Take the 100 Pushup Challenge….if you dare!
The Challenge:
You are to work up to perform 100 pushups (or as many as you can) in 5 minutes. If you do not reach 100 then record how many pushups you can do in 5 min below in the comments. You can use your watch to time it, clock or this online stopwatch here.
Scaling by Ability
Scale to your ability level (such as angled pushups with bodyweight straps or against stairs/bench/low wall/couch) and stop after 5 minutes. Do the best you can and report your time and score below in the comments (to help motivate others out there and also compare progress in the future).
Make it a 50 pushup challenge if that is what is needed for you at this time.
For those that think 100 in 5 min is too easy? (which I am not one of those people) Do a larger range of motion with hands on blocks, using straps, or elevated feet. Still too easy? Well then feel free to strap on a weight vest (or put on a backpack full of books or additional weight).
Below is a quick video of how to use some bodyweight straps to change the horizontal angle of your body.
Challenge Tips:
Break your pushups into sets and do NOT go to failure during any set. For example if you can only do 25 pushups max at once, do not do 25 at first. Leave about 2-3 pushups “in the tank”. So in this case do a set of 20-22 and then stop and rest. Then go again stopping 2-3 short of failure.
Or better yet break it down into somewhat easier sets of 10 (until that gets too hard) with minimal rest between. Going to failure will only fatigue your muscles and require more recovery from it (and that 5 min will be up quicker than you know it!)
How to Getter Better by “Greasing the Groove”
The “evil Russian” Pavel Tsatsouline is the one who introduced people to the concept of “greasing the groove”. Below is an excerpt from his article entitled “Grease the Groove for Strength” originally published 1999 in MILO: A Journal for Serious Strength Athletes.
Your grandmother used to tell you: to get good at something, you must do it often, do it a lot, and do it to the exclusion of other things.
Specificity + frequent practice = success. It is so obvious, most people don’t get it. Once I came across a question posted on a popular powerlifting website by a young Marine: how should he train to be able to do more chin-ups? I was amused when I read the arcane and non-specific advice the trooper had received: straight-arm pull-downs, reverse curls, avoiding the negative part of the chin-up every third workout… I had a radical thought: if you want to get good at chin-ups, why not try to do… a lot of chin-ups? Just a couple of months earlier I had put my father-in-law Roger Antonson, incidentally an ex-Marine, on a program which required him to do an easy five chins every time he went down to his basement. Each day he would total between twenty-five and a hundred chin-ups hardly breaking a sweat. Every month or so Roger would take a few days off and then test himself. Before you knew it, the old leatherneck could knock off twenty consecutive chins, more than he could do forty years ago during his service with the few good men!
A few months later Roger sold his house and moved to an apartment. A paranoid Stalinist that I am, I suspected that he plotted to work around the ‘chin every time you go to the basement’ clause. By the degree of the Politbureau Comrade Antonson was issued one of those ‘Door Gym’ pull-up bars. Roger wisely conceded to the will of the Party and carried on with his ‘grease the chin-up groove’ program. Roger Ivanovich’s next objective is a one-arm chin. He just does not know it yet.
My father, a Soviet Army officer, had me follow an identical routine in my early testosterone years. My parents’ apartment had a built in storage space above the kitchen door (it is a Russian design, you wouldn’t understand). Every time I left the kitchen I would hang on to the ledge and crank out as many fingertip pull-ups as I could without struggle. Consequently, high school pull-up tests were a breeze.
Both Roger and I got stronger through the process of synaptic facilitation. Neurogeeks never got around to telling iron heads that repetitive and reasonably intense stimulation of a motoneuron increases the strength of its synaptic connections and may even form new synapses. Translated in English it means that multiple repetitions of a bench press will ‘grease up’ this powerlift’s groove. More ‘juice’ will reach the muscle when you are benching your max. The muscle will contract harder and you will have a new PR to brag about.
you can also read the entire article here (PDF)
So if you want to get better at doing a certain movement (more reps in this case), then more frequent practice will help you actually achieve that goal, provided you follow some simple rules:
- This challenge is a test, which will bring you to failure at some point (for most all). Doing a test to failure often will not help as you need more time to recover from it. Just use it once in a while to gauge your progress (like once every couple weeks).
- You never want to go to failure during any “grease the groove” set, and should do sets of about 50% your max reps (so if you can only do 40 pushups to failure, then your sets are around 20).
