Welcome to the 25 Days of Push-Ups Challenge!
My goal is to get strong, muscular arms by the end of the month so that I will look and feel my best for summer, the season of sleeveless and short-sleeve tops. Plus, I want my arms to be rocking when I wear my strapless wedding dress! 
Who? Anyone can join!
When? May 5 – May 29, 2010
Where? The beauty of this challenge is that it can be done ANYWHERE. No special equipment required!
How? Five days a week, I will post a new tip on getting the most out of the challenge!
What? I will be doing 2 sets (as many reps as I can handle!) of the following exercises 5 days a week. I plan on taking a 30-60 second break between sets.
#1: Standard Push-Ups. You know, the ones we all know and love (or at least we will by the end of the challenge!)
#2: Diamond Push-Ups. The same as regular push-ups, but with your hands closer together.
#3: Triceps Push-Ups. Keep your hands directly under your shoulders. As you do the push-up, keep your elbows close to your body.
#4: Staggered Push-Ups. Keep one hand directly under your shoulder, and move the other hand forward a few inches. Otherwise, it is the same as a standard push-up. Don’t forget to do both sides!
[Source]
#5: Side Plank Push-Ups. Do a standard push-up; as you come up, shift your weight to one side, raise the opposite arm towards the ceiling, and come into a side plank. Bring both hands back to floor, and repeat on alternating sides.
I will also be taking before and after pictures, but don’t feel like you need to do this if you don’t want to!
My workouts will be posted here, but I really want this page to be a place for us to all motivate each other. Feel free to leave comments here with your progress, struggles, and successes, as well as encouragement for oth ers!
If you want to show everyone that you are participating, you can add the badge to your sidebar as well!
Just paste:
“<a href=”http://www.savvyeat.com/25-days-of-push-ups/”><img src=”http://savvyeat.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/images/PushUps.jpg” alt=”PushUps-Badge” width=”100″ height=”95″ /></a>”
into a text widget. (But without those outside quotation marks) 
Good luck!
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay! pushups are awesome for your abs too! I need to start doing them again. My arms were getting neglected during marathon training, and now I feel like a wimp in the pool! Excited to start this challenge with you.
Are you going to be trying to do 2 sets of all of the different types of pushups or just 2 sets of whatever you feel like?
I think I’m going to do 2 sets of all of them… if my arms can take it!
Julie, I’m in.
for the last month or so, every time I do ANY kind of arm workout, which each rep, I say to myself “savvyjulie’s wedding. savvyjulie’s wedding. savvyjulie’s wedding.”
THIS IS GOING TO BE KILLER.
I am kind of horrible at push-ups – so this is going to be a challenge. Can you discuss any methods for those of us who aren’t good at doing “real pushups”? My upper body strength is ridiculous, and I struggle to even do ONE real pushup.
When I was doing push-ups everyday (suggested by how sweet Jess) I would TRY one real one a day. every. single. day. then after i put my effort in, I would do X number of “modified/girly/knee/easierbecauseiamawussandcantdoanything push ups”.
Is anyone else out there like me? Or have you been like me? HELP!!!
I like the “try to do at least one real one before you drop to your knees.”
It is also easier to do push-ups on an incline. So if you have stairs, an aerobic step, or even a low (and sturdy…no slipping!) coffee table, you could put your hands on that, with your feet on the ground, and do your push-ups!
Love push-ups, love that you’re doing this!
If you are struggling with push-ups like many women do, here is what I have many women try until they are successful.
Start in a full push-up position. Lower yourself with control all the way to the ground. When you hit the floor (softly), release and come back up however you want. Basically you just work on the lowering down part of the exercise. These teaches people confidence and increases your range of motion. The key here is to lower down super slow so that your body and muscles are doing the work, not gravity. Practice this at least 3x a week, doing as many of this version as possible. Once a week try just regular push-ups. Also, you can put your hands up on something higher than your feet (like a stair rail or extra sturdy table, the push-ups are easier here, but still helping you build up to doing regular ones.
Great idea! As a personal trainer, I’d love if you’d weigh in below on the debate of how often we should be doing these exercises!
Love this! I will be participating, need to work on my upper body strength.
Other varieties we could add: Wide push-ups (hands are wider than shoulders), and since it is yoga pose month too: Chaturanga Dandasana!
Yes! I am hoping the push-ups challenge will help me get better at Chaturanga!
My arms need some work. I may be giving this a try. Thanks!
Oh gosh, I do *not* love pushups but this is the perfect get-ready-for-summer challenge. I’m in!
This is fantastic Julie!! I’ve never tried the staggered push-ups- I have visions of my face hitting the floor on those hahaa. Can’t wait to get started!!
