6 weeks you'll be able to do 100 pushups without stopping. Of course, 6 weeks is the minimum, they do have a disclaimer that you may have to repeat some weeks, but the idea is that even if it takes 7 or 8 or 9 weeks, if you do them the way they say, you'll eventually be able to do 100 in a row.
For my initial test last Saturday, I did 19 pushups. Three days this past week, I've done 5 sets of pushups for a total of 40 on Monday, 42 Wednesday, and 46 yesterday. You max out for the last set each day, so you're always getting a good workout. Jeff could already do about 25 pushups, so he started on week 3, and he did 78 pushups Monday and 89 pushups this morning! (in 5 sets-- the ones he was supposed to do for Friday-- but still, it's significantly more than he could do even on Monday.)
We're pretty excited, even if we don't get to the goal of 100 in a row (I'm betting Jeff will) it's still cool to be able to do a lot of pushups, and the program is a good motivator.
I'll post an update when we take our progress tests next weekend :D