- Daily practice should be broken up into multiple sessions and spread through out the day (such as doing 20 pushups every couple hours)
- If you are feeling progress slow down, then do less reps/sets during the day.
- Have fun with it, make it a habit like the example above (do 20 pushups everytime you open the fridge for example…or walk into a certain room)
Give it a shot with any exercise that you are looking to improve reps on. You can also modify this for strength work by increasing the resistance (80%+ RMax).
Report below in the comments how many pushups you got, and your time if you completed all 100 in under 5 min. Good luck!
24 Reader Comments
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I started it about a month ago. Now I can do the 100 in 2.33. I’m thinking of using some weight now.
I do it in the morning and in the evening.
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Mike OD Reply:
Nice! 2.33 is very impressive. Yes it may be time to up the ante and add some extra resistance (weighted backback/vest, chains around your body) especially if you are looking for more strength.
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70. It was really hard, especially the “sprint” to the end.
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Mike OD Reply:
Nice job. Yes it is not as easy as it seems. Once those muscles start to shut down, it gets harder and harder. Practice some pushups here and there (grease the groove) and I am sure you will get to 100 soon enough!
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Roland Reply:
My max is 25-30, depending on what I’ve been doing lately, so I’m greasing the groove to the tune of 13 reps, many times a day! We’ll see what a few weeks does to my pushups.
Thanks for the challenge!
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Awesome challenge. As I finish my weightloss and look to build fundamental strength this is a great challenge for tracking my progress. I will test tonight then do as suggested and spread training throughout the day. Now to get a chin up bar installed somewhere in our house and keep trying to perform one (haven’t been able to do unassisted one yet but getting closer).
A few weeks ago I was trying to do as many pushups as I could and topped out (to failure) at 25 in about 1 minute so sets of 10 with 30 seconds of rest would help me push that number up to about 50 in 5 minutes I hope.
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Mike OD Reply:
Yeah you can use the GTG (grease the groove) style for anything you want to improve on like pullups, pushups, burpees, etc. Practice does make perfect afterall! You could also try for more assistent pullups using some straps or bands as well to get the motion down.
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Ryan Reply:
Just to followup. I did the 5 minute test last night and managed 65 good form push ups. I tried to do sets of 10 with a 20 second break but after my 4th set had to switch to 5 reps. I grew really tired after 40 and it took 2:30 to get the last 25.
Wow, can’t wait to practice sets of 10 throughout the day up to 100 per day and try again in 4 weeks.
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Ryan Reply:
A follow-up to a follow-up, nice.
So I tested again today after around 6 weeks of practice and did 100 pushups in 4:20. I am going to continue training until I can do 100 in around 3:00, then on to weighted, foot inclined veriety.
Thanks Mike for the challenge. Still working the chin ups, can do one unassisted now but really just need to get a bar at home to use GtG on them.
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Mike OD Reply:
Awesome job Ryan! Next up….get a weighted backpack (or weight vest) and then keep working your way to 100 with increasing resistance for strength.
Wow, I read this sceptically, knowing I can bang out 50 press-ups in one set if I try.
What a surprise to find my movement laboured from 70 onwards. I completed the first 70 in two minutes but it took another two to finish without loosing form.
Completed in 3:59
A really great challenge, and a very interesting post. Thanks a lot.
I think I will try to push my time down to sub two minutes in the next month (a great Easter aim).
I would recommend this challenge to everybody who has an interest in fitness.
George
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Mike OD Reply:
Sub 2min is a mighty goal, but if you work smart you may get there at some point. Well done!
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That’s a good one. Just did it and it was tougher than I expected. Barely made it.
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Mike OD Reply:
Yeah it is a sneaky little test. Sounds so easy…yet trying to make your muscles do all that work with very little recovery and rest is another deal altogether. The last 10 are usually the worst! Nice job!
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75 was all I could manage.
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Mike OD Reply:
Try using the “grease the groove” in smaller sets of like 20 during the day. Test yourself in another couple weeks and see how you do!
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[...] The 100 Push Up Challenge – I know Push ups are a sore subject for a lot of us. We are going to start a program where we do a set number each class, increasing it on a weekly basis until it becomes a 908 strength. [...]
5×20/100 At start did 20. Athe minute did 20, and so on until 100 reached 4min 30 sec
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I gave it a try in the gym and got to 75.
