Getting to 100 Pushups: go every day or every OTHER day?

January 8, 2023 9:16 AM

So my goal is to get to 100 pushups this year. I do 50 every morning and the idea was to add one a week and then boom, 2024, 100 pushups. But it's tough. And I'm wondering if doing it everyday is a problem? Should I be going every other day or is that not going to make a difference? Is there something else I should be doing WITH this to help me?
posted by rileyray3000 to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

It's a lot of strain on your shoulders and not much time for recovery. Every other day might very well be worth trying. If your shoulders hurt, then you need to back waaaaay off and possibly reconsider entirely. Pushups are not always a super great exercise.

If you're not doing any pulling exercises to complement this, then I'd look into it! Rows (including with a resistance band), pullups, or an actual rowing machine are all good choices. (This is less to help your pushups, necessarily, than to keep you balanced and less at risk of injury.)
posted by restless_nomad at 9:28 AM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

With that number of reps, I'd highly recommend doing your workout every other day so you're not excessively straining your shoulders or back, and also to avoid boredom. For instance, I alternate strength/resistance training days with cardio days (doing jogging/cycling) and make sure to take one day a week completely off, so I'm not overdoing any one type of exercise / muscle group.

But don't let my advice stop you from finding a different cadence of exercising - even if you don't add a single pushup and keep it every other day, 50 reps will absolutely improve your metabolic health and strength level. Congrats on that.
posted by fortitude25 at 9:40 AM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

You don't gain strength when exercising, you gain strength when recovering.

Seconding the doing it every other day. Especially since if you're doing 50 a workout, adding one rep a week isn't super ambitious, so if that is seeming difficult, that's probably your body telling you that you need to take a little more time to recover.

But yes, also if you've got a habit of exercising every day, that's great and don't give up on that. Just switch up the exercises so you aren't wearing down the same muscles and joints two days in a row and are giving things a chance to recover.
posted by Zalzidrax at 9:47 AM on January 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

I used this app and got from 17 my first day to 100 in 2.5 months.
posted by dobbs at 9:51 AM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yes, you're only supposed to do the workouts 3 to 4 times per week. That's why 'leg day' is a thing in workout culture. You work on a different set of muscles each day to give them a chance to rest and heal. There's a 100 squat program too, if you are looking for something to do on non-push up days.
posted by ananci at 10:19 AM on January 8, 2023

Personally, if I was to do this I would set a timer alarm on my cell for 4x spread through the day and do 25 per session, which is relatively easy to do and gets you to your goal of 100 per day.
posted by diode at 11:06 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Your muscles need to rest, so do this workout every other day.

Look into GTG (Grease the Groove). If you can do one morning set of 50 pushups, then try doing 2 sets in the morning of 30 pushups each, with a 2-5 minute rest between the sets, or 3 sets of 20 with the same rest.

Stretch before and after your workouts, and drink more water.
posted by enfa at 11:53 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Think of working out as damaging your muscles so they grow back stronger. If you don’t include lots of days for them to grow back, they just get increasingly damaged. I would avoid doing the same workout more than 2 or occasionally 3 days in a row.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:30 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Agreed about every other day. Another exercise you can try is to do 100 pushups, but don't worry about breaks. Just time from your first pushup to the 100th. I went from a time of about 15 minutes to complete all 100 to under 5 in a few weeks.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:09 PM on January 8, 2023

I'm sorry but I disagree with most of the advice here. 50 pushups a day, assuming you can do them, is not a particularly strenuous exercise. Herschel Walker may be an idiot politically, but he does like 1000 a day and he's 60 years old, and has been doing it since playing football in the '90s.

If you can't actually do 50 push ups a day, then yes, you need to build up to that via intervals. But if you can? It's not much of an exercise in terms of time or physical effort. Do them every day if you want.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:34 AM on January 9, 2023

Also 50 pushups shouldn't be confused with serious strength-training routine that lasts a solid hour every day, and then some of the above may apply.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:37 AM on January 9, 2023

The_Vegetables has a reasonable point, in that for some body types and levels of strength, pushups aren't really a big deal. The problem is that for many others, they really *are* a big deal and a lot of work, and for any body type, they're a repetitive movement with a lot of strain on a joint supported by a lot of tiny muscles and ligaments. If your form is not exactly perfect, you can hurt yourself pretty easily, and, even if it is, a hundred repetitions every single day is a definite risk of RSI. If you have not had any sort of external check on your form - even if it's just your workout-nerd ex-jock buddy - it's worth getting someone to give an eyeball.

This is really tricky to actually gauge from the internet, with no knowledge of your strength, experience, or history, and is why most folks are being very conservative in their advice. If you were on the strong/experienced side, you... probably wouldn't be struggling adding one pushup a day, so I recommend *at very least* taking a day or two off a week (and thinking about your exercise plan holistically.)
posted by restless_nomad at 11:04 AM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've had this bookmarked for years and never had the discipline to stick with it, so unfortunately I cannot vouch for the results, but it sounds 100% like what you're looking for:

https://hundredpushups.com/index.html

It's a six-week program, with workouts three days a week, building up to 100 pushups.
posted by peakfrivolity at 1:07 PM on January 9, 2023