100 Pushups – Week 4 Wrap-up
Thursday night I finished the Week 4 program on Level 2. Last night I took the exhaustion test and did 50 pushups. This puts me off the charts for this point of the program: 31-35 pushups puts you in Level 1, 36-40 in Level 2, and 40+ in Level 3.
NB: I just noticed I’ve been using, and I will continue to use, terminology different from the 100 Pushups website for Levels and Sets. What I call a Set, (and I think most of thee world does also) he calls Levels. And what I call Levels 1, 2, and 3 he calls Columns. The columns terminology makes sense, but the odd use of Levels doesn’t work for me, so I’m going to stick with what I’ve been writing.
Now my 50 pushups qualifies me for Level 3 for Week 5, but after my Week 3 Day 1 fiasco, I’m going to stick with Level 2 for Week 5. As it is, Day One is a significant step up in total pushups from what I was doing in Week 4, even if I stay in Level 2. I’m not sure I can do Level 3, and I’d rather complete a scheduled workout at Level 2 than bomb out at Level 3.
Finally, while I feel pretty good about the progress so far, what’s left seems pretty daunting. I did 10 pushups on my first exhaustion test, and 50 on last night’s test. (BTW, I turn 46 today for reference). That’s an increase of 40 pushups in 4 weeks. But now I have to add another 50 in just 2 weeks if the program works at its stated goal (to be fair, it acknowledges that it might take an extra week or 2 for some). You can also look at it in terms of multiples, which is less intimidating. In 4 weeks, I’ve multiplied my exhaustion test results by 5; now I have to do a double in 2 weeks. I’m not sure which way of looking at it makes more sense. We’ll see where I end up.