I’m satisfied with that given that it’s only lately I’m finallly starting to overcome the hypermobility in my right shoulder after a year of lightweight should exercises.
This post inspires me to get back at using my EZ bar in the kitchen doorframe more frequently!
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My girlfriend and I just tried this. We both went out a little too fast and then faded. I managed 96 and she knocked off 83. Next time we’ll do sets of 20-25 and see how it goes.
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Wow, much harder than I anticipated. I can do 50+ at full speed in a minute so I thought this wouldn’t be that hard.
I decided to split it up into sets of 25. The first set was easy, but then I fatigued fast. My sets turned into 25, 15, 12, 10, 10, 8, 5, 5, 5, 5
I was determined to finish though, ending my last pushup at 4:50.
What a great feeling afterwards, good muscle pump and elevated mood. I’m going to keep doing this challenge and see how long before I can beat 2 minutes.
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I put on a backpack with a 15 pounds plate. I made the 100 in 4.30 but it was hard… In the last couple set I could manage only 5 pushups in a set.
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68 in a row. Then finished it with 12, 10 and 10.
2:40 time
I will share what pushups I love but don’t laugh ok?
I use one of those bosu’s……go ahead…scream
Upside down Bosu feet elevated on swiss ball, one leg in the air. 10-15 reps each side.
This is a GREAT pushup strength builder and hits your abs nicely too.
Marc
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Good challenge, congratulations to everyone who where able to do 100 push ups.
I managed also a 100 in 4.40 so I’m happy with the result. I usually do 10×10 push ups in different variations to keep it interesting.
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88 was my limit..
good challenge, there should me more posts like this:)
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I tried this yesterday since some people here at work tried it and I was thinking I would break the 100 plateau. I hit 90 and was fried. I havent done high repitition work in a long time. I was doing pushups with elevated feet a few months ago to get by while I rehabing an injury and could probably do more that way. Ill be trying this challenge regularly to guage progress… Im on a modified velocity diet so my energy is low… Ill press on though… BTW, the 3 people here at work hit the 100 mark.
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[...] is why the 100 Pushup Challenge only involves one thing. Pushups. Not exercises to build your core. Not visualization of success. [...]
[...] keeping a high overall workout intensity (short rest periods). Similar to what we did with the 100 rep pushup challenge (and you can use the “grease the groove” strategy here as [...]
198. I’m in the Army so doing push ups is nothing new to me. I could have done a little more if I would have paced myself.
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Mike OD Reply:
Nice job! I think you have been practicing!
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Well, that and I’m an avid CrossFitter. Both do help alot…
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i did 150,i think my limit would be 200 in 5 minutes on a good day,today was a really bad day,not in a mood and in a good shape
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Mike OD Reply:
Great job!
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97 … can’t believe I failed, I started off too fast.
25, 20, 20, 15, 7, 5, 2, 3
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skustes Reply:
It’s not failure. It’s a chance to improve. Just change the mindset a touch. With my shoulder, I can’t get anywhere near 100 in 5 minutes, so I have lots of opportunity to improve. =D
Cheers
Scott
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[...] Take the 100 Pushup Challenge….if you dare! – in this article, Mike O’Donnell from Fitness Spotlight outlines a great progression for push-up training – both for beginners and advanced athletes. [...]
this challenge is interesting, but you are all cheating yourselves. try doing the 100 pushups, slowly and with correct form, over a 10 or 15 minute period instead of racing to 100 as fast as you can. i’ll bet none of you can pace yourself out to perform 100 pushups in say, 15 minutes, never stopping or resting, maintaining the same perfect form and rythmic pace from 1 to 100 over 15 minutes time. those are real pushups. what you people are doing is actually harmful to your muscles, tendons, joints and bones in your upper body. you should also never do any exercise of one body part daily if you are working hard enough on it to make an improvement. improvement comes with several days rest after a challenging set of reps; one of a number which you have not previously performed. it is also important to work the individual muscles independently of each other on off days. pushups require the use of literally thousands of small and large muscles from your fingertips to your toes, many of which don’t get worked enough to improve by doing pushups. ignoring this will eventually lead you to an impassable plateau. for some of you, that plateau may even be less than 100. just some advice from a pro.
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Mike OD Reply:
Pro in what?
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