How to Perform 10,000+ Push-Ups

By Joel on July 30, 2008 in how to.

I am in my second week of a six-week training program to help me eventually perform 100 consecutive push-ups1.  Three of my friends are joining me.  It's going well so far.  Before I started, I could only do 19 consecutively, and after the first week I could do a few more.  Not bad, not bad.  A long way from 100, though.

For a little motivation, I researched the current world record for the most consecutive push-ups.

Are you ready for this?

10,5072 - by Minoru Yoshida, from Japan, back in 1980.  Wow.  I cannot believe what amount of physical exhaustion his body must have undergone... but talk about stamina! That guy is stamina.

I also read the story of Charles Linster3, who first held the record of 6,006 in 1965.  While he underwent years of training to accomplish this feat, I was surprised to learn that much of his battle was psychological.  In his early push-up years, he went from barely 100 consecutives to over 400 in two weeks, just because he felt "good" and pushed himself.

So, how am I going to do 10,508 push-ups and beat the world record? One push-up at a time.  Wish me luck!

I can actually feel the protein re-building in my arms.

Links

  1. http://hundredpushups.com/
  2. http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/pushups.html
  3. http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/ulysses.html
» Joel's blog | 2 comments

Comments

1. Paul Agrippino on Aug 4, 08 at 4:21 pm

Someone passed this YouTube vid to me. I found it inspirational. You might also find it motivating in your quest to do 10,508 push-ups.

Facing the Giants

2. Joel Stein on Aug 7, 08 at 10:07 am

Paul, thanks for that video! That is very inspirational.

Even though it might seem like a useless exercise, I like the push-ups, because they "push" me to a limit where I have in the past just given up. Strengthening my body helps me strengthen my will, which helps me push through spiritual struggles as well. Though I can't do push-ups with blind folds on, per se, what I can do is forget about a lofty goal of 10,000 push-ups, and just try to do my personal best each time.

After almost 2 weeks of my push-up program, I'm stronger, and surprising myself at how many push-ups I can do effortlessly. But one thing stays the same--there always comes a point at which I think I can't do any more. I measure victory not by the number of consecutive push-ups, but when I try to do one more.

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