Welcome to Perfect Pushups!

Alrighty... the walking component is going well. I'm walking everyday, and usually twice a day. I'm going to start running in December.

Now I am going to start the muscle/toning component. This will be a two-pronged attack between Perfect Pushups and 6-Second Abs. These two devices came recommended from a personal trainer I spoke with. He's very realistic about all these work out devices you see for sale on tv. Here's what he says about 6-Second Abs. It's not revolutionary. All it does is force you to do proper sit-ups. If you can do proper sit-ups, don't buy this device. I, however, cannot do proper sit-ups, and so I will be using 6-second abs. It's basically a spring-loaded piece of plastic that slides together and then slides apart. It even clicks 3 times on the contraction, and then 3 more times on the release. So it's called 6-second abs because you are supposed to move at a rhythm so that you get 1 click per second. 3 clicks down, 3 clicks up, for a total of 6 seconds per rep. Doing the sit-ups nice and slow and controlled is the secret.

Now on to Perfect Pushups. This is the pair of handles that rotate as you do a pushup. It basically has you doing a punch motion on each pushup. Again, the notion of varying your hand position during pushups is nothing new. The army has been doing it for decades. You do 10 pushups with your fingers pointing up, 10 with fingers pointing in to work for backs of your arms, 10 with your fingers pointing out to work the fronts of your arms, etc... What the perfect pushup does is combines all of this into a single rep, thereby reducing the time you have to spend doing pushups. The program works by figuring out your 1-set max at the beginning of each 21-day cycle, and then calculating your reps per set based on that max. The 1-set max is simply the number of Perfect Pushups you can do before you start losing your form. I'm starting at a paltry 8 pushups. Before you think that's not a lot, come try a Perfect Pushup. It is WAY harder than a regular one. So then after the 21-day cycle, you re-test your max and use that to calculate the next cycle.

You'll notice a few more elements to my Blog. I have a new personal record for my Perfect Pushups 1-set Max. I also have a cycle starting max tracker where I will hopefully see my Max increase with each completed cycle. Finally, I have a cycle activity log at the bottom where I'll be checking off the various sets by placing an "X" next to them. You'll see that I started today, and already have 1 set checked off.

That's all for now. I'm 3.5 pounds off my stretch goal, and 23.5 pounds off my final goal. With 6 weeks left for my stretch, and 9+ months left for my final, I think I'm in good shape (no pun intended).