Intro and Inspiration:

Combining my mad scientific method skills with my interest and curiosity in exercise science and body change, I have decided to undertake this fun little 30 day exercise challenge.  The goal is simple… perform 100 pushups every day for 30 days.  I will record data and share the results as I go.

Why this experiment you ask?  Simply put, I never do pushups and am curious to know what change they might have on my body.  As for the 30 days, to me it has always seemed a reasonable amount of time to give something a go before deciding if it is for you or not; moreover, empirical evidence suggests that habits are formed within 21 days (Layton, How Stuff Works) giving me sufficient time to develop a passion for pushups should I choose to continue doing them.

The idea first occurred to me after watching prominent Youtuber Elliot Hulse’s video entitled “300 Push Ups a Day” (Click here to watch).  My experiment is based on his advice, but aimed towards pushup beginners and/or fatties like myself as opposed to more advanced athletes or people who can already do 100 pushups without much strain or effort.

For me this is a personal challenge, and I only wish to share the results… no more, no less.  It would be great if I happen to inspire others, but if not I will be more than content to have (hopefully) achieved my personal fitness goal.

Question:

What will happen to my body if I do 100 pushups every day for 30 days?

Hypothesis:

These are the results I expect:

• I do not believe that there will be any significant change in my appearance… 30 days just isn’t much time.  Perhaps some slight increase in definition and size will occur, but I am tempering my expectations.
• My RPE* will increase from 5 to about 20.  RPE, or “Raw Pushup Endurance”, is a term I have coined for this experiment to indicate the amount of standard pushups I can perform consecutively on my first attempt while maintaining proper form.
• My 1 rep maximum (1RM) on the standard bench press will increase from 175lbs. to 185lbs.

Procedure:

What will I do?

1. I will record data on my body weight, BMI, chest and arm measurements, RPE*, and 1RM of the flat bench press at the beginning and end of the experiment.
2. I will take before and after photos (side and front views).
3. I will perform 100 pushups within a 24 hour window every day for 30 days.

What kind of pushups?

For the sake of consistency I will only perform standard pushups or assisted pushups (knees on the floor).

When will I do the pushups?

I have not set any schedule for executing my pushups.  I will do then whenever I have the time, and I allow myself the option of dividing them up throughout the day.  As long as 100 have been done by the end of the day it will be considered a success.

Safety:

To avoid overtraining and possibly hurting myself I will be removing all chest, triceps and front deltoid exercises from my normal weekly gym routine.  I will continue exercising legs, back, biceps and rear deltoids to try and maintain a balanced training split.  Proper stretching will also be important.

Will I take any supplements?

Yes.  Throughout the experiment I will be supplementing with the following products:

• GNC Creatine Plus… 2-3 g./day
• GNC Mega Men Sport Multivitamin… 1 caplet/day
• GNC Triple Strength Fish Oil… 900 mg/day
• GNC Ginkgo Biloba Plus…1 caplet/day
• GNC Whey Protein… sparingly and only when eating a proper recovery meal is not possible or impractical

Data:

	Before	After
Weight (kg)	104.5	106.8
BMI (kg/m2)	29.6	30.2
RPE	~5	~20
1RM (lbs)	175	195
Chest (in.)	48	48
Arm (in.)	14	14.5

Results:

After 1 month and 3,000 pushups, the results are as follows:

• I increase my raw pushup endurance from 5 to about 20, although 18 or 19 might be more accurate based on maintaining proper form.
• I was able to increase my 1 rep max on the flat bench press from 175 lbs. to 195 lbs.
• There was a slight increase the size of my arms from 14 in. to 14.5 in.
• I maintained the same chest size (48 in.) but with slightly more definition.
• There was a visible difference in the definition of my shoulders, traps and triceps.
• My weight increased by 2.3 kgs.

Conclusions:

My hypothesis was pretty much correct on all accounts, although I did put up more weight on the bench press than I had originally postulated.  I was also pleasantly surprised with the increase in arm size, which I had not anticipated.

I suspect that supplementing with creating may be responsible for the extra strength, size, and weight gain which I experienced. I would be interesting to redo the experiment without supplementation.  Nevertheless, pushups are a great upper body exercise and easy to perform.  With dedication and regularity, they can help to create a stronger, more defined upper body.

I will caution that performing them everyday might be excessive and even dangerous.  In my experiment I began feeling pain in my right shoulder and left triceps after about the 5^th day.  I was able to push through it, but I do believe that taking a rest day in between sessions would be wiser for avoiding injury.  To that end, I plan on continuing to include pushups as part of my exercise routine, but I will do so perhaps 3 times a week as opposed to every day.

I realize that this experiment might seem like “small-potatoes” for many of you fit people out there, but for me it was significant.  I encourage anyone reading this to keep working hard to become the strongest version of yourself that you can be, and to never give up.

More fitness experiments with data will be coming soon…

Bibliography:

1)      Hulse, Elliot. “300 Push Ups a Day.” YouTube. YouTube, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH-Wx5ykc_c

2)      Layton, Julia. “Is It True That If You Do Anything for Three Weeks It Will Become a Habit?” HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/form-a-habit1.htm