Pushing Towards Better Health

I am coming up on my first anniversary in a few days, the first anniversary of joining my local YMCA.  About this time last year, one of my co-workers asked if I wanted to start going to the “Y” with him in the mornings before work.  I had been wishing I could figure out a way to start exercising and I jumped at the chance.

Here I am almost a year later and I’m still going!  3 days a week, every week…I’m actually quite proud of that accomplishment.  Anyways, I’ve also been spending a little time here and there researching different excerise regiments and continually trying to refine my workouts.  The main thing I have discovered over the last year is that I’m a big fan of exercise: you can do anywhere, is free/cheap, and is very effective.

One such exercise is the good old-fashioned pushup.  I have always kind of liked pushups and have been working them into my workouts for awhile now.  Lately, I have read some things that have suggested that high-rep pushup workouts are just about the best upper-body workout you can do – much better for you than the famous bench press.

On to the point – in my daily browsing of the web, blogs, and articles I go through due to my work, I came across a post by a fellow PHP programmer for the one hundred pushup training program.  I found via Facebook that a bunch of PHP programmers around the globe were taking on the challenge so I decided to join in.

The goal is work through a 6-week program to build your strength so that at the end you would be able to do one hundred consecutive pushups!  I think what makes this program so appealing is that anyone can do it, it’s free, and only takes at most 30 min. a week.  There is a routine for any age and ability.  To further illustrate how appealing this is, I have already recruited a number of people to join me.  My wife, my good friends the Donovans, my parents, and a few others are all going to try it.

For all those that are looking for a quick, fairly easy, free way to jump start your push to better health, give the one hundred pushups challenge a try!