Harlem Quijano

I just did day one of the hundred pushups program and boy are my arms tired!  Sounds like a joke but trust me its a lot more than that.  It took a lot out of me and my son as you shall soon read.

I started out innocently enough, but first, I should post what day 1 includes: for my strength and age group (coincidently my sons group as well)

1. Set 1 – 10 pushups
2. Set 2 – 12 pushups
3. Set 3 -  7 pushups
4. set 4 -  7 pushups
5. Set 5 – Max # w/ minimum of 9

As I said, it started innocently enough.  I first did my initial set without complication, I’m pretty sure you will (or have) too.  My son faired just as well as I did with his first set.  Then came the second set.  This set included 12 pushups.  Two more than the first set and two less than my initial test.  Easier said than done because I quickly pumped out 5 good pushups and being the forgetful gent that I am, I stopped mid-pushup in the up position.  Thus, losing all my momentum that I had been relying upon for pushups 3 though 5.  Why did I do this I asked myself? I should know better, I was a fitness trainer for goodness sakes.  I saw it all too often, folks stopping midway in the up postion which I knew still sucked precious ATP. Better to just trudge along than to stop. But I did. So every pushup after was beginning to drain me even more.  Muscles pulled on tendon and tendon  stretched  to its physical and spiritual limits shouted back with great annoyance and sadness as if to say “but Harlem, I thought you loved me?”.  I do. I do. You will see.  But, I digress….To make things worse, my son started laughing and making fun of me straining which just made me that much more determined.  Shortly after I regained my composure it was his turn, and you know what they say about paybacks.  He started out fine but began to struggle early and then the laughter started.  Not from me but from him!  I reckon that even though laughter is contagious, it must first reach a critical mass in the body for it to have deleterious affects on others.  So, he continued to laugh and snicker and slowly eaking out a pushup here and there.  And so begins my laughter.  It is contagious! It was like that the rest of the time.  We had a great time doing pushups and feeling pain and laughing for the next few sets.  And of course afterwards, when we finished, we shared an experience and looked at ourselves in the mirror just watching our bodies transform right in front of us.  I think this is where the joke begins.  Stay tuned for Day 2.