OneHundredPushups – A Geeky Pushup Workout Program to Get In Shape

If I had to guess, I would say many of you are screen junkies like me. You spend most of the day in front of your computer’s screen, at work and at home. That might interfere with your health. Some time ago, I was told of a “trick” for people who work in an office or use a computer daily: to move your printer away from your workplace. But to really take care of your health and increase your energy level, you need to do more than just take the stairs or walking to your printer.

But before you order the protein supplements and pre-pay a three year membership to your local gym, you could try to start getting in shape by using the OneHundredPushups method. The pushup workout program is based around your regular standard old push-up, but as it turns out it’s quite a good exercise.

So what is OneHundredPushups? Actually it’s a very basic pushup workout program in which you do a fixed number of push-ups every other day for 6 weeks. In the end, you should be able to complete 100 push-ups in a row. It doesn’t really matter how fit you are beforehand, since you can follow certain tracks with more or less repetitions. If you’re able to do more than 20 push-ups during the initial test, you’re even allowed to skip to week 3 (Anyone? Start bragging in the comments).

The geeky part is that they have a really decent website with an explanation of the pushup workout program where you can keep track of your progress with the Pushup Logger and there is even an iPhone app (it isn’t free, link to iTunes Store here) that helps you reach your goal. Another cool thing is the printable schedule that you can fold into a mini booklet. They call this booklet a pocketmod and it can be found here.

So you’ve printed the booklet, signed up at the pushup logger and maybe even installed the iPhone app. Now it’s time to actually do something. You start out with an initial test that determines how fast you should start in the program. If you don’t manage more than 20 continuous push-ups you start at week 1. You will do three sessions of push-ups a week. You are supposed to reach the final week and do a hundred pushups after six weeks, but in reality you keep doing exhaustion tests that tell whether you should redo a week.

In my experience, it is a simple and easy to follow program. Of course you’re only doing one exercise, but I’ve found that it really trains many muscle groups. A good-form pushup is known to train almost all muscles of your upper body. I noticed my progress pretty fast, even though I already train (somewhat) in the gym. Especially when you stick to the rules and keep doing the push-ups three times a week you will see progress. I’m not sure everyone will reach the hundred continuous pushups, but you will see progress. I think when you really want to make a sincere effort of working on your health you should also start doing cardio workouts and pay attention to what you eat. This program is very good for beginners and others with limited free time because it only takes 30 minutes to an hour a week.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve started the OneHundredPushups pushup workout program. It helpt to share your results and goals with other people. You can also have a look at this Friendfeed group for instance. If it goes well you can also try the Two Hundred Situps program or Two Hundred Squats program. Good luck!