How I'm staying in shape

A couple of month's ago, I started reading a lot of buzz about a 100 Pushup Challenge on Simler.com (and speaking of Simler, if you want to get an idea of what it's all about, check out this little page that shows you some of the recent posts that people have put up on the site). I decided to see what all the hype was about, so I went to the one hundred push ups site, printed out the complete program in PocketMod format (there is a link on the left hand nav bar that says "Complete Program") and folded it up.

I finished the 1st week program at the 3rd level of difficulty, logging my progress in the pushup logger on the same site. The pushup logger was pretty limited, so I forked out the money to buy the app from iTunes. If you have an iPhone or iTouch, I highly recommend the app. It tracks your progress in a daily log, displays it in a bar graph (very nice for motivating you to keep going), and even gives you a little timer to count down your rest time between sets. If you decide to do the program, and you're trying to decide whether or not to buy the app, just buy it.

I got all the way to week 6 (the last week in the program), but I don't think I ever completed the last day before I pigged out for an entire weekend and couldn't hardly move, let alone pound out 225 pushups in 5 sets. After I got back on the diet wagon, I reset myself back to week 4.

For those of you who are still reading, the program is very simple and only requires about 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week. The trick is to just make sure to do it consistently, because once you take a break, you'll find that it's difficult to pick back up where you left off.

To fill out my fitness a little bit, I've also added the two hundred sit-ups and two hundred squats programs. If I have a ton of energy when I start my pushups sets, I will finish my 1st pushups set, do a squats set right after the pushups, then do the 1st sit-ups set. 1 or 2 minutes of rest, then on to the 2nd sets. If I am a little worn out from my day, I'll finish my pushup routine, rest for a little while, do all my squats, rest for a little while, do my situps and then have some dinner.

I also run a couple of days a week for cardio, but that's even more boring than everything I've already written, so that's all I'll say about that.

BTW, Jenny says my arms and neck are looking bigger. And so is my ego. She only says that 'cause she wishes she looked as ripped as I'm starting to look.