HundredPushUps.com etc - How complete a workout

[emicen]

Been following the regime on hundredpushups.com for a couple of weeks now. Going quite well. I've also looked at the sister sites:
- twohundredsitups.com
- twohundredsquats.com
- twentyfivepullups.com

My question is, following each of them to the goal, how good a whole body work over would it actually be just getting up and whacking out the prescribed number of those exercises.

I appreciate you're not going to gain bulk, but for toning, do they leave any glaring omissions?

[MacGee]

all are excellent...

[bales]

MacGee said:

all are excellent...

...at making you very good at that one specific exercise.

[emicen]

bales said:

MacGee said:

all are excellent...

...at making you very good at that one specific exercise.

Bales, seeing as you're one of the more knowledgable ones, any chance of expanding on that?

Doing all those programmes, would you be missing out any major muscle group?

I'd consider getting some lighter weights to assist in toning, basically I'm not looking to get really any bigger than I am, just lose the fizzy edges and make the muscle I have a bit more potent. Hence been looking at these programmes combined with some interval sprint training and cycling. (racing is bleeding me dry hence my aversion to joining a gym)

[bales]

emicen said:

bales said:

MacGee said:

all are excellent...

...at making you very good at that one specific exercise.

Bales, seeing as you're one of the more knowledgable ones, any chance of expanding on that?

Doing all those programmes, would you be missing out any major muscle group?

I'd consider getting some lighter weights to assist in toning, basically I'm not looking to get really any bigger than I am, just lose the fizzy edges and make the muscle I have a bit more potent. Hence been looking at these programmes combined with some interval sprint training and cycling. (racing is bleeding me dry hence my aversion to joining a gym)

Well it was a bit tongue in cheek, I guess its true that they movements do use all the muscles, other than I don't particularly like sit-ups. I'd much rather do plank type and other isometric exercises and stuff like back hypers, twisting crunches etc... for your core rather than sit-ups.

Chin ups and press-ups would work all the major upper body muscles but I personally don't see the point in the specific number. I would probably do just sets of variations of press-ups like wide arm, narrow arm, feet raised, clap press-ups. That would work more muscles than just aiming for an arbitary number. Also if you have a bench or stairs stuff like dips and press-up step ups and step downs were you walk your hands up and down to a raised level whilst in the plank position are great for arms without needing weights.

You also could do some legs stuff like burpee's, squat thrusts, jump squats, lunges, split squats. I would just set up a routine like that with a mixture of upper body, lower body and core stuff. I don't think you need weights particularly to get good results.

We do great circuit sessions in the winter including all of the above in usually 5 minute sets with 30s on each exercise with no rest inbetween - that is great for improving fitness and strength.

[emicen]

Cheers, thats what I was looking to hear!

I'm quite averse to situps because my back clicks unless I'm doing it on a swiss ball and i dont have the space to be storing one of them in the flat at the moment. So was going to substitute that for a lesser number of situps and some plank variations.

No shortage of stairs etc in the block of flats I'm in so I've been looking about to see what I could use, theres a goos selection of beams for chin ups and what not in the car park too.

[emicen]

Second week in, going to do my initial test for squats and situps tonight now I've got a ball to put under my back to stop it clicking.

Last week I started out feeling pretty burst after doing 80 press ups. Last night was 115 and I feel fine today. Seems to be working, 2 and a half weeks to go...

[Lost_BMW]

emicen said:

Been following the regime on hundredpushups.com for a couple of weeks now. Going quite well. I've also looked at the sister sites:
- twohundredsitups.com
- twohundredsquats.com
- twentyfivepullups.com

My question is, following each of them to the goal, how good a whole body work over would it actually be just getting up and whacking out the prescribed number of those exercises.

I appreciate you're not going to gain bulk, but for toning, do they leave any glaring omissions?

Before doing any weights at all (years ago) I did a similar thing - loads of push ups + worked up to 300 sit-ups non-stop then 100 leg raises then (or on a different day) 300 'free squats' (or 'sissy squats') again non stop except for pauses to breathe or cry - evil, the squats for example used to take about 15 minutes of increasing pain!

Along with running and cycling and punch bag work it made me very fit if not heavily muscled and given the weights I could use when I did start lifting stronger than most untrained blokes.

With the injuries I now have I often wish I'd stuck to it instead!