This is so cool! I’m a new blogger looking to connect with others about fitness and healthy eating, this is such a great way to get started!
I’m the first to admit that my upper body strength is less than stellar, so this is a fun way to try and change that. Thanks for organizing, Julie!
Welcome!
Pushup challenges are great, I’ve done a few myself, but I feel like you need to give yourself more rest time. Your chest won’t have time to recoup if you don’t… Maybe 1 day on 1 day off (I’d actually recommend 1 day on 2 days off, but 1 and 1 is still good!) Just a suggestion (based on muscle growth, healing and repair)
Do you think it should be changed to 3-4 times/week? I know of some personal trainers who try to do push-ups every day, and there have been ab/core challenges in the past that have focused on doing the exercises 5x a week, which is why I chose that frequency here. Thoughts?
Abdominal muscles are made up of different muscle fibers than anywhere else on your body (except your calf muscles) that can be worked every day if you want to. They heal a lot different and faster than the rest of your muscles which need time to heal.
I’d recommend a Mon, Wed, Fri workout routine for your chest and then the weekend to heal. Especially with the routine that you have planned!
Just my personal suggestion…
That’s interesting to know! I’ll see how the first few workouts go, and judge what is best for me then, I guess!
Yes, I really should do this. When I tried to do the 100 push-ups challenge on my own I failed because I kept forgetting about it. I’m good at staying involved when it’s blog related!
Good, we can all keep each other accountable
Workout 1 complete! http://merrymishaps.com/2010/05/did-somebody-say-challenge/
Way to go!
For beginners feel free to do them on your knees! I still like to do them mostly on knees and some in the full position!
Awesome challenge! I could definitely do more pushups.
My 2 cents – if you’re doing lots of pushups, make sure to do equal amount of rows. A lot of women are naturally tight in the chest and stretched out in the back, so it’s very important to also have a strong back! Don’t want to have muscle imbalance
Sooooo….I’m tempted to join this challenge. Awesome idea, to get in shape for the summer and maybe work some sort of muscle into my skin-and-bones arms. However- me doing push-ups is not a happy time. Even doing push-ups on my knees is nearly impossible.
Yes, my upper body strength is THAT bad. And I played Tennis for years. Go figure.
Hmm.
Maybe try doing vertical push-ups, with your hands on the wall? That may be even easier than doing it on your knees…
Great idea Julie!
Ok, I’m in
If pushups are done properly with excellent form, they actually work the entire upper body, including the back. 30 days of pushups without any additional back work will not create an imbalance, however if the pushups were to continue everyday, I would encourage a full body strength routine to prevent any future imbalance and reap the benefits of weight bearing exercises.
This Jessica (another trainer) fully agrees with the other Jessica. Do enough push-ups and your lats will be just as sore as your chest and shoulders. Happens to me all the time. I don’t think that doing them every day is that bad of an idea. I would probably recommend every other day.
I would also challenge those of you that do the modified versions to just practice the full version. I might sound like a Jillian, but I’ve only allowed two clients in 10 years of training women to do modified push-ups (on was of mature age and the other was in her final months of pregnancy. Even if your full push-ups don’t start off with a full range of motion, eventually you will get there if you continue to work on them Now, my husband a trainer also disagrees with this idea and says start with modified and build up.
How do either of you feel about the “start on an incline and work your way down to the floor” method for building up to a full push-up? That’s what was suggested in “The New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women.” I believe it was because doing it on an incline kept your back and torso in the same position as a full push-up better than the modified version did?
That’s what I was referring to in my initial comment. I guess I was very articulate.
I think I got so excited about your suggestion for just working on the “down” part, that I missed the incline piece…oops!
I meant to say “wasn’t” articulate. =)
What a fabulous challenge, Julie! (I’ve been needing something like this to really kick me into gear– my arms could use a bit of help…) I’m excited to do this with you!
My wrists start to ache when I’m doing my push-ups…any suggestions??
Hi Julie! Congrats on your exciting weekend
As far as wrists go, I had a yoga instructor once that always suggested people with wrist problems (carpel tunnel, etc) do poses on their fists instead of a flat hand. It hurts your knuckles, but does keep your wrists straight. I would think this would be one way to help?
I asked my trainer and he said stretching your wrists, hands, forearms would be good but would take awhile before you would notice any improvement. I imagine it is the stretch where you pull your hand backwards toward your arm so it is at a 90 degree angle.
He also suggested strenthening your forearm muscles.
Hand placement is important. He has had me do pushups with my wrists in a neutral position by doing them with hands on dumbbells.
Hope this helps!
Denise
This is what somebody else told me too–I will have to start doing this. Thanks, Aunt Denise!
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