Doing push ups all these months has helped me to realize the impact push ups (and perhaps any exercise) can have. These are the lessons I learned from doing push ups as they apply to life:
1. Persistence - even if you don't hit you goal right away, keep after it and you will. Persistence is the key to success. In fact, with enough persistence, you would supersede those with natural talent and nothing else.
2. Being Grounded - the most benefit from push ups comes from getting as close to the ground as possible. So in life, I believe, staying grounded helps you to have a clear vision about you want to accomplish.
3. Focus - being distracted, being bored, takes away from push ups. For one, you're not able to complete as many reps and give up too easily if you're not paying attention to the push up. Secondly, you lose count of the reps and therefore lose track of your goal. As in push ups, so in life.
4. Good Sleep - having a good night's sleep the night before you push up helps immensely. It gives you clarity of mind and a reserve of strength.
5. Perspective - many people see push ups as painful. But, you can (and I have) change your perspective so they become actually enjoyable. In life, we face many difficult times and situations we'd rather change. Many times we cannot change them. However, if we change our perspective, we can gain both wisdom and cunning.
I've noticed that as I've decreased the frequency of push ups due to many excuses, I have lost some of those abilities I had (yes...abilities) when I did do push ups regularly. Go figure!
As in push ups, so in life....
If you like this post, give me 10 cents....and I'll give you 10 push ups."
10/29/2007
5 Life Lessons I Learned From Push Ups
10/26/2007
How to Lose Weight with Push Ups
"It ain't easy being green," Kermit always used to say.
Well, I've always felt that it ain't easy being fat. I mean, I knew I had to exercise to lose weight; I knew I had to change my eating habits; I knew I had to have a different mind frame.
And that's when I found push ups. I told myself that I wouldn't exercise, I would just do push ups. Though I started that way, when I actually got into push ups, I found that I saw immediate results (within a week) in terms of tone and strength, and that encouraged me to keep with it. That's the key - - consistency!
Doing push ups in turn, for some strange reason, made me crave healthier foods like fruit (I know...it's crazy, I'm a chocolate lover) and salad. So now I'm doing push ups every day, I'm eating a little bit better, and guess what....I started to lose weight.
All in all, I've lost about 9 lbs and kept it off. Not bad for doing something I enjoy!
If you like this post, give me 10 cents....and I'll give you 10 push ups."
10/21/2007
Circuit Training - It's good stuff!
In an attempt to be more rounded, I've decided to do circuit training 2x in addition to push ups (though I have been slacking on the push ups yet again). My circuit training is very short, but really gets the burn going.
Here it is:
Lat Pull-downs, wide grip x 10 reps
Triceps Skull crushers using the curling bar x 8 reps
Curling bar press with narrow grip for triceps x 12 reps (same weight as above)
Biceps curls using curling bar (lower weight) x 7 low, 7 full, and 7 high reps
Jumping lunges x 10 reps (each rep is 2 jumps)
I do that 3 times, with 5 minute break between each super set, and it takes the wind out of me. I figure if I'm going to be working with weights, I might as well maximize my time and effort by putting everything in a circuit.
Whew, man that's good!
If you like this post, give me 10 cents....and I'll give you 10 push ups."
10/12/2007
38.5% of Goal!
I read on this forum thread about doing 1000 push ups in 4 hours, which equates to approximately 4.5 push ups a minute. Furthermore, the contributors to this thread stated that "you're not a man if you can't do 4.5 push ups a minute for 4 hours."
Well, I took it to heart. It seemed as if evrybody else can do what I've been aiming for without a lot of training. I decided to get down to business and do push ups. My plan of attack was to do 20 push ups every 4 minutes, so I could do other things in between.
Let me tell you: it was tough. After the first hour, I had gotten only about 200 done. Doing sets every now and then, it took me approximately 4 more hours to do another 180 push ups. Man I felt pathetic....5 hours to do 380 push ups!!
Then, I thought about it. I've never done that many push ups before in one day! So even though I failed to get to goal, I still improved myself.
And that's the lesson here, as it has always been with the 1000 push ups club: setting a goal that's difficult to attain will make you better!
To 1000!
If you like this post, give me 10 cents....and I'll give you 10 push ups."
10/05/2007
Becoming a Postie
Today, I'm officially becoming a "postie." In case you don't know what a postie is, it's a blogger (such as I) who joins payperpost and writes an article on the blog, earning said blogger some cash!
Having joined PPP several months ago, I only decided today that I would become an active member, or a postie.
What is PPP all about you ask?
PayPerPost creates a buzz for advertisers by having bloggers write about the product. It's really an ingenious idea. So I'm writing this post, which is sponsored by PPP, to advertise PPP as a product....and they're paying me 20$! Now that's hot!
What do I plan to do with the money?
Find an internet venture in which to invest it. More specifically, to grow my network of push up'ers.
Did you say "network?"
I sure did! My plan is to have several sites using the push up theme, but focusing on different aspects of doing push ups - i.e. not just the physical, but the mental as well. One day, the world will change through people like you and me doing push ups.
If you don't believe me, stay tuned for a hot, hot update. Here's to 1000 push ups!
If you like this post, give me 10 cents....and I'll give you 10 push ups."
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Calories per Push Up
Lately, I've been trying to figure out exactly how many calories I burn doing push ups. For my body weight (180lbs) and height (69.5"), I would burn approximately 550 calories per hour. This value was obtained from a random online calorie estimator.
So if I were to do 1000 push ups at 40 push ups per minute, that's 25 minutes to burn about 230 calories. This comes out to just under 1/4 calorie per push up!
It definitely feels a lot more intense than that!
If you like this post, give me 10 cents....and I'll give you 10 push ups."
